Charm City by Laura Lipmann

My review of the first book in the series, Baltimore Blues, can be found here.

Charm City is the second of the Tess Monaghan books from Laura Lippman. In this book, our girl Tess finds herself trying to find out the truth about why her uncle got beat up (he's in a coma!) and how one of her friends from her journalism days had a story that had originally been nixed end up on the front page of the Baltimore paper, the Beacon Light (frequently shortened to Blight, much to my amusement).  In order to solve these mysteries, Tess is hired on as a contractor at the newspaper, and, as always happens in these types of books, shenanigans ensue.

In the process, Tess finds herself at odds with both of her friends who work at the paper, breaking up with her boyfriend, and acquiring a greyhound named Esskay who I hope is a reoccurring character in this series. She finds herself getting shot at, getting bullied at her gym, and facing the smoke rings from the mean lady editor's cigarettes.

Baltimore continues to be an integral character in the story. Lippman clearly loves the city. There are digressions in which Tess thinks of cutesy names for neighborhoods. There are endless digressions about how a particular neighborhood came to be the mix of middle-class and rundown.  There are digressions about how Baltimore is not part of a county, but prospers and flails all on its own.  I enjoy every word of these tangential points because they are exactly the kinds of things I want to know when I'm reading about a place.

So, did I immediately request the next book in this series from the library? Yes, yes, I did.