Sunburn Paperback – 1 Mar 2018

I'm new to this author and won't be bothering again. There are many writers at the moment who try far too hard and have an annoying habit of putting in too many adjectives, figures of speech, etc. etc., making their prose far too flowery. This was the total opposite and I found the writing laconic and totally dull. This was not helped by the fact that nothing much was happening. We know early on that Polly is being investigated by Adam in order to discover where she has hidden a large amount of money she obtained fraudulently, and that they have an affair. But all the main characters, apart from Adam, are sleazy and up to criminal activities so we don't really care who ends up with this money as they are all dodgy and unpleasant.The next bit of this review may constitute a bit of a spoiler as I have to mention how I feel about the ending, which caused me to knock a star off.The ending. Nothing, but nothing happened. No surprises. No one turning out to be anything other than how they had been portrayed throughout. I closed the book with an enormous feeling of wondering why on earth anyone would want to read this and what the point of it was. One of the dullest, worst endings I can remember....actually, I can't remember it. Two days later and I've struggled to write this review as I've forgotten most of it.

I inhaled this book. What a great tag line: She has nothing to lose. And everything to hide. The cover is slathered with glowing reviews from big names, big papers (and the Daily Fail) but you know that Lippman's got a career that has more than earned those plaudits.This is neo-noir yet as fresh as summer rain (I say with relief that we've finally got some this morning -- a hot Scotland is just unnatural). Sure it's got a sexy woman with secrets, private investigators and all kinds of people out to get something and damn the consequences. Lippman takes these sometimes self-conscious tropes and plays with them. Polly actually discovers noir during a bad marriage and it's literally a lifesaver for her. Adam is no Sam Spade and hurrah for that, but he's no Walter Neff either.It's an irresistible joy to watch two people fall for each other when they're not sure they can trust each other and everything is against them -- but you're not sure what's true and neither are they. Lippman alternates between a variety of characters from chapter to chapter and you learn things you didn't know as well as wrong assumptions they're making about others. Sometimes you just want to shout at the characters (or maybe that's just me).Some quotes:The problem is, when a man wants her, he usually won't stop trying to get her. They wear her down, men. She starts off by taking pity on them, ends up feeling sorry for herself.It's a special art, asking people to do things, yet making it seem as if you never asked at all. How had she even figured out what he was planning to do? A witch, that one. She's a witch.Sometimes he used to wake up in the middle of the night and find her looking at him. The light from the streetlamp threw a stripe across her eyes, and it was as if she were wearing a mask that allowed her to read his every thought.Maybe she should write an advice book for men, one that tells them everything they want to hear, as opposed to all those books for women, which tell them to be the opposite of what they are, no matter what that is.I could keep quoting but this gives you a great idea: lean, mean, addictive -- up to the last pages you won't be sure how things will go. What a pleasure.

ver the course of a punishing summer, Polly and Adam abandon themselves to a steamy, inexorable affair. Still, each holds something back from the other—dangerous, even lethal, secrets that begin to accumulate as autumn approaches, feeding the growing doubts they conceal.This is billed a noir thriller and has lots of recommendations (Stephen King is quoted on the back). Overall the style is great, I liked the plot and it was a good summer book to read as you could feel the heat from this small town coming off the page. The main problem with this book for me is that the two main characters are meant to have this intense passionate love, and that I didn't see at all. They said they loved each other but it wasn't shown and as that is a key reason why they do what they do, I felt I should have believed in them more. Good overall though.

This femme fatale/unreliable narrator mystery, set in smalltown Delaware, was so elegantly written that I ached to love it… and yet, it simply didn’t do it for me. Part of the problem was that Laura Lippman’s central character, Polly, drip-feeds the reader her motivations at a frustratingly slow pace, meaning that for roughly half the book you’re basically waiting around for something to happen. Lippman writes unsympathetic women wonderfully, and I also really enjoyed it as a portrait of how the most exciting affair descends into mundanity (even if it’s with the guy you didn’t know was a PI sent to scope you out for the gangster you may or may not have screwed over) – but as a thriller? Not so much.

This was the first book that I read by this author. She has a way with words and descriptions of places and people. So far, so good. The plotting lets it down. There were too many twists in the story and too many characters who were unbelievable . The ending was probably meant to be dramatic but just seemed limp.

Do not start reading this book at night time. You will be up all night reading it. It is a joy to read and a real page turner. Unfortunately I loved it, but the lack of sleep is not a good thing. Did not see the end coming... Which is the best twist.

Loved this standalone book from Laura Lippman. Couldn't put it down. Well written & great plot.

Completely absorbing . Polly remains a sympathetic character throughout, in spite of her scheming. She reminds me of Becky in Vanity Fair. Both women who do what needs to be done to survive in a male dominated world