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Butchers Hill
  

Butchers Hill (Library Binding)

by Laura Lippman (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Product Details


Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Tess Monaghan, newspaperwoman turned sleuth, makes it official with a new business as a PI in a run-down section of Baltimore, Butchers Hill. Her first clientsAan elderly man known as the Butcher of Butchers Hill and a highly successful female professional fund-raiserApresent the first dilemma. Tess needs a cover, reluctantly supplied by Client 2, in order to get access to information on the ghetto for Client 1. The process of finding diverse missing persons starts Monaghan and her two black clients on sometimes prickly discourse involving race. As in Baltimore Blues and Charm City, dialogue is on the mark, accompanied by lively observations about female entrepreneurship, adoption, foster home rackets, and quirky Baltimore natives and neighborhoods. A bittersweet, perfectly plausible ending winds things up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.


Product Description

Tess Monaghan has finally made the move and hung out her shingle as a p.i.-for-hire, complete with an office in Butchers Hill. Maybe it's not the best address in Baltimore, but you gotta start somewhere, and Tess's greyhound Esskay has no trouble taking marathon naps anywhere there's a roof. Then in walks Luther Beale, the notorious vigilante who five years ago shot a boy for vandalizing his car. Just out of prison, he says he wants to make reparations to the kids who witnessed his crime, so he needs Tess to find them. But once she starts snooping, the witnesses start dying. Is the "Butcher of Butchers Hill" at it again? Like it or not, Tess is embroiled in a case that encompasses the powers that-be, a heartless system that has destroyed the lives of children, and a nasty trail of money and lies leading all the way back to Butchers Hill. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most helpful customer reviews

 
4.0 out of 5 stars A good third in a series, Sep 6 2001
By Kristin Brown (Leesburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Lippman's writing continues to improve. She does a wonderful job of letting her characters age and learn from life, and the actual "mystery" is better than the two previous books. I do tend to think Lippman throws in a bit too much at the end (facts that suddenly change the direction of the story), but this fact didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book. If for no other reason, this book is worth reading to get to the next (In Big Trouble) - the best of the series, in my opinion.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Award winning urban tale, Jun 25 2001
By Carol Peterson Hennekens (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Butchers Hill won both the Agatha and Anthony awards for best paperbacks (as well as being nominated for the MacCavity, Edgar and Shamus paperback awards). It's a good book but I suspect some publisher marketing or a weak year for the competition. Butchers Hill is a solid read but hardly earth shattering.

First and foremost, this is a very urban tale and not about the pretty side of city life. The book revolves around Tess' first two clients at her new office. What start out as simple cases to locate missing persons quickly grow complicated and intertwined. Tess is thrown into the world of urban foster care issues. The plotting is strong and I found myself thinking about the book between chapters.

My jury is still out on this series. The Baltimore setting doesn't do much for me - it's pretty bleak through Tess' eyes. Tess doesn't stand out among her peers in the female P.I. land. Kinsey and V.I. have been doing similar stuff for a long time. Of the new generation, I'd rather read Evanovich's Stephanie Plum who seems genuinely orginal (and funny).

Bottom-line: Still not sure what the fuss is about concerning Lippman. A perfectly adequate read but nothing outstanding. Reading of previous books in the series (Baltimore Blues and Charm City) is helpful but not essential.

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1.0 out of 5 stars this book stinks, Jun 9 2001
By doggylad (oshkosh) - See all my reviews
what else is there to say. i'd like to be kind, but give me a break. this is a stinking book and a waste of time. to think that this thing won an award. Geez! something else has to be going on.
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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, great series...
If you like your mysteries to be more than the cozy, sicky sweet variety, this series is for you. I don't understand about the previous reviewer's reference to bias. Read more
Published on April 30 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard-boiled Baltimore
My favorite character in the Tess series is Baltimore. Lippman carefully maps out a city every bit as complex as any of the human characters. Read more
Published on Jul 6 2000 by V.T. Too

3.0 out of 5 stars Weakest in an otherwise good series
Is it my imagination, or are my favorite paperback authors writing faster while the books get weaker? Read more
Published on Jun 14 2000

1.0 out of 5 stars Let Down in Little Rock
After reading over half of this book I was wondering why keep going. I thought this award winning book would get much better. It did not.
Published on May 31 2000 by Harold

1.0 out of 5 stars No Awards for Butchers Hill
Why did this book receive an Agatha Award? This is certainly not great writing. I can think of many writers whose least effort outclasses this work- Colin Dexter, Ross MacDonald,... Read more
Published on May 14 2000

1.0 out of 5 stars liberal bias
This book presents an uninteresting, unrealistic and poorly developed story with shallow and transparent characters. Read more
Published on Feb 5 2000

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow Starter, but finishes pretty well
It took me a while to start enjoying this book. There are a number of subtle references to current pop culture (commercials, country songs, coffee salons) that feel extraneous to... Read more
Published on Dec 15 1999 by M. Ernst

5.0 out of 5 stars Tess is an imperfect protagonist, but she's improving.
This is the third of the Tess Monaghan books. Mysteries are often filled with cardboard characters and one or two well developed characters. Read more
Published on April 30 1999 by Henry

4.0 out of 5 stars Another strong outing for Laura and for Tess!
I read a series mystery for character, and a character is not interesting if she doesn't grow. With Butcher's Hill, Lippman takes us, and her character, inside the seedy side of... Read more
Published on Dec 25 1998 by Kate Flora, kozak@tiac.net

4.0 out of 5 stars Each novel gets stronger
Butchers Hill is the best of the series. There are many surprising twists. And well-constructed: I quickly got trapped in the dream of the novel, switching focus as the author... Read more
Published on Nov 21 1998

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