Laura Lippman No Good Deeds

No Good Deeds

Laura Lippman

Morrow, Jul 2006, $7.99

ISBN: 0060506733

In Baltimore, Edgar "Crow" Ransome takes home fifteen year old Lloyd Jupiter who he met outside a soup kitchen when the homeless teen offered to change his flat tire for five bucks; Crow assumes the kid slashed his tire, but counteroffers with a warm bed and three square meals at the bungalow he shares with private investigator Tess Monaghan.

Lloyd frightens Tess when it becomes apparent that the teen knows plenty about Assistant US Attorney Gregory Youssef, recently found murdered. Tess persuades the teenager to tell all he knows to Beacon-Light reporter Marcy Appleton. When one of Lloyd's pals is murdered, Crow takes the kid with him into hiding in Delaware as he believes anyone associated with the perverted side of Youssef is a target. Assistant US Attorney Gabe Dalesio, FBI Agent Barry Jenkins, and DEA operative Mike Collins demand Tess to name her source or else face the full impact of the law and the illegal contempt of other means they have at their disposal in this post nine-eleven world.

As always in a Monaghan thriller (see BY A SPIDER'S THREAD), Baltimore is the star as readers see two cities side by side; one a depressing putrefying loser and the other an optimistic bright light. Monaghan is terrific as is the Feds who uses extreme pressure including threats to jail her loved ones (similar to the "threat" to take away Steele's adopted Romanian son during the Starr investigation into Clinton) to force the heroine to talk. Crow's interest in Lloyd seems off kilter until a too late revelation explains all; still fans will agree that in this case NO GOOD DEEDS rewards fans with a fine political mystery.

Harriet Klausner