I'd Know You Anywhere: A Novel [Paperback]

I love Lippman writing style. But, if I had to compare, I'd say "His other lover" is a much better work from her. This book leaves you chilled and wondering but I was very disappointed in the ending. It's like there was a build up for 200 some pages and then just ends without surprise or fireworks. Still a good read.

Reason for Reading: I've read one of Lippman's series books and it was ok but I love her standalones and read each new one as it comes out.

Eliza Benedict lives a perfectly content suburban mother and housewife life. Her husband has a high paying job in finance which she really doesn't understand and she has two children, a 13yo girl and an 8yo boy. Then one day her past meets up with her present when she receives a letter in her mailbox (no stamp) from the man, who is sitting on death row, who kidnapped and raped her when she was 15yo, holding her hostage for 39 days. Walter was prosecuted for the murders of the two girls who came before and after her. His letters turn into a need to talk to her on the phone, which she eventually agrees to and then he wants to talk to her in person. He will be executed in two weeks. Walter is believed to be the perpetrator in several unsolved rape/murder cases and missing persons cases. Eliza wonders if she can somehow be the one to finally get his full confession from him. But Walter, who once had her so cowered and controlled she never tried to escape from him, may have ulterior motives and purposes to wanting to get close to her again.

This story is a bit different than others I've read by Lippman. It really isn't a mystery in the sense that a crime is being solved but more a "tale of psychological manipulation" as Eliza finds herself going back over that time of her life that she had tidily shelved away. The story switches back and forth from the present as she deals with the unwanted but compelling attentions of Walter to the past as we see the whole kidnapping play out from the beginning until her eventual rescue. A compelling read that I highly enjoyed. Characterization and plot are both high factors in the telling of this story and I was glued to the pages. It's not exactly a fast-paced story but it is evenly paced, moving forward continually at a steady pace.

The book also deals with the issue of the death penalty and the author has done so, very well. As she states in her Author's Note "this is a novel, not a polemic", some other authors (coughKathy Reichscough) could do well to note how to not let their novels turn into a personal soapbox. Ms. Lippman's personal view on the topic is not necessarily evident, as she has strong characters on all sides: for, against and confused. The character with the strongest view is against, but she is portrayed as somewhat of a crackpot yet at times sympathetic. All the viewpoints can be seen from different angles even by the other characters. Well done. Another Lippman winner in my book.

and think about throwing a rock - a large rock - into the pond and seeing how the ripples wave out from the center.
That's what the crime of kidnapping and murder has done to the lives of Elizabeth Lerner and the other victims of a serial killer in the mid-1980's in a small area near Washington, DC.

Elizabeth is snatched off a country road as a 15 year old after she witnesses Walter Bowman murder another teenage girl and spends 40 days in the company of her kidnapper. They roam a three-state area, posing as a brother and sister, with Bowman controlling every move made by Elizabeth. They are finally stopped after Bowman has kidnapped and murdered another teenager, Holly Tackett.

Bowman is convicted of kidnapping and rapping Elizabeth and given a sentence of life imprisonment, but is then tried for the murder of Holly Tackett. Since that murder happened in Virginia, a state which has the death penalty, Bowman is sentenced to death. Elizabeth returns to her family, who move to a different area in Maryland and she resumes her teenage life. She changes her name to Eliza and goes on with her life, drifting through college and into a good marriage with Peter Benedict. As Eliza Benedict, she has two children and a happy, if placid, life as wife and mother.

But if one of the ripple of the stone is Elizabeth's life after the crime, the other ripples are the lives of Walter Bowman, now confined to prison in Virginia awaiting his death by lethal injection, and Holly Tackett's grieving family. Nearly 25 years pass from the crimes of 1985 and by 2008 Bowman has reached the end of his legal appeals and his date with death approaches. He has made a friend from his jail cell - an anti-death penalty advocate, Barbara LaFortuny - and they come up with the idea of somehow contacting Elizabeth - now Eliza - and trying to get her to intervene in the death sentence. They do find her and promise to tell her about the other crimes Bowman has committed but never confessed to.

Lippman, a very good writer, has written a nuanced story of a crime and the repercussions - the "ripples" - that have been created. Her characters, Elizabeth and her family, both birth and married, and the other victims and hangers-on, as well as Walter Bowman, are well-formed. The only reason I'm giving the book 4 stars instead of 5 is the curious leaving out of the story the reactions of Elizabeth's family during the days she was missing and presumed dead. It's a hole in the plot, I think, that could have been covered in a chapter.

Anyway, Lippman's book is very good reading. She's a pro and generally the book is excellent reading.