Weaker Sex

Men in Laura Lippman's haunting and suspenseful stories can be terrified witnesses, unwitting victims, or bemused perpetrators. In Pony Girl and Black-Eyed Susan, young African-American men find themselves bystanders to horrific crimes central to local celebrations. In What He Needed, a happily married magazine editor recounts the end of her marriage to a depressed, possibly dangerous husband. A Good Fuck Spoiled reveals a man terrified by a mistress he never meant to have. And in Easy as A-B-C, a Baltimore contractor offers a new spin on Edgar Allan Poes The Tell-Tale Heart when he falls for a client who hires him to build a wine cellar in her basement. Available singly or as a collection.