In Big Trouble

A Tess Monaghan Novel, Book 4

By: Laura Lippman

Narrated by: Deborah Hazlett

First as a reporter and then as a PI, Tess Monaghan has learned how to survive and thrive on the streets of Baltimore. But a new case will force her to confront her own past, and a man she loved and lost. It starts when she gets a newspaper photograph of her old boyfriend with a tantalizing shard of headline attached: In Big Trouble. The answers lie far from Baltimore, deep in a world of good-time music, old-fashioned ambition, and rich people's games. For Tess must find out what happened to a man she thought she knew, to a woman who may have changed him forever, and to the victims of a killer who dances to a different—and deadly—drummer.

©1999 Laura Lippman (P)2012 AudioGO

This series gets better eith each book!

This series isn't like most. It's not too full of mush and not too full of gore. The stories unfold with just the right timing and build character backstories at a realistic rate. Who can't love a sarcastic, clumsy non-heroine like Tess!

One of Lippman’s Best Tess Monaghan Novels

Laura Lippman is one of the best Mystery writers currently writing. In Big Trouble is an especially good Tess Monaghan novel.
It gives the tough private eye a reason that transcends a fee for finding her ex-boyfriend Hawk who appears to indeed be in big trouble.
The novel expands the world of Monaghan by allowing her to admit she misses and loves someone she had taken for granted and to works every angle to find and protects him.

Tess in Texas ... great!

One of those stories you wish would go on longer. I think this one was more visual than any so far. Performance was great also - just that little thing about Blanco. As a native Texan and Austin transplant, hearing it as 'blahnco' instead of 'blanko' is grating.

Don't tell my wife, but I'm a little bit in love with Tesser

I'm not kidding. Laura Lippman's first Tess Monaghan book was a Daily Deal, & I'm so grateful to have discovered this series. Tess and her many companions are flawed & believable in a way that many authors can't manage. How many female characters admit they "can be a bit of a round heels" when considering cheating on her ever faithful live-in lover...and you still love her? Lippman's also weaves a pretty dense story, which I also appreciate. My biggest fear right now, as I approach book five, is what is going to happen when the wonderful Deborah Hazlett is no longer the voice of Tess, and Crow, and Kitty, etc? I hate it when a narrator I've grown to love no longer accompanies a series I love...well, I do know that I'll find out. As will you, if you try her first book, Baltimore Blues. Thank you Laura Lippman and Deborah Hazelett. And of course, Tesser.

Enjoyable

What made the experience of listening to In Big Trouble the most enjoyable?

I enjoyed the story by Laura Lippman. As a lifelong resident of the San Antonio, Austin, Texas Hill Country, it was entertaining to hear about the local areas and history that I am familiar with.

Did Deborah Hazlett do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Deborah Hazlett did a good job differentiating the characters, however I found her Texan and Tex/Mex accents annoying and there were several mispronunciations of streets and museums in Austin and San Antonio. Although they were pronounced phonetically correctly, I feel some research into the local pronunciation of towns and words should be done by a narrator. It was distracting to me.