Ten top books about Baltimore

Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working full-time and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001.

Her work has been awarded the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards.

Lippman's new novel is Lady in the Lake.

At the Guardian she tagged ten top books about Baltimore, including:

The Corner by David Simon and Ed Burns (1997)

I didn’t know David Simon that well at the Baltimore Sun; he took a buyout in 1995 and began working in television. But in 1997, he published his second non-fiction narrative (co-written by Burns, his collaborator on The Wire) – at about the same time as I published my second novel, so I spent some time hanging out with him in bookstores. The Corner feels – oh, dreaded word, but true here – Dickensian. It’s a sweeping epic about those touched by the drug trade in one west Baltimore neighbourhood. Yes, I married him in 2006, but I think even his enemies have to concede he’s one of the city’s great chroniclers. Um, not that he has any enemies. He is a man of famously mild and easygoing temperament. Pity about the puny backlist.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue