The Sugar House by Laura Lippman

Baltimore Blues
Charm City 
Butchers Hill 
In Big Trouble

The fifth book in the Tess Monaghan series, The Sugar House is almost like two separate novels crammed into one. In the first part, Tess is doing a favor for one of her father's friends and needs to figure out the identity of a murdered woman. Once that discovery was made, it unearthed a slew of other unanswered questions that lead to Tess uncovering many political scandals. 

This series is absolutely delightful. I sometimes find myself a bit lost in the weeds on plots (particularly in this novel and Butchers Hill), but I'm not really reading it for plot.  I mean, the plot is fast-paced and there, so it's good enough for me. Tess is a delightfully strong female character. She loves her dog and her boyfriend.  She stays in shape and, while she's definitely not perfect, she's a female character I can relate to. She doesn't always make the choices I'd make or even the right choices, but she's curious and determined and stubborn and I get her.  I'm not even sure I really like her, but that's not what it's about, is it?

I think Lippman's love for Baltimore really shines here, too.  I've been writing about how Baltimore is a main character in the series since the first book and it remains true to form. Lippman writes about Baltimore neighborhoods in the way I write about vegetables - with nuances and subtleties, but deep, deep love. I particularly enjoy how the neighborhoods play a role. If you're going to Federal Hill, you know some political shenanigans.  I've never been to Baltimore, but I feel like I've been to Baltimore, you know.

Anyway, I'm going to keep going through this series. It seems like I'm not going to be able to get physical books from the library  and these have reasonable wait times, so there you have it.  I'll be steady-streaming Lippman books while I slog through my current book club book (over 800 pages and it's exceedingly boooooring).