Laura Lippman finds her groove

With a new book and Hollywood calling, the Baltimore author is coming into her own

At times like that you can see why Lippman would connect to the exuberant side of her girl characters. But why is she hard-wired to troubled young characters like Elizabeth? She says she often gives the "glib, flippant" explanation that "I'm one of those people who never forgave or never forgot any of the humiliations of childhood," even though she had "a very happy ordinary childhood." She also thinks young people are fascinating because "they aren't very good at being disingenuous. They're much more interesting when they're inept." Walter Bowman, though cagy, can be as awkward and vulnerable as a 10-year-old.

Lippman says she would never try her hand at "broad, larger-than-life, Hannibal Lecter types … that's just not what I do. I can't pull that off. So I kind of go the other way. David and I have actually joked that we're drawn to characters who are smaller than life. That's just what I know: people whose dreams are bigger than they are. I'm thinking of Walter now. I get that kind of person, I really do, and I feel for him in an odd way."

"I'd Know You Anywhere" would be a good novel if it made you care only for Eliza, the dead teenage girls, and a heartbreakingly inconsolable mother. It's a terrific book because it makes you confront the humanity within a convoluted creature like Walter.

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If you go

Laura Lippman will sign copies of her new book at 4 p.m. Aug. 21 at Mystery Loves Company, 202 S Morris St., Oxford She'll also make an appearance at 7 p.m. on Sept. 7 at the John Hopkins University Barnes & Noble, 3400 N. Charles St.

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