Laura Lippman

Laura Lippman (born January 31, 1959) is an American journalist and author of over 20 detective fiction novels.^[1] Her novels have won multiple awards, including an Agatha Award, seven Anthony Awards, two Barry Awards, an Edgar Award, a Gumshoe Award, a Macavity Award, a Nero Award, two Shamus Awards, and two Strand Critics Award.

Laura Lippman
Lippman at the 2015 National Book Festival
Born	(1959-01-31) January 31, 1959 (age 66) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Occupation	Author
Alma mater	Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Wilde Lake High School
Subject	Detective fiction
Notable awards	Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Nero, Barry, Macavity, Strand and Shamus
Spouse	David Simon ​ ​ (m. 2006; div. 2024)​
Children	1
Website
www.lauralippman.com

Biography

Lippman was born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Columbia, Maryland. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman, Jr., a writer at The Baltimore Sun, and Madeline Mabry Lippman, a retired school librarian for the Baltimore City Public School System.^[2] Her paternal grandfather was Jewish, and the remainder of her ancestry is Scots-Irish.^[3][4] Lippman was raised Presbyterian.^[5] She attended high school in Columbia, Maryland, where she was the captain of the Wilde Lake High School It's Academic team. She also participated in several dramatic productions, including Finian's Rainbow, The Lark, and Barefoot in the Park. She graduated from Wilde Lake High School in 1977.^[6]

Lippman is a former reporter for the now defunct San Antonio Light and The Baltimore Sun. She is best known for writing a series of novels set in Baltimore and featuring Tess Monaghan, a reporter turned private investigator. Lippman's works have won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Nero, Gumshoe and Shamus awards. What the Dead Know (2007), was the first of her books to make the New York Times Best Seller list, and was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award.

In addition to the Tess Monaghan novels, Lippman has written works independent of that character. Her novel Every Secret Thing was adapted as a 2014 movie starring Diane Lane. Her novel Lady in the Lake was adapted as a limited series for Apple TV.^[7]

Lippman lives in the South Baltimore neighborhood of Federal Hill and frequently writes in the neighborhood coffee shop Spoons.^[8] In addition to writing, she teaches at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, just outside Baltimore. In January 2007, Lippman taught at the 3rd Annual Writers in Paradise at Eckerd College. In March 2013, she was the guest of honor at Left Coast Crime.

Representation in other media

The character Bunk is shown to be reading one of her books, In a Strange City, in episode eight of the first season of The Wire. Lippman appeared in a scene in the first episode of the last season of The Wire as a reporter working in the Baltimore Sun newsroom.^[9]

Personal life

In 2000, she began dating and soon living with David Simon, another former Baltimore Sun reporter, and creator and an executive producer of the HBO series The Wire, in a "narrow brick row house", in Baltimore's Federal Hill neighborhood.^[10][11]

In 2006, Lippman married Simon in a ceremony officiated by John Waters.^[12][13] She had been married for seven years, to another man, which ended in a "difficult divorce."^[10] Lippman and Simon married in 2006 and have a daughter who was born in 2010.^[14]

Lippman and Simon separated in 2020, divorcing in 2024.^[15] The two continue to co-parent their daughter.^[16]

Awards

What the Dead Know was a New York Times Best Seller.^[17]

In 2014, Lippman won the inaugural Pinckley Prize for a Distinguished Body of Work.^[18]

Awards for Lippman's writing

Year	Title	Award	Result	Ref.
1998	Baltimore Blues	Shamus Award for Best First Novel	Finalist	[19]
	Charm City	Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original	Finalist	[19]
		Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original	Won	[19]
		Macavity Award for Best First Novel	Finalist	[19][20]
		Shamus Award for Best Paperback Original	Won	[19][21]
1999	Butchers Hill	Agatha Award for Best Novel	Won	[19][22][23]
		Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original	Won	[19][22][24]
		Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original	Finalist	[19][22]
		Macavity Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19][20][22]
		Shamus Award for Best Paperback Original	Finalist	[19][22]
	In Big Trouble	Agatha Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19]
2000		Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original	Won	[19][24]
		Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original	Finalist	[19]
		Shamus Award for Best Paperback Original	Won	[19][21]
	The Sugar House	Nero Award	Won	[19]
2003	Every Secret Thing	Hammett Prize	Finalist	[19]
	The Last Place	Shamus Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19]
2004	By a Spider’s Thread	Agatha Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19]
	Every Secret Thing	Anthony Award for Best Novel	Won	[19][24]
		Barry Award for Best Novel	Won	[19]
2005	By a Spider’s Thread	Anthony Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19]
		Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19]
2006	To the Power of Three	Anthony Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19]
		Gumshoe Award for Best Mystery	Won
2007	No Good Deeds	Anthony Award for Best Novel	Won	[19][24]
2008	"Hardly Knew Her" from Dead Man's Hand	Anthony Award for Best Short Story	Won
	What the Dead Know	Anthony Award for Best Novel	Won	[19][24]
		Barry Award for Best Novel	Won	[19]
		Gold Dagger Award	Finalist	[19]
		Macavity Award for Best Novel	Won	[19][20][25]
2009	Life Sentences	Strand Critics Award for Best Mystery Novel	Finalist	[26]
	“Scratch a Woman” in Hardly Knew Her	Macavity Award for Best Short Story	Finalist	[20]
2011	I’d Know You Anywhere	Anthony Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19][27]
		Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19]
2015	After I'm Gone	Anthony Award for Best Novel	Won	[19][24]
		Strand Critics Award for Best Mystery Novel	Won	[28]
2017	Wilde Lake	Anthony Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19][29]
		Barry Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19]
		Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel	Finalist	[19][20][30]
2019	Sunburn	Anthony Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19][31][32]
		Strand Critics Award for Best Mystery Novel	Won	[33][34]
2020	Lady in the Lake	Anthony Award for Best Novel	Finalist	[19]
		Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel	Finalist	[19][35][36]
		Strand Critics Award for Best Mystery Novel	Finalist	[37][38]
2021	Dream Girl	Strand Critics Award for Best Mystery Novel	Finalist	[39]
2022		CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger	Finalist	[19][40]

Publications

Tess Monaghan series

• Baltimore Blues (1997). ISBN 0380788756
• Charm City (1997). ISBN 0380788764
• Butchers Hill (1998). ISBN 0380798468
• In Big Trouble (1999). ISBN 0380798476
• The Sugar House (2000). ISBN 0380978172
• In a Strange City (2001). ISBN 0380978180
• The Last Place (2002). ISBN 0380978199
• By A Spider's Thread (2004). ISBN 0060506695
• No Good Deeds (2006). ISBN 978-0060570729
• Another Thing to Fall (2008). ISBN 978-0061128875
• The Girl in the Green Raincoat (2011). ISBN 978-0061938368
• Hush, Hush (2015). ISBN 978-0062083425

Short stories

• "Orphans' Court" (1999) (short story in First Cases: Volume 3, edited by Robert J. Randisi)
• "Ropa Vieja" (2001) (short story in Murderers Row, edited by Otto Penzler)
• "The Shoeshine Man's Regrets" (2004) (short story in Murder and All That Jazz, edited by Robert J. Randisi)

Standalone works

Novels

• Every Secret Thing (2004). ISBN 0060506679
• To The Power of Three (2005). ISBN 0060506725
• What the Dead Know (2007). ISBN 978-0061128851 (Little Sister in the UK)
• Life Sentences (2009). ISBN 978-0061128899
• I'd Know You Anywhere (2010). ISBN 978-0061706554 (Don't Look Back in the UK)
• The Most Dangerous Thing (2011). ISBN 978-0061706516
• And When She Was Good (2012). ISBN 978-0061706875
• After I'm Gone (2014). ISBN 978-0062083395
• Wilde Lake (2016). ISBN 978-0062083456
• Sunburn (2018). ISBN 978-0062389923
• Lady in the Lake (2019). ISBN 978-0062390011
• Dream Girl: A Novel (2021). ISBN 978-0063204652
• Prom Mom (2023). ISBN 9780062998064

Short story collections

• Baltimore Noir (2006). ISBN 978-1888451962 (editor and contributed one story)^[41]
• Hardly Knew Her: Stories (2008). ISBN 978-0061584992
• Seasonal Work: Stories (2022). ISBN 978-0063000032

Memoir

• Summer of Fall (2023). ISBN 978-1094455402 (Scribd original)

See also

• Tart Noir
• Katy Munger