Author Laura Lippman was a reporter for 20 years and is a New York Times bestseller. I guess that’s why I expected more out of her book, I’d Know You Anywhere: A Novel.
I expected the former reporter to write a type of crime fiction I’d wish I had written. Instead I got a great storyline written at C-level that seemed to end when the writer got tired of writing.
The book is about Eliza Benedict. The 38-year-old mother of two is married to a journalist and living a simple, domestic life. Her suburban normalcy is interrupted when she received a letter from Walter Bowman, a death row inmate who kidnapped her for more than a month when she was 15.
The narrative shifts between Benedict’s current life and that which she lived as a girl, Elizabeth Lerner. In doing so, the book tells of Bowman’s rape and murder of at least two other girls and how Benedict has attempted to move beyond her experience with him.
The characters are detailed and vivid. The storyline is enticing. I admittedly stayed up late reading, wondering what would happen next. I was disappointed in the end.
The book had the potential to be great, but fell short. However, based on what I liked about the book, I think I’ll give Lippman’s writing another chance.
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