Book Review – Another Thing to Fall
Equation: Another Thing to Fall is the latest Tess Monaghan novel by Laura Lippman. From the flyleaf:
The California dream weavers have invaded Charm City with their cameras, their stars, and their controversy…
When private investigator Tess Monaghan literally runs into the crew of the fledgling TV series Mann of Steel while sculling, she expects sharp words and evil looks, not an assignment. But the company has been plagued by a series of disturbing incidents since its arrival on location in Baltimore: bad press, union threats, and small, costly on-set “accidents” that have wreaked havoc with its shooting schedule. As a result, Mann’s creator, Flip Tumulty, the son of a Hollywood legend, is worried for the safety of his young female lead, Selene Waites, and asks Tess to serve as her bodyguard/babysitter. Tumulty’s concern may be well founded. Not long ago a Baltimore man was discovered dead in his own home, surrounded by photos of the beautiful, difficult superstar-in-the-making.
In the past, Tess has had enough trouble guarding her own body. Keeping a spoiled movie princess under wraps may be more than she can handle – even with the help of Tess’s Icily unflappable friend Whitney – since Selene is not as naive as everyone seems to think, and far more devious than she initially appears to be. This is not Tess’s world. And these are not her kind of people, with their vanities, their self-serving agendas and invented personas, and their remarkably skewed visions of reality – from the series’ aging, shallow, former pretty boy leading man to its resentful, always on the make cowriter to the officious young assistant who may be too hungry for her own good.
Plus: It’s a good old fashioned mystery – and those can usually be great. I love female PI leads. There is quite a bit of character construction which adds to the story and their development is part of the story. If you’re into movies, there’s plenty of references here both to the process of making a television series to film history.
Minus: When I took this book as a review, I didn’t realize that this was a sequel. As a result, sometimes I felt I was missing something somewhere – and then would realize that that was probably fleshed out in a previous novel. This, obviously, isn’t a problem for someone who’s read the series until now. Some of the characters, perhaps didn’t need as much development. I felt some of the characterizations were strictly there to confuse rather than enhance the understanding of the character. The ending could have been fleshed out a bit more. I felt a little cheated by how it ended in some way.
Equals: Actually – I’m giving this one a positive review. Why? I was hooked into the story – not just reading it because I “had” to for the review. I wanted to find out how it ended. In addition, this has made me want to go back and fine the other Tess Monaghan novels, and read about her adventures from the beginning. If an author is able to do that for me I must say “read this.”
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