Wilde Lake: A Novel

The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed standalones After I’m Gone, I’d Know You Anywhere, and What the Dead Know, challenges our notions of memory, loyalty, responsibility, and justice in this evocative and psychologically complex story about a long-ago death that still haunts a family.

Luisa “Lu” Brant is the newly elected—and first female—state’s attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death in her home. It’s not the kind of case that makes headlines, but peaceful Howard county doesn’t see many homicides.

As Lu prepares for the trial, the case dredges up painful memories, reminding her small but tight-knit family of the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man’s life. Only eighteen, AJ was cleared by a grand jury. Now, Lu wonders if the events of 1980 happened as she remembers them. What details might have been withheld from her when she was a child?

The more she learns about the case, the more questions arise. What does it mean to be a man or woman of one’s times? Why do we ask our heroes of the past to conform to the present’s standards? Is that fair? Is it right? Propelled into the past, she discovers that the legal system, the bedrock of her entire life, does not have all the answers. Lu realizes that even if she could learn the whole truth, she probably wouldn’t want to.

What happens when we’re forced to look closely at the myths and stories that shape our families? In Wilde Lake, Laura Lippman takes on the frailty of memory and the way that ever-evolving standards can create villains where heroes once stood.

Luisa “Lu” Brant is the newly elected state’s attorney of Howard County, Maryland. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to burnish her reputation by trying a homeless man accused of beating a woman to death in her home.

As Lu prepares for the trial, the case dredges up painful memories, reminding her family of the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man’s life. Now, Lu wonders if the events of 1980 happened as she remembers them.

The more she learns about her new case, the more questions arise about the past. Why was her brother’s friend attacked? Who was the true victim? If there is such a thing as the whole truth, Lu realizes—possibly too late—that she would be better off not knowing what it is.

“She’s one of the best novelists around, period.” - Washington Post

“Ultimately, Wilde Lake is not so much a crime novel that rises to the level of serious literature as serious literature that rises to the level of great crime fiction. - Chicago Tribune

“A heady brew of twisting tale and accelerating introspection, Wilde Lake at once disturbs and delights, as Lippman impels not only her characters but also her readers to question the depth of their understanding of the past…” - Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Lippman draws on two decades of crime reporting to produce a heart-stopping new thriller, which pivots on a state attorney’s drive and cunning as she unravels a baffling murder case with personal implications.” - O Magazine

“Lippman is an expert at lending a clear-eyed view of the bonds that link people and the truths we tell ourselves to survive the emotional morass of life. She continues this high standard in “Wilde Lake,” which proves that the most intricate of mysteries are how we deal with each other. Each of us is a product of our childhood — it’s what we do with it that makes the difference.” - Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers

“Lippman is an expert at lending a clear-eyed view of the bonds that link people and the truths we tell ourselves to survive the emotional morass of life. She continues this high standard in Wilde Lake.” - Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers

“Wilde Lake is engrossing, suspenseful and substantial, its wit easing a sober, somewhat elegiac air.” - New York Times Book Review

“Ultimately, Wilde Lake is not so much a crime novel that rises to the level of serious literature as serious literature that rises to the level of great crime fiction…In the case of this novel, the form allows the author to share her outspoken female wisdom on everything from civil rights - though recent events in Baltimore are only alluded to, they haunt the narrative - to homosexuality during the poisonous Reagan era to parenthood.” - Chicago Tribune

“As shocking secrets are revealed, the reader realizes that nothing and no one can be taken at face value in Lippman’s brainy, witty, socially conscious, and all-consuming inquiry into human nature and our slowly evolving sense of justice and equality...Lippman is an A-list crime writer.” - Booklist (starred review)

“Lippman as always treads the fine line between certainty and amazement.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Laura Lippman is one of my favorite writers. I cannot focus on anything else when I am reading one of her books. Her writing makes me wish I lived a sexier and more violent life.” - Mindy Kaling

“As shocking secrets are revealed, the reader realizes that nothing and no one can be taken at face value in Lippman’s brainy, witty, socially conscious, and all-consuming inquiry into human nature and our slowly evolving sense of justice and equality. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Lippman is an A-list crime writer.” - Booklist (starred review)

“… [a] richly plotted and emotionally devastating standalone…Lippman plays with the concept of truth and expertly hones in on the question of whether there are some truths we never want to know.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Lippman is one of those writers whom other writers want to emulate. I love everything about her writing: her sharp yet merciful eye for human frailites, her seamlessly organic plots and, most of all, simply her writing itself. Even for a writer of Lippman’s calibre, Wilde Lake is a standout novel: an intelligent, emotional, satisfying mystery that explores huge themes in small-town microcosm, in the manner of To Kill A Mocking Bird, the inspiration on which it reflects. - Alex Marwood, author of The Killer Next Door and The Wicked Girls

“Intriguing premise, stunning reveal, irresistible read.” - Val McDermid, author of Splinter the Silence

“Laura Lippman’s WILDE LAKE is one of her best and most personal. . . . Lippman’s novels are tough-minded, entertaining, heartfelt and wise . . . . She’s one of today’s essential writers, and this, her 20th novel, reminds us why.” - Washington Post

Praise for After I’m Gone: “Lippman is a writing powerhouse.” - USA Today

“Laura Lippman’s stories aren’t just mysteries; they are deeply moving explorations of the human heart. She is quite simply one of the best crime novelists writing today.” - Tess Gerritsen

“I never miss Laura Lippman’s novels.” - Anna Quindlen, New York Times bestselling author