Dream Girl by Laura Lippman seems like a real
departure from her previous books that I have read (Lady in the Lake, for
example). The protagonist is not at all likable and very self-indulgent not to
mention totally unreliable with added help from Ambien and oxycodone. The
timeline that jumps all over the place I found to be disconcerting.
Gerry Andersen is a novelist who wrote the best seller
Dream Girl, about which he says is not modeled on any one person. He is in both
a writing slump and a physical slump having fallen down the stairs of his new
digs. He has just come off his third divorce and the death of his mother, whose
illness caused him to move from New York to Baltimore so he could take care of
her. Worse, he has a crazy ex-girlfriend who isn’t yet ready to give up on his
supporting her as he did in New York. He thought he got rid of her when he sold
his property there, but she is on his trail.
When he starts receiving strange phone calls and
visits in the middle of the night from a woman claiming to be the “dream girl,”
he is wondering if he is falling into dementia like his mother or if the drugs
are now in control of his world. His life has become a nightmare, and he does
not know if it is the sleep-time variety or real.
Laura Lippman is an Edgar Award-winning novelist. She
has written 21 novels, a novella, a children’s book, and a collection of short
stories. She lives with her family in Baltimore.
My review will be posted on Goodreads starting April 6,
2021.
I would like to thank William Morrow, an imprint of
HarperCollins, and Custom House for providing me with an ARC in return for an
objective review.
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