To The Power Of Three [Mass Market Paperback]

This is one of the must reads of 2005. Lippman's powerful characterizations of three high school girls in a well heeled Baltimore suburb are completely gripping. By alternating between various points of view, Lippman is able to give the reader a completely dimensional view of all the characters and why the school shooting that begins the book happened the way it did. The shooting is the beginning and the novel works backwards, tracing the girls friendship and development from 3rd grade through high school, as well as documenting their complete social enviornment. This book is written with such exqusite perception that I could have read on for 800 pages rather than the 400 provided, but for the student of human nature this is not to be missed. Oh yeah, it also has a great story.

I agree with other reviewers here that it's her writing that makes this book a good read. Her ability to bring you where the characters are is outstanding.

But what about the story?

I am an avid mystery/thriller reader...thus I read that way. Lippman gives you all wonderful details about characters...which you attend to as the reader, trying to figure which detail is the "clue" that is how the book will end. To her credit...I did go in a few directions of why what happened...happened.

But...I got to the last page, slammed the book closed in my hand and said "you've GOT to be kidding!'...and shook my head going into the shower (mind you I got up 2 hours EARLY to finish the book!)

So that is the conflict in my review. Obviously it was good enough for me to want to give up 2 hours sleep for to see how it ended...but I was ticked I did.

In retrospect I would say if you read the book and do not approach it as a mystery/thriller genre...then it's a good read. If you're looking for that genre...I wouldn't say it satisfies.

The psychological thriller deserves its own designation as a mystery subgenre. It certainly is becoming more popular. The Brits seem to have perfected it with the work of Ruth Rendall, Minette Walters, Andrew Taylor and the remarkable Mandesue Heller among many many others. These books have in common very strong characterizations with the underlying sense of foreboding. Either a crime has taken place and the characters must deal with that or there is the chilling possibility of a crime that might occur at any moment. These books slowly and inexorably bind the reader up with a whole host of tensions. The characters might be likable or odious. The one thing they all have in common is the ability to make a reader read compulsively to discover the ultimate conclusion and may take its time getting there.

Laura Lippman, so well known from her Tess Monaghan series, wrote her first stand alone which was published two years ago entitled EVERY SECRET THING. This marked a remarkable change in her writing while revealing her ability to fully flesh out human suffering. It is a chilling novel that many considered the very best of the year. Now she returns with another psychological thriller even richer and more fully detailed than the last work.

Three friends are found in a school bathroom. All are shot. Kat Hartigan, the popular one who everybody loves, is dead with a gunshot wound to the chest. Josie Patel, the athletic one, has been shot in the foot and the brooding actress Perri Kahn, said to be the cause of it all, is critically wounded with an apparently self inflicted bullet through her face. The question that must be answered is- what actually happened and why? We then travel back in time to that day, many years ago when the three seemingly inseparable friends first met and proceed to travel ever so slowly down this inevitable road to destruction where all answers eventually lie.

Laura Lippman in her second standalone again displays her mastery of the psychological thriller. She writes with a true depth of understanding the human character which gives her novels their profound realism. This is by no means a fast quick read but will certainly reward the patient reader. It is a superb work by one of the finest writers of crime fiction in this country. Laura Lippman is at the height of her writing powers. Easily one of the best of the year.