Monday, February 07, 2011

Teaser Tuesday 71: Charm City

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


I am currently about a quarter of the way through this one, the second in the Tess Monaghan series. My excerpt comes from a bit further on:


She started up St. Paul, and although she walked quickly, she hadn't covered an entire block before the same car—and old Buick, she saw now—passed her again...

Tess stopped for a moment to think. She'd never make it to her car, not along these increasingly desolate blocks north of downtown.
(pg 118)







FROM GOODREADS:
Charm City (Tess Monaghan #2)
By Laura Lippmann

As a practiced reporter until her newspaper went to that great pressroom in the sky, P.I. Tess Monaghan knows and loves every inch of her native Baltimore, even the parts being slobbered on by the sad-sack greyhound she's minding for her uncle. It's a quirky city where baseball reigns, but lately homicide seems to be the second most popular local sport. Business tycoon "Wink" Wynkowski is trying to change all that by bringing pro basketball back to town, and everybody's rooting for him—until a devastating, muckraking exposé of his lurid past appears on the front page of the Baltimore Beacon-Light. It's a surprise even to the Blight's editors, who thought they'd killed the piece. Instead, the piece killed Wink—who's found in his garage with the car running.

Now the Blight wants to nail the unknown computer hacker who planted the lethal story, and the assignment is right up the alley of a former newshound like Tess. But it doesn't take long for her to discover deeper, darker secrets, and to realize that this situation is really more about whacking than hacking. It's just murder in Baltimore these days—and Tess Monaghan herself might be next on the list.



16 comments:

Jennifer said...

I like Lippman and have not read this one so onto my TBR list it goes. My TT: http://www.rundpinne.com/2011/02/teaser-tuesday-indefensible.html

Marg said...

Doesn't sound like a charming read!

Here is my teaser for this week.

Beth F said...

I really liked this one. I think I'm on about book 3.

Belinda said...

oooh tension! Will she make it to her car? Great teaser :)

Heather said...

Jennifer: This is only my second Lippman. I have not read any of her single titles yet, though I do have two on the TBR. She's a good writer, but I have mixed feelings about her heroine, Tess.

Marg: No, not very charming at all. The title comes from one of Baltimore's nicknames, which is used sarcastically throughout the series.

Heather said...

Beth: Book three is as far as I can go in the series right now. Will have to save up so I can hit the UBS again.

Belinda: Hehe...I'll never tell. ;-)

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Oh, I have to read this! I started at the tail end of the series with The Girl in the Green Raincoat, but I was hooked...I love this character.

Hope you're enjoying it, and thanks for stopping by my blog.

Alice Audrey said...

That'll ratchet up the tension.

Pooch said...

A bit scary...wonder what will happen next?
:)

kayerj said...

I think I had a nightmare like that once or twice. nice pick today.

Shelley Munro said...

A sticky situation! Thanks for visiting me.

Heather said...

Laurel-Rain: I think it's going to take me a while to get to Green Raincoat. She has too many books to catch up on!

Alice: Just a bit. ;)

Pooch: Yup... LOL

Kaye: Thanks. Thankfully, though I am prone to crazy, vivid active dreams, I don't recall ever having one like this.

Helley: Yes, but being the resourceful sort, I'm sure she'll get out of it. *g*

Kathy Martin said...

That sounds sort of scary. Enjoy!

Jenny Q said...

Sounds like a good one - with a misleading title! Wonder what Charm City really means? Thanks for visiting my teaser :)

jlshall said...

Great teaser! I've been wanting to read some of the Tess Monaghan books. I used to live in Balto and grew to love the old Charm City in spite of all its problems. Have fun reading this week.

Heather said...

Kathy:So far it's the only scary moment in the book.

Lady Q: It has been pretty good so far. I have no idea why B'more's nickname is "Charm City."

Joy: Thanks, Joy. This is only my second Tess Monaghan, but I will probably (eventually) read them all.