The latest in an occasional series of books that knock my socks off! (Although in this fall weather, I’ve had to put them back on, darn it!)

WILDE LAKE by Laura Lippman (William Morrow, 2016)

Luisa Brandt is the newly-elected State’s Attorney in Howard County, Maryland, the same position her father once held. He’s still described as “beloved,” and Lu feels that label as burden, challenge, and comfort. But her first murder trial in her new job will shake everything she thinks she knows about herself and her family.

Lippman’s recent standalones often weave together a contemporary storyline and an older one. In WILDE LAKE, as in AFTER I’M GONE, the present-day story covers a short period and the investigation of a present-day crime with ties to long-ago events that are played out over years, even decades. Lippman handles the time shifts beautifully, and she captures the 1970s and 1980s with exactly the right details.

Few authors are smarter about observing women in modern culture, and the struggles we often face because of our social roles.

I read this book in audio. The two narrators—one for the current-day story, one for the historic chapters—have distinctive, clear styles that drew me in and kept me good company on a long drive over the mountains and back.