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Journalists usually have a way of writing that makes the subject real and immediate. Laura Lippman is no exception. EVERY SECRET THING, her stand-alone, is exciting, tautly written, and makes one wonder if the story could be true. Two 11-year olds leave a birthday party without adults, one of them lying, saying they are going to an aunt's house. The party girl's mother is glad to see them leave; at least one of them has been causing trouble. On the way, they see a baby carriage standing outside a large house. One of them decides that the baby has been abandoned, kidnap it, and the next thing we know, it is seven years later and the girls, now 18, are being released from prison, after having served the maximum sentences for kidnap, murder, and whatever else the authorities could tack on to the criminal complaint involving minors. Ronnie Fuller is the first to be released. She was a few months older than Alice Manning. Ronnie is the "crazy" one, who seems to have been the instigator. She comes from a working class family and has learned that she must appear to conform so she gets a job in a donut shop across from a local mall. Helen Manning is a single mother, who supported her daughter by being a substitute teacher of art to schoolchildren. Alice was the pretty one, but while incarcerated, lost her looks and has become fat and apparently lethargic. She walks for miles every day, never looking for work. Meanwhile, the mother of the dead baby who is the daughter of a prominent black judge finds out that the girls have been let out of prison. When young children start disappearing, she calls the police to try and make them understand that the girls may kill another child. The children are always found, however, and the police slough off her complaints as those of a sick mind. Lippman reveals the details of the original crime, it's causes and what has it has done to the parents of the baby, the families of the girls, and the girls themselves, little by little. Although Lippman has won prizes for her Tess Monaghan series, this book is much more disturbing than anything she has written previously, and, in my opinion, far above those in emotional intensity.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, July 2003
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