GIVEAWAY ENDEDI'D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE
BY LAURA LIPPMAN
Eliza Benedict cherishes her peaceful, ordinary suburban life with her successful husband and children, thirteen-year-old Iso and eight-year-old Albie. But her tranquillity is shattered when she receives a letter from the last person she ever expects—or wants—to hear from: Walter Bowman. There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I'd know you anywhere.
In the summer of 1985, when she was fifteen, Eliza was kidnapped by Walter and held hostage for almost six weeks. He had killed at least one girl and Eliza always suspected he had other victims as well. Now on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, Walter seems to be making a heartfelt act of contrition as his execution nears. Though Eliza wants nothing to do with him, she's never forgotten that Walter was most unpredictable when ignored. Desperate to shelter her children from this undisclosed trauma in her past, she cautiously makes contact with Walter. She's always wondered why Walter let her live, and perhaps now he'll tell her—and share the truth about his other victims.
Yet as Walter presses her for more and deeper contact, it becomes clear that he is after something greater than forgiveness. He wants Eliza to remember what really happened that long-ago summer. He wants her to save his life. And Eliza, who has worked hard for her comfortable, cocooned life, will do anything to protect it—even if it means finally facing the events of that horrifying summer and the terrible truth she's kept buried inside.
An edgy, utterly gripping tale of psychological manipulation that will leave readers racing to the final page, I'd Know You Anywhere is a virtuoso performance from acclaimed, award-winning author Laura Lippman that is sure to be her biggest hit yet.
Since the publication of her first novel, Baltimore Blues, in 1997, Laura Lippman has won virtually every major award given to U.S. crime writings, including the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Agatha Award, Nero Wolfe Award, Shamus Award, and the Quill Award. What the Dead Know, published in 2007, was a New York Times bestseller and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by critics at the New York Times, Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, People magazine, Village Voice, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.Lippman has published twelve books to date. Her thirteenth, Another Thing to Fall, is the tenth installment in the popular Tess Monaghan series, which centers on a young private investigator in Baltimore. Hardly Knew Her, a collection of her short stories and a never-before-published novella, will be published in September 2008.
A former Baltimore Sun reporter, Lippman lives in the city and is working on her next novel.
As a fan of Laura Lippmann since reading LIFE SENTENCES in which she captured my interest with a different style of mystery built mostly around relationships and their curious manner in which they emerge and persevere, I looked forward to her latest book, I‘D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE. What I found was another kind of mystery-a reflective, psychological thriller that was different from what I had expected, but not at all disappointing. The novel's real source of unease comes from the emotional attraction between the two main characters is compelling and frightening all at once.
In I’D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE, Lippmann tells the tale of Eliza Benedict, a suburban wife and mother, who has just come back to the states after 6 years in Great Britain, where her husband, Peter, was working, along with their two children, Iso and Albie. Other than Eliza’s immediate family, she and Peter are the only ones who know the secret that Eliza is really Elizabeth Lerner. When Eliza was 15 years old, she was kidnapped, raped and held hostage for 39 days by a serial killer named Walter Bowman. Bowman is currently on death row for murder of another girl.
Eliza used to have nightmares about the others that Walter kidnapped and so is a bit overly cautious in the friends she and her children make. But for the most part, her life has been a good one with her family. Then out of the blue, Eliza’s world turns upside down as she receives a letter from Walter Bowman that includes a photo of Eliza and Peter at a recent social event.. The letter says, “I’d know you anywhere.” With that, Eliza’s nightmares return. Walter wants to be have contact with Eliza by phone and she is terrified because she remembers that Walter is not happy when he doesn’t get what he wants. Weighing her options, and too scared to think of anything else, Eliza decides that it’s better to do what Walter wants than to get him angry. With this, Eliza spirals into reliving the six weeks they were together and what she saw and how she felt. Back comes the guilt and misgivings. Why didn’t she run? Why was she spared while others were murdered? And when Walter isn’t satisfied with just phone contact and wants to meet with Eliza in person, it is as if Eliza was Elizabeth again experiencing that life as a 15 year old.
Lippmann takes the reader from the present to the past, and through the use of flashbacks, she adds to the excitement of the story. The terror that Eliza goes through is transferred to the reader in subtle ways and you find yourself unable to put the book down, but also afraid to read on….but you do! Will Eliza meet with Bowman face-to-face? Suspense builds to the point that I was so spellbound that I found myself reading on into the night.There may be others who disagree but in my opinion, I’D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE was a perfect way to start to wrap up the summer and head into some fall reading soon. Don’t miss this one!
THANKS TO MEGAN AND GOOD PEOPLE
AT HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHING,
I HAVE 3 COPIES OF THIS EXCITING
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