Finished Fr 9/26/14
Before dinner with the Brandenburgs at salad bar at the new Hyvee
Set in the fictional Maryland city of Glendale. This is in the far north portion of Baltimore County
Farmland that has been hastily developed that includes a mix of upscale 'McMansions' and suburban track homes.
The novel is about the intense friendship between three girls who have bonded since they were in primary school. The main story occurs in their senior year of high school.
Kat Hartigan- the rich girl in the group. Her grandfather was responsible for the massive building growth and they live on the original dwelling that dates back to the 18th century. She is 'queen of everything', well liked, and it seems, well deserved.
Father Dale and mother Chole have divorced. Dale has remarried and Chloe is a nagging bitch; a kind of 'low class' woman who is out of her element in the Maryland high society.
Perri Kahn- drama queen. Is shot in the face and thought to be the shooter. Almost as academic as Kat. She had kind of hippie parents who let her do whatever she wanted.
Josie Patel- small and athletic. Indian background on father's side. She is witness to the murder
Eve Mulhy- in the same class as the three girls, but is from the old section and a farm girl. SKEEZER
Detective Lenhardt- older detective in charge of the case. Married for the second time, late in life and has a teenage daughter and is apprehensive about what he sees of the behavior of the Glendale teens.
Detective Infante- he is Lenhardt's partner and younger and a 'ladies man'.
Peter Lasko- graduated a couple of years before and used to date Kat. He comes back to find what has really happened and Dale tries to make him infiltrate the teens. He's up for a movie with Guy Pearce and is a kind of egomaniac.
THE FINAL HOOK-
The previous year three of the top boy students had been killed in a bad car wreck. They were sent on a mission by Kat to stop Binnie Snyder from beating Kat academically. Binnie is in the girls bathroom on the fatal morning. Perri had the gun and wanted Kat to admit to the involvement in the boys accident and when Josie tries to grab the gun she shoots Kat through the heart. Perri tries to use the gun on herself and in the struggle with Josie the bullet hits her in the face. She dies within a week. Binnie flees and tells that Josie should cover for her ("you owe me that much"). Josie shoots herself in the foot (after removing her expensive new sandals), but realizes that she has to relock the door. When she hops to the door to relock it, she leaves blood splatter and footprints that cause the cops to doubt her story. It all comes out in the end, but it seems that the case is stalled in the grand jury. No indictments. That ending was kind of weak.
I loved the book because each character was fully developed and you never really understand what has happened until the last few pages. I absolutely love Lippman's 'stand-alone' novels, and I'm almost ready to give a Tess novel a chance.
Lippman's wikipedia entry-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Lippman
Link to Amazon-
http://www.amazon.com/To-Power-Three-A-Novel/dp/0062205803
No comments:
Post a Comment