The mystery begins when Tess receives a puzzling letter with a postmark from Boerne, Texas, which contains only a newspaper clipping glued to an index card. Part of a larger picture, it shows a head and shoulders shot of Crow along with the headline, “In Big Trouble.” After days of self-imposed waiting, she starts to make inquiries, only to find his phone has been disconnected and that his parents are worried. They are insistent that she work for them and ultimately convince her to find him. Tess finds herself heading to Texas.

With aversion to travel and deep roots in Baltimore, Tess arrives feeling like a fish out of water. Yet, in a little less than three days, she is able to locate Crow playing in a band in a nightclub in the company of a stunningly attractive woman, Emma, who is his lead singer and housemate. He insists his parents are worried needlessly, explaining he hasn’t called them because he is trying to become more independent, yet she senses he is hiding something and is “in big trouble.”

During her search, Tess discovers a dead body where Crow and Emma had previously been staying. They deny knowing anything about the murder, however, the situation grows more complicated when the police find a second victim, connect him to the first murder through an unsolved crime sixteen years ago. The growing evidence seems to point straight to Crow.

A recurring theme of In Big Trouble is a question of whether or not anyone really knows anyone else, and everyone in the book has a unique revelation or two. The plot is complex, supremely well executed, and a joy to follow, providing more than enough shifts and deflections to conceal the solution to the mystery and entertain in rare, high style.

Tess is a very likable person, trustworthy, clever, intelligent, stubborn, perseverant, and honest enough to admit her faults. On the other hand, she is sometimes frustratingly immature for her age, an improbability in someone whose forte is in understanding others’ motives so well. The secondary characters, although eccentric and unconventional, are the voice of common sense and provide a feast of interesting views and thoughts. Tess struggles, for an inordinate amount of time, to rise above her self-imposed maudlin outlook about her past and sabotages her relationships in order not to be hurt again. Thankfully, her efforts pay off, and she attains a new level of maturity by the end of the book.

Ms. Lippman creates a fascinating, action-packed, fast-paced winning mystery and an extremely hard book to put down.

--Monica Pope