Book review: Wilde Lake

THE best-selling author of more than 20 novels, including After I’m Gone and 2015’s Hush Hush returns with Wilde Lake, an evocative tale about the Brant family in Columbia, Maryland.

Laura Lippman

Faber & Faber, £12.99; ebook, £3.99

Louisa ‘Lu’ Brant is the first woman to be elected the State’s Attorney of Howard County Maryland, a position previously held by her father Andrew Brant.

She is prosecuting her first murder, a homeless man who killed a woman in her own apartment.

He seems to have no connection to his victim, but as Lu digs deeper, she uncovers connections to a violent murder in the past that involved her own brother and finds that family and friends are not quite what she thought.

Wilde Lake is a psychologically complex story with plenty of secrets that are deftly woven into the plot.

Lipman is a master story teller who creates strong characters and a narrative that keeps you racing to the last page.