What happens when a righteous man of faith wakes up one morning to discover his perfect wife and their children missing? He calls on Private Investigator Tess Monaghan to find them. Problem is this erstwhile intelligent successful businessman insists that there is absolutely no reason why his wife would leave him. In fact to hear him tell it their marriage was perfect -- well in this case perfect is in the eye of the beholder. Mark Rubin is adamant that this breach in his marriage is temporary and once located, his wife will undoubtedly come to her senses and return. However, Tess isn't as certain. In fact as she investigates, a rather complex scheme unfolds along with a trail of insights into what points to a tragic tangle of lies. Tess is as off-the-cuff as Mark is straight-laced and they make an interesting, entertaining team when they join forces to find his family.
As often as you want to shake him to get him to recognize the truth being uncovered you are heartfelt to sympathize with the impending tragedy that seems inevitable. And throughout the book he never compromises his devotion to the tenets of his faith. The cast of characters form an intriguing web that impacts the destiny of them all.
There are no short cuts taken in BY A SPIDER'S THREAD. Not by Tess the investigator, not by Lippman the author and certainly not by the reader. As the case unravels you are privy to a step by step discovery of facts along with the characters. There is no way to guess the outcome of the book as you are always surprised with the next piece uncovered. Lippman writes a wonderful puzzle of a detective story and you just can't wait to get the next piece to see what picture is developing. Some books let you in on the secret at the very start and some rather transparently give you the solution along the way. The solution to this puzzle depends on the very last piece which isn't turned over until the last few pages. Be patient the end is worth the wait. BY A SPIDER'S THREAD is sure to make you a fan of Laura Lippman.
Mark Rubin's family is missing -- and the police can't do a
thing because all the evidence indicates that his wife left
willingly. So the successful furrier turns to Tess
Monaghan,
hoping she can help him find his wife and three children.
Tess doesn't know quite what to make of Rubin, a wealthy
Orthodox Jew who refuses to shake her hand and doles out
vitally important information in grudging dribs and drabs.
According to her client, he and his beautiful wife,
Natalie,
had a flawless, happy marriage. Yet one day, without any
warning or explanation, Natalie gathered up their children
and vanished.
Tapping into a network of fellow investigators spread
across
the country, Tess is soon able to locate the runaway wife
and her stolen progeny, moving furtively from state to
state, town to town. But the Rubins are not alone. A man is
traveling with them, a stranger described by witnesses as
"handsome" and "charming" but otherwise unremarkable to
these casual observers, who have no way of sensing the fury
beneath his smooth surface.
The motive behind Natalie's reckless flight lies somewhere
in the gap between what Mark Rubin will not say and what he
refuses to believe. An intricate web of betrayal and
vengeance is already beginning to unravel, as memory begets
rage and rage leads to desperation -- and murder. And
suddenly much more than one man's future happiness and
stubborn pride are in peril; the lives of three innocent
children are dangling by the slenderest of threads.
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