Hush Hush by Laura Lippman

The award-winning New York Times bestselling author of After I'm Gone, The Most Dangerous Thing, I'd Know You Anywhere, and What the Dead Know brings back private detective Tess Monaghan, introduced in the classic Baltimore Blues, in an absorbing mystery that plunges the new parent into a disturbing case involving murder and a manipulative mother.

On a searing August day, Melisandre Harris Dawes committed the unthinkable: she left her two-month-old daughter locked in a car while she sat nearby on the shores of the Patapsco River. Melisandre was found not guilty by reason of criminal insanity, although there was much skepticism about her mental state. Freed, she left the country, her husband and her two surviving children, determined to start over.

But now Melisandre has returned Baltimore to meet with her estranged teenage daughters and wants to film the reunion for a documentary. The problem is, she relinquished custody and her ex, now remarried, isn't sure he approves.

Now that's she's a mother herself--short on time, patience--Tess Monaghan wants nothing to do with a woman crazy enough to have killed her own child. But her mentor and close friend Tyner Gray, Melisandre's lawyer, has asked Tess and her new partner, retired Baltimore P.D. homicide detective Sandy Sanchez, to assess Melisandre's security needs.

As a former reporter and private investigator, Tess tries to understand why other people break the rules and the law. Yet the imperious Melisandre is something far different from anyone she's encountered. A decade ago, a judge ruled that Melisandre was beyond rational thought. But was she? Tess tries to ignore the discomfort she feels around the confident, manipulative Melisandre. But that gets tricky after Melisandre becomes a prime suspect in a murder.

Yet as her suspicions deepen, Tess realizes that just as she's been scrutinizing Melisandre, a judgmental stalker has been watching her every move as well. . . . @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

2 STARS


*I won this book in a GR Firstreads giveaway*

I love to read a good mystery/thriller, but this one didn't hit the spot for me. Hush, Hush did sound like a book I was going to love. I didn't really like any of the characters. I liked Tess, her child, her partner and Kitty well enough but everyone else was just blah. Now, I know you don't have to like all of the people in the book but even some bad people are well written in a book.

I still can't understand how Melisandre could have left her child in the car to die and then have the trial be called a mistrial. She wasn't found guilty? What part of.. she left her child in the car to die do you not understand. I mean, even if it's insanity... this woman just wandered off to another country and left her other daughters with her husband.





The mistrial thing threw me for such a loop, it took me a bit to figure out what was going on. I thought they stuck her away in a mental institute, but she just goes off to another country. I mean.. I don't know.

Melisandre comes back after so many years and wants to do some kind of documentary of her life and see her daughters.. Seriously, did I miss something. I know I was tired and fell asleep, but I feel like I fell down the rabbit hole in this book.

I don't want to give out any spoilers, but some other weird stuff starts happening when she gets back to town. Someone gets killed, someone gets kicked in the nads, someone blames someone for their crappy life by gun point, and people confessing this that and the other.

I really wanted to like it and there for a little bit I had it at three stars in my mind, but it just got away from me.

All of this is just my little opinion, everyone needs to read a book for themselves and make up their mind whether they love it or not. I'm hoping plenty of people love it. As I have always said, I never not want to like a book, but it does happen. 

GOODREADS REVIEW:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1407214981

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Hush-Tess-Monaghan-Novel/dp/0062083430/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1449254121&sr=1-3