No Good Deeds

A Tess Monaghan Novel

By: Laura Lippman

Narrated by: Linda Emond

Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

For Tess Monaghan, the unsolved murder of a young federal prosecutor is nothing more than a theoretical problem, one of several cases to be deconstructed in her new gig as a consultant to the local newspaper. But it becomes all too tangible when her boyfriend brings home a young street kid who doesn't even realize he holds an important key to the man's death.

Tess agrees to protect the boy's identity no matter what, especially when one of his friends is killed in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. But with federal agents determined to learn the boy's name at any cost, Tess finds out just how far even official authorities will go to get what they want. Soon, she's facing felony charges, and Crow has gone into hiding with his young protege, so Tess couldn't deliver the kid to investigators even if she wanted to.

Time and time again, Tess is reminded of her father's old joke, the one about the most terrifying sentence in the English language: "We're from the government - and we're here to help."

©2006 Laura Lippman (P)2006 HarperCollinsPublishers

Critic reviews

"Smartly plotted and paced." (Publishers Weekly)
"Lippman lets each character contribute a piece to the whole, which makes the story richer, and there's some nail-biting suspense as Tess faces off against what she thinks are the big guns of government." (Booklist)

lose the music

Whoever thought this random jarring music added to the experience was delusional. It almost ruined the book for me. I shudder to think of listening to another one.

Bizarre Music. Why?

Laura Lippman is fabulous and you should buy the book despite my review. I just have to mention the terrible and bizarre music that is added to the beginning of each section and which continues as the first few paragraphs are read. I thought something was wrong with the book when I started it, only to realize this was deliberate. Thankfully, it’s not used enough to ruin the experience. But seriously, why?

You'd think they'd have learned by now

I love the Tess Monaghan books. They're fun and easy and I love all the details about Baltimore.
I was miffed about changing narrators, but Linda Edmond does a fine job.
HOWEVER, you'd think that after all these years they'd know not to use extra loud musical interludes. I don't mind the music (though it doesn't really add anything) but many of us listen with headphones, and the music is startling and deafening.

This book had a garbled section in chapter 31

I went back over and over to try to understand the story. Although the words were overlapped for only a short time, it was still disappointing. I urge somebody to fix the glitch.

Best yet of an excellent series!

The best of the series yet, with excellent narration. This seems the most fully developed of a very well developed series & character study full of authentic, believable people. I'm now a full-on Laura Lippman fan.

Weirdly added music

This story was well written and read. The issue I had was with the added music between scenes or I am guessing CDs. It was very distracting. As someone who gets immersed in the book I am listening to, the switch from story to music was starteling. If you can get past that, which I did, it is a great story.

Description flawed

The story is great!! but This book is about 9 hours long, NOT 16 hours.
The music between sections is VERY Distraction from the narration.

I don't know what it is...

I really enjoy this series. I finished this book in two days. I have been listening to these out of order, but there is no doubt in my mind that I will eventually get them all. I am going to start at the beginning. I can hardly wait for the next adventure with Tess Monaghan and friends.

I hope the producers of this Audible version DID NOT SPEND ANY BUDGET ON THE COMPLETELY SUPERFLUOUS AND GOOFY MUSIC!

Love the series. Can even handle that Barbara Rosenblat is no longer narrating. What I’m embarrassed by is the goofy music used for....hmm...what...to highlight some of the transitions in the book?! Completely absurd and non-essential!

Good story, good narrator, obnoxious music

Would you consider the audio edition of No Good Deeds to be better than the print version?

I switch between print and audio versions, so I can continue with the book throughout my day.

Any additional comments?

The story, as with others in this series, was entertaining, and the narration was excellent. The periodic music interludes, however, were unnecessary and distracting. If other audio books by this publisher also have this "feature" I will stop purchasing them.