From the author's BOLO Books Q & A:BOLO Books: Hush Hush is your first novel in several years to featuring Tess Monaghan as the main character. Did you always intended to return to Tess? And did you expect that any return to her character would have to be with a story in which the crime was attached to motherhood?Learn more about the book and author at Laura Lippman's website.
Laura Lippman: I expected to return, hoped to return, but I was resigned to the idea that I might have painted myself in a corner by making her a mother. Tess is far from the first mother in PI fiction. (And there are lots of fathers, too.) But my sense is that the people who read and like the Tess books would have very definite ideas about how she should behave and would be unforgiving if she took risks – or put her family at risk. I finally realized that was the story, how motherhood had affected this once impulsive woman.
BOLO Books: The first Tess Monaghan book, Baltimore Blues, was published in 1997. Other than the obvious things such as getting older, marrying and having a child, how is Tess different now than she was back in that first novel?
Laura Lippman: She’s gained a lot of confidence. She’s running a successful business. She’s aware of her strengths and weaknesses, but instead of berating herself for the weaknesses, she finds a partner who complements her.
BOLO Books: Similarly – and again, moving beyond the obvious – how are you different than you were back when you wrote Baltimore Blues?
Laura Lippman: I’m a lot more...[read on]
--Marshal Zeringue