Sunburn by Laura Lippman--A Review

Title: Subnurn
Author: Terrence L. Brown

Sunburn—A Review

by Laura Lippman

Gray Planet Commentary

• Formulaic
• Mysteries slowly revealed
• I don’t like the characters
• I don’t like the ending

Gray Planet Indices

• Good Book Index: 50/100
• Literature Index: 25/100
• Magic Factor: 20/100

Sunburn by Laura Lippman is marketed as a “noir gem” with blurbs from prestigious authors and publications. I was drawn to the book after reading an interesting article about Laura Lippman’s writing.

But Sunburn is a formula story. In Sunburn, everything is mysterious. There is Polly Costello, a mother who walks away from her husband and daughter for mysterious reasons. There is Adam Bosk, the private detective hired to follow her and find where she is hiding a supposedly large sum of money. Bosk’s background, his client, and his motives for accepting the job are unknown.

The story switches between Polly’s and Adam’s viewpoints. In each chapter (there are forty-six of them), we are teased with a bit more revelation about each character’s secrets. Polly is hiding a complex history of mistakes behind various deceptions and playing a waiting game with an unknown goal. Adam is a reluctant investigator who finds himself attracted to his target, Polly, and even more conflicted than usual as a result.

At first, this teasing is effective and makes for compelling reading. But, for me, it grew old as each tease became less interesting and as Polly and Adam entered into a relationship where neither was truthful in the least, while still maintaining, in their thoughts, that they were truly in love. I started to lose interest but I kept reading, hoping for a final revelation and resolution that would allow me to feel better about these two people whom I no longer trusted or liked and now had no sympathy for.

It never happened. The revelations didn’t feel significant enough to justify the long tease and there was no resolution, only an almost off-camera deus ex machina that was just an excuse for a final passage explaining another tease.

The book was frustrating and I am not particularly happy I spent the time to finish it.