Laura Lippman, Baltimore Blues

David C. Dougherty (Loyola University Maryland)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication Feb 1997

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Crime and Detective
Novel

Resources

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Laura Lippman’s first foray into crime fiction, after more than a decade as a journalist, was the doubly punned title

Baltimore Blues

, echoing a breakthrough, gritty television crime series,

Hill Street Blues

(1991-1987) and the American musical genre. Its burden was to introduce a serial detective hero and her circle, to develop the theme of the journalist migrating into detective work, and to establish a local color version of Baltimore that would one day rival the Santa Theresa of Ross Macdonald, one of her literary mentors. The book would spin an intriguing crime story and create in her detective a figure interesting enough for readers to come back for more. In all these endeavors,

Baltimore Blues

succeeds admirably.

Although M. Dupin, Edgar Allan Poe’s serial detective, was a

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2307 words

Citation: Dougherty, David C.. "Baltimore Blues". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 November 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34264, accessed 05 May 2024.]

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