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    By a Spider's Thread
    By a Spider's Thread
    By a Spider's Thread
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    By a Spider's Thread

    Written by Laura Lippman

    Narrated by Linda Emond

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan—first introduced in the classic Baltimore Blues—must track down a missing wife and unravel the secrets in her marriage that led her to flee.

    Mark Rubin's family is missing—and the police won't get involved because all the evidence indicates that his wife left willingly. So the successful Baltimore furrier turns to Tess Monaghan, hoping she can help him find his wife and three children. Tess doesn't quite know what to make of Rubin, who doles out vitally important information in grudging dribs and drabs. According to her client, he and his beautiful wife, Natalie, had a flawless, happy marriage. Yet one day, without any warning or explanation, Natalie gathered up their children and vanished.

    Tapping into a network of fellow investigators spread across the country, Tess is soon able to locate the runaway wife and the children who have been moving furtively from state to state, town to town. But the Rubins are not alone. A mysterious man is traveling with them, a stranger described by witnesses as "handsome" and "charming" but otherwise unremarkable. And the deeper Tess digs, the more she suspects that the motive behind Natalie's reckless flight lies somewhere in the gap between what Rubin will not say and what he refuses to believe.

    An intricate web of betrayal and vengeance is beginning to unfold. Suddenly, much more than one man's future happiness and stubborn pride are in peril. For the lives of three innocent children are dangling by the slenderest of threads.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateNov 2, 2004
    ISBN9780060818005
    By a Spider's Thread
    Author

    Laura Lippman

    Since Laura Lippman’s debut, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Stephen King called her “special, even extraordinary,” and Gillian Flynn wrote, “She is simply a brilliant novelist.” Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her teenager.

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    Reviews for By a Spider's Thread

    3.5/5

    204 ratings19 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Definitely keeps your interest, and all the surprises as the book ends will amaze you....how in the world can someone even think of ideas and twists and turns and connections is beyond me.The book was very good...not only the story, but how the love of family takes top priority no matter what the situation is. It wasn't suspenseful in the true sense, but you wanted to keep going to see what happens.ENJOY!!
    • 4/5
      I just love the character of Tess and am enjoying her evolution. Interesting story with an Orthodox Jewish family at the center. The story was more of a "why did it" than a "who did it" but that didn't detract from my enjoyment.
    • 3/5
      I sure enjoyed this series.
    • 4/5
      The private investigator Tess was funny and interesting. The book was fast paced and held my interest as more and more of the character's lives was revealed. I would like to read more in this series.
    • 2/5
      This book opens with a powerful scene from the perspective of Isaac, Natalie's older son, who'd been taken away from home by his mother. At that point, I was solidly hooked. But as the story moved on, the pace slowed dramatically and things fell apart for me. I haven't read any of the other Tess Monaghan novels. This one reads fine as a stand-alone, with no issues regarding a lack of backstory. But I didn't like Tess at all. Her humor is mostly sarcasm at another's expense. She's brash and overly opinionated, particularly for a PI whose business relies on her keeping an open mind.Much of this book reads like an educational manual on Orthodox Judaism. We have constant references to fitting into Jewish communities and the personalities of Jewish people. Too often these are snide remarks and stereotypical ridicule. I'm not Jewish, yet I found this sometimes uncomfortable, and certainly not funny. It was also tedious and unnecessary to the story, as it would have been regardless of the particular religion being discussed.The plot was drawn out and the investigation techniques not particularly plausible. I could have easily put this book down at any point and never picked it up again. *I received a review copy from the publisher.*
    • 3/5
      Heavily saturated with Jewish references as Tess Monaghan is hired to investigate what would seem to be a runaway wife. Told from alternating perspectives of Tess and the son taken by the wife, offering just enough engagement to keep readers plowing through. *Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All opinions are my own.
    • 4/5
      Synopsis: Mark Rubens has a beautiful wife who has taken their three children and run away. He tells Tess that there was nothing wrong with their marriage and he has no idea why this has happened. He also says that he will forgive her and wants her back. Tess uncovers the wife's past and finds that she isn't a pure as Mark believes.Review: An interesting story, it does go in to programs provided for inmates.
    • 4/5
      Dauntless PI Tess Monaghan is hired by a wealthy and reticent Orthodox Jew to track down his wife, who has disappeared along with their 3 children. At first, it’s difficult to decide who to root for; the wife to get away from her controlling husband, or the devastated husband to get his sneaky, cheating wife back (or at least the kids), but it soon becomes very clear who the good guys and bad guys are. Tess continues to grow both in her business and as a person, which makes for a dynamic character and a reason to keep reading the series, which I will definitely do.
    • 4/5
      Private detective Tess Monaghan is back. To bring you up to speed, this time she is a gun-toting, more experienced mystery solver. She has an online network of lady private investigators to help her solve cases, too. Tess still rows (although not as much as in the beginning), her aunt is finally settling down and getting married (Tess is maid of honor), but Tess and her cool boyfriend, Crow, are taking a break (sadly) after finding out they have differing opinions about marriage. In By a Spider's Thread this time Tess has been contacted by a rich Jewish furrier, desperate to find his missing wife and children. What Tess and her new client, Mark Rubin, don't know is that wife Natalie willingly took their three children and ran away, joining her criminal lover on the run. This time Lippman gives the reader both sides of the story - Mark's desperate search and Natalie's ever-increasingly criminal escape (and boy, does it get criminal). The bigger mystery is why Natalie would want to run away from a man who has given her everything she has ever wanted. As a successful furrier, Mark Rubin has always kept his wife in the lap of luxury. True to Lippman form, as always, things are not as they seem.
    • 4/5
      Gail Belikiewicz This is one of the middle books in a series about Tess Monaghan, an Irish/Jewish private investigator in Baltimore. Compelling plot, interesting characters and quite good prose. I will read more.
    • 4/5
      I enjoy all of Laura Lippman's mysteries that I've read--primarily because of the way she fleshes out her detective's personal life and all of the details about Baltimore in the novels. They are always engrossingly suspenseful, without being too scary or bleak. I particularily enjoyed this one, because of the character development of Mark Rubin, an Orthodox Jew, and the developing rapport between he and Tess in spite of their differences.
    • 4/5
      This is the eighth book in the Tess Monaghan detective series, and rather anomalous. The emphasis in this book is not on Tess, now 33, although she of course plays a (minor) role. Rather, it is on her client, Mark Rubin, and his life as an Orthodox Jew: what does it mean to live in this fashion? I would classify this as a “social” crime novel.Rubin comes to Tess requesting that she find his wife and three children, who have disappeared. The police have determined there was no foul play, and thus will not take on the case. But Rubin can’t believe his wife would have left him voluntarily; he wants to find out what really happened.Much of the story concerns Tess’s efforts to understand the insulated community of her client’s world, so that she can ascertain what may or may not have happened. She also sees it as a chance to find out more about her own background: Theresa Esther Weinstein Monaghan is half Jewish and half Irish Catholic, but without any real knowledge of either heritage. Now, she has the opportunity to find out more.Interspersed with Mark’s story, we follow that of his wife Natalie (formerly Natasha) and her three children, as they go on a journey with consequences they have not anticipated. In particular, we get to know Isaac, the oldest son, who is brave and loyal and smart enough to provide lots of unwitting assistance to Tess and Mark.Discussion: Tess goes through a number of reactions in this book. At first, she is hostile toward this orthodox man, finding him harsh and rigid. As they get more comfortable with one another and let down their defenses, they discover that they can actually accept and even like each other. It’s a lovely minuet.Lippman also nicely blends in one of the characters, Police Detective Nancy Porter, from her standalone novel, Every Single Thing. It’s a fun touch for readers who have been following her books in order.In this book too, Tess for the first time taps into the new national internet-driven network of female investigators called SnoopSisters. Set up by Gretchen O’Brien, a character from a previous book, this network provides indispensable help for Tess in locating Natalie. Lippman includes the emails of this group as part of the text, providing a fun look at the interactions of these women.Evaluation: This novel has a great deal of information to offer about a number of aspects of different cultures about which the reader may be unaware. Although we don’t spend much time examining Tess and her life, we gain a lot in the trade.
    • 5/5
      Excellent female private eye novel with Jewish twist. Very entertaining, funny and suspensful.
    • 4/5
      In this volume of the Tess Monahan series, Tess is investigating the disappearance of the wife and three children of an Orthodox Jewish man in Baltimore. The story follows both the investigation and the travels of the disappeared. Good story, not quite as strong as the one before it in the series, but good.
    • 4/5
      I liked Tess. Often I found myself saying her lines before she did. The pacing was good and the writing often humorous. She obviously drew upon her Jewish background for much of the detail on Mark’s religious proclivities, one of which was that he would not shake her hand upon their first meeting. Something about it being prohibited for a man to touch a woman other than his wife. How odd.At first, Mark is painted as an overbearing and controlling asshole. His erstwhile wife criticizes the fact that he would rather read than watch TV or go out. She at once loves their oldest son, but also laments the fact that he’s so like his father. As the case progresses we see that she is a somewhat brainless and also heartless woman.While visiting her father in prison, she met Zeke and he manipulated her into thinking that they were in love. What he really wanted, was revenge. He knew that her father, also an inmate, pimped her favors out to any takers; he sold letters, photographs and sexual favors. He thought she could do better. Luckily, this fit in with Zeke’s plans and they targeted Mark, a member of a Jewish ministry group in the prison. Since he has another 10 years left to serve, he wants to put Natalie away for ‘safe keeping’ and what better place to keep her than with a boring man with money whom she cannot love? After he is released, Natalie will join him for the culmination of the plan. This will be to kill Mark and take his money.Does this seem a little over the top? Cruel and personal? Well it is. Mark is Zeke’s step-brother. When they were kids Zeke thinks that Mark’s father caused his own father’s suicide so he could marry his mother. Zeke thinks that Mark’s father also cheated him out of their partnership’s share and caused the failure of Zeke’s father’s next business. But he didn’t count on Tess Monaghan. After asking a lot of rude questions, enlisting the help of her online Sleuth Sisters and a bit of luck, Tess unravels the case. Even Mark’s controlling behavior can be explained by Natalie’s actions and in the end, Tess even ends up liking Mark a bit.Zeke thinks his plan is coming together when he locks Mark and the children in an unventilated vault in Mark’s fur storage warehouse. Tess is also locked in, but thinks her spare cell phone will get them out. She pretends to be helpless while Zeke takes Natalie aside and explains that she must frame Mark for the killing of the children because she really did kill the cop that stopped them earlier on the road. But this is too much for Natalie. Light dawns on marble head and she finally sees Zeke for the manipulative asshole he is. When he thinks his plan is finally fulfilled and that he will forever dominate her, Natalie shoots him and goes back for Mark, Tess & the kids. But this action won’t save her from the murder trial. In the end, Mark still wouldn’t divorce her. Denial man.
    • 4/5
      I read Baltimore Blues several months ago, the first novel in the Tess Monaghan series. By A Spider's Thread is the 8th in that series. In the first book Tess was uncertain, frustating, and frutrated, in short she was a very compelling character to read about. In fact she was the very best thing in the first book. The plot was choppy and and had trouble getting out of it's own way at times. This time the mystery is really seamless and there are very few gaps in the plotting of the book. There are 2 minor quibbles but it is a solid mystery and the characters all move along well. Tess is growing up and not nearly as frustrating to the reader or frustrated by her own life like she was in Baltimore Blues. But in growing up - in becoming confident in what she does and who she is - she is also less fun to read about; she is less compelling . The author, Laura Lippman, does something that doesn't happen very often in this genre. At a critical moment in the book, it is one of the male characters who saves Tess and then again in the final confrontation with the bad guy, it is a child that has the ability to see the last clue. In so many mystery novels it is usually the hero that does these things. I give the author a lot of credit for doing this. Tess is not always the stongest, quickest, or smartest. And while Tess may not be quite as compelling in this book as she was in Baltimore Blues, maybe Laura Lippman is more compelling as a writer than she was when she wrote Baltimore Blues.
    • 4/5
      Nicely woven story of deception between family members that date back years and years. A wife flees with her children and leaves her Orthodox Jewish husband with no warning. The story follows the husband hiring a private detective, Tess Monaghan to find his wife and three children. Good paced book and easy to read.
    • 5/5
      Mark Rubin's family is missing -- and the police can't do a thing because all the evidence indicates that his wife left willingly. So the successful furrier turns to Tess Monaghan, hoping she can help him find his wife and three children. Tess doesn't know quite what to make of Rubin, a wealthy Orthodox Jew who refuses to shake her hand and doles out vitally important information in grudging dribs and drabs. According to her client, he and his beautiful wife, Natalie, had a flawless, happy marriage. Yet one day, without any warning or explanation, Natalie gathered up their children and vanished.Tapping into a network of fellow investigators spread across the country, Tess is soon able to locate the runaway wife and her stolen progeny, moving furtively from state to state, town to town. But the Rubins are not alone. A man is traveling with them, a stranger described by witnesses as "handsome" and "charming" but otherwise unremarkable to these casual observers, who have no way of sensing the fury beneath his smooth surface.
    • 3/5
      Tess is hired to find a furrier 's missing family. Orthoddox Jew, Rubin does not want the police involved "should the community find out". As Tess investigates she finds herself in several family situations that finally leads her to an unusual solution to the mystery.