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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Murder investigation; the accusation against her friend
Language
Some
Moderate language; Baltimore vernacular
Sexual Content
Barely any
Mild; adult relationships
Substance Use
Some
Moderate; Baltimore bar culture; rowing team drinking culture
Emotional Intensity
Some
Moderate; the first novel's establishment of Tess as a type — the former journalist who applies reporting skills to investigation; the Baltimore setting as character
What this book is about
The first Tess Monaghan mystery: former journalist Tess Monaghan, now working at her aunt's detective agency, takes on her first real case — clearing her rowing partner of a murder charge. Lippman's Baltimore is as specifically rendered as any city in crime fiction — the row houses, the harbor, the specific class dynamics of a city that rebuilt itself and the parts it couldn't.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
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