Laura Lippman has published two dozen novels, most set in Baltimore, most mysteries. But her newest is the first she calls a book of horror

“I think that this is a work of horror because I think what goes on in writers minds is pretty horrible! I think it’s scary!”

It’s a twisty plot, from the improbable accident that immobilizes an aging novelist in his luxury apartment in Locust Point, to the mysterious phone calls that terrorize him, but don’t slow his vivid flashbacks: memories of literary success, an unfaithful father, ex-wives and sexual escapades. He knows he’s addled, but is it the drugs for his pain, or is it dementia? And then something truly baffling happens … in Dream Girl.

Links: In conversation with Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout 6.22, A Likely Story Books in Sykesville 6.28 at .E.W. Becks on Main St.

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