This collection of a dozen delightful stories from Lippman ("Tess Monaghan" series; Dream Girl) feature resourceful women from many walks of life. In the title story, a 14-year-old relates her grifter stepfather's cunning Christmas con; the early 1960s-set "The Everyday Housewife" has Tess Monaghan's mother evading ennui by observing her neighbors; a "Cougar" mom contends with her meth-dealing, freeloading son and his girlfriend; a girl trapped in the "Ice" of a skating pond contemplates the real events of her drowning death while another girl skates on thin ice above. Lippman's heroines are not easily scorned or fooled, except occasionally by themselves. This is evident in the haunting "Five Fires," and in the only new novella in the collection, the COVID-tinged "Just One More," with a couple in lockdown trying to revive their marriage. Even when readers see the punchline coming, they will enjoy the intricate characterizations, excellent sense of place, and eagle-eyed cultural references. The last three stories in the collection are the strongest, especially "Slow Burner," about a cheating husband, a suspicious wife, and an extra cell phone. VERDICT A must for Lippman fans and devotees of female-empowerment crime fiction.--Liz French, Library Journal

These 12 stories were written between 2007 and 2019 and appeared in various anthologies, except for "Just One More," a never-previously-published novella about a married couple in the midst of the pandemic who decide to sign up for a dating app just for fun--something to vary the routine of streaming Columbo. This excruciatingly timely story perfectly captures the quotidian sameness of life during lockdown until it corkscrews into something very different. Throughout the collection, Lippman showcases a pitch-perfect sense of how to end a short piece, surprising us with revelatory twists but never doing so in a formulaic, O. Henry way. Also on display is Lippman's ability to create compelling female characters of varying ages, from forty-somethings to teens and children, who combine resolute determination with sometimes-heartbreaking personal vulnerability. Fans will be pleased to find two Tess Monaghan stories here, along with one about the early lives of Tess' parents, Judith and Patrick. The outstanding title story has Tess, still a reporter before launching her PI business, exposing an audacious Christmas scam but being outmaneuvered by the teenager she attempts to rescue. (Lippman's great feel for teen characters inspires hope that a YA thriller might be in her future.) All in all, this is a first-rate collection, an obvious must for the legions of Lippman fans, but also great reading for anyone who savors short crime fiction.

Playful tales of misdeeds great and small from the prolific mystery author. Lippman fans will be glad to hear that the first two stories in her second collection of short fiction--after Hardly Knew Her (2008)--feature Tess Monaghan, now-retired private investigator and star of a dozen mystery novels. The first, the title story, is about a long con featuring the wise child of a grifter dad; the second is a very Baltimorean story set in a children's bookstore with an ongoing shoplifting problem. The third story features a couple that insiders will recognize as Tess' parents in the years before she was born. Though Judith Monaghan is "The Everyday Housewife," her powers of observation and interest in the lives of others presage her daughter's talents--as one character points out, "It's a thin line between gossip and espionage." The remaining nine stories take on a sparkling array of everyday cheaters, liars, egotists, and sexist pigs. In "Slow Burner," a perfectly pleasant high school teacher "has been spying on [her husband] for so long it's hard to remember what she might know and what she can't know." But as her students point out during their mythology unit, "Hades is a kidnapper, plain and simple. Why should Persephone be punished for eating a few seeds?...To teenagers, the gods are like adults, taking themselves much too seriously, demanding respect they have not earned, changing the rules as it suits them while torturing the puny mortals in their care." Oof. As the author explains in an interesting afterword, the stories--four of which, she proudly notes, do not a include a dead body--were written between 2007 and 2019 and had to be updated slightly to conform to current standards. Sensitivity, however, only goes so far with a crime novelist. When the pandemic comes along in the last story, "Just One More," it only makes murder more acceptable. "Hundreds of people were dying every day. What was one more body on the pile?" Clever, well-paced, laced with humor and insight--damn fine short stories. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Bestseller Lippman (Dream Girl) displays her uncanny understanding of human nature and all its foibles in this worthy collection of 12 stories involving deceit, violence, and psychological mayhem. In the edgy "Slow Burner," a married couple, Liz and Phil, engage in metaphorical fisticuffs after healing from the husband's infidelity a year previously. Then Liz finds a burner phone in the laundry basket with incriminating texts on it. She tries to trivialize it as an example of Phil's "delight in being new to someone, anyone," but soon realizes this affair runs as deeply as the first. She takes matters into her own hands, with frightening results. Another standout is "Five Fires," in which a jealous small-town deli worker is determined to find the arsonist setting nearby fires, but her schizophrenia conceals the shocking truth about the crimes. Booksellers will relish "The Book Thing," in which PI Tess Monaghan, Lippman's series lead, catches the man stealing inventory from indie bookstores--and discovers his extraordinary use for the books. Not every entry is top-notch, but anything from Lippman is worth reading. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary. (Jan.)