The 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 Poe’s 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.