And When She Was Good

By: Laura Lippman

Narrated by: Linda Emond

Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Mystery, 2013

Perennial New York Times and national best-selling author and acclaimed, multiple prizewinner Laura Lippman delivers a brilliant novel about a woman with a secret life who is forced to make desperate choices to save her son and herself.

Heloise considers it a blessing to be a person who seldom attracts attention. In her suburb, she's just a mom, the young widow with the forgettable job, who somehow never misses a soccer game. In the state capital, she's the redheaded lobbyist with a good cause and a mediocre track record. But in discreet hotel rooms throughout the area, she's the woman of your dreams - if you can afford the hourly fee.

For more than a decade, Heloise believed she was safe, managing to keep up this rigidly compartmentalized life. But her secret life is under siege. One county over, another so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car, an apparent suicide. As 40 looms and her son enters adolescence, Heloise is facing a midlife crisis with much higher stakes than most will ever know. With no formal education, no real family or friends, Heloise has to remake her life - again. Disappearing will be the easy part. The trick is living long enough to start a new life.

©2012 Laura Lippman (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

Ho-Hum

What did you like best about And When She Was Good? What did you like least?

A story about a woman with a troubled past - an exciting occupation - lots of issues that was boring. The main character worried about her issues and whined about her past from beginning to end. .

Would you recommend And When She Was Good to your friends? Why or why not?

No, it was not a good time investment.

Did Linda Emond do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes, differentiating the characters she did well BUT, she sounded very tired throughout.

Did And When She Was Good inspire you to do anything?

Nope

Good read

The narrator hammed it up a bit too much for me. Good story, keep me interested all along. More of a thriller than a mystery. You can see how it can happen.

Great storyline

Who was your favorite character and why?

Heloise is portrayed a smart, single mother running a very successful business - which makes it difficult to understand why the author then portrays her as a horrible judge of character who gave no thought to the day she could no longer....participate...in her own business and have to retire. In her line of business, Heloise must be a good judge of character to survive, and always be ready for what might happen next. When you discover she has been duped by those she trusts, and has no exit plan to quit her business after she (and her son) reach a certain age, it makes absolutely no sense.

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the detail surrounding the business end of Heloise's "escort" service and appreciated that the author was able to portray this character without going into detail about the "dates" themselves. The background story as to how she got where she was in life was the backbone to the story - if she had not been portrayed so counter to character toward the end I would have rated this book much higher.

This narrator is fantastic!

The writing and narration was absolutely superb! The actual story was a bit lacking though...it was very easy to see what was happening, so the twists weren’t very impactful.

Great find!

Any additional comments?

Very interesting story, may seem slow to some, but I liked it. I thought this story had a great plot line and definitely wasn't predictable! Now I'm interested in the rest of the books by Laura Lippman. I would def reccomend this book.

Good enough to keep me listening but unbelievable

I didn't expect much from this book and it was actually a little better than I had anticipated.If you can suspend belief and just remember that this is fiction then you will probably enjoy the ride. The plot was a bit ridiculous and the characters were all unlikeable, but I didnt get bored listening and trying to figure out where it was headed.

Entertaining story and excellent performance

Laura Lippman is not a new writer but this is the first of her books I have either read or listened to. I will find others. The story was interesting and engaging. The characters were believable though outside my frame of reference. The performance was excellent.

My favorite thus far!

Laura Lippman is one of my favorite authors. I find great pleasure reading (listening) her books. Having read 8 of her books, And When She Was Good is my absolute favorite.

Not what I expected but okay

I just listened to this book and I have forgotten the characters already. It was one of those that just did not leave an impression but I did finish it and the story line and narrator were both decent.

A fun read

Honestly this book is short. You will finish it quickly. I found it hard to pause to go do other things. I haven't read anything else by this author but this is a fun book.