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The Barnes & Noble Review
Three longtime friends alone in a girls' bathroom on the last day of high school: Kat, the beautiful brainiac; Josie, the star athlete; and Perri, the drama queen. One shot dead, one in a coma, the other seriously wounded. What transpired between the self-proclaimed divas of the school: and what deep, dark secret is the one conscious survivor hiding?
The three girls, who have been inseparable since the third grade, had "trumped the system" and built a friendship that transcended the confines of their high school's cliques. Pledged to take care of each other and do good deeds in the world whenever possible, the girls had quickly become the luminaries of their Baltimore County school. Kat Hartigan was the beloved Stanford-bound homecoming queen. Josie Patel was headed to Maryland on a gymnastics scholarship. Perri Kahn had accepted a theatre scholarship to Northwestern. With everything to live for, what had possessed one of them to try to kill the other two, then herself? When Homicide Sergeant Harold Lenhardt begins to investigate the seemingly clear-cut case, he finds much more than he ever bargained for…
To the Power of Three -- equal parts coming-of-age tale, suburban murder mystery, and psychological thriller -- is a heartrending novel about childhood friendship and the perils of growing up that is certain to deeply affect everyone who reads it. Intense, thought provoking, and with a jaw-dropping bombshell of a conclusion, this bittersweet story is a page-turner of the highest order. Paul Goat Allen
Marilyn Stasio
… what Lippman is really going for here is an analysis of teenage friendship and how cultural pressures can twist it into something so ugly it becomes lethal. She shows great empathy for the smart, fiercely independent Perri, the desperate-to-please Josie, and a few students like Eve Muhly, the ''redneck'' farmer's child whose need for acceptance makes her the perfect victim for vicious peer pranks. Eve might not be in the same social league as Kat, but she carries herself far more believably than that shadowy ideal girl, and whenever she's on the scene, the ritual cruelties of high school take on a savage sting.
— The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
The trouble with writing the Tess Monaghan mysteries is that fans want more, more, more. Lippman scored big with her 2003 stand-alone, Every Secret Thing, but this one doesn't pack the same punch. Here's Baltimore-outlying Glendale, anyway. Here are two terrific cops: Sgt. Harold Lenhardt, the family man, and his partner, Kevin Infante, who dates babes. But where's a woman to inspire and worry us, as Tess does? Lippman's latest teems with female characters, but none whose POV elicits strong emotion. Since third grade, three girls have been best friends: rich, pretty Kat Hartigan, athletic Josie Patel and dramatic Perri Kahn. Now high school seniors, they've come to a gruesome end in the girls' bathroom. Kat is dead. Perri, the presumptive shooter, is missing half her face. Josie has a bullet in her left foot. She alone can talk, and it's clear to Lenhardt that she's lying. Lippman zigzags her way to the moment of truth. Some of the scenes are wonderfully well told, and Lippman, as always, neatly skewers people in power (the school principal tells a 911 dispatcher, "I wouldn't characterize it so much as a school shooting... but as a shooting at the school"). But this novel doesn't so much rise above genre as make one miss it. Agent, Vicky Bijur. (July) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Kat, Josie, and Perri have been best friends since childhood, so everyone at their high school is shocked when they are involved in an early-morning shooting in the girls' restroom. One is left dead, another is in critical condition, and the third is telling a tale inconsistent with the evidence. Detective Harold Lenhardt thinks this should be an open-and-shut case-until he tries to figure out what dark secret was powerful enough to jeopardize the girls' loyalty to one other and to what lengths the remaining girl will go to keep the truth hidden. In swift prose, Lippman (By a Spider's Thread) builds believable characters and palpable suspense. With flashbacks and a shifting perspective revealing layer after layer of deceit and manipulation, however, the conclusion feels a little anticlimactic. Still, fans of suspense fiction won't be disappointed with this solid addition to the genre. Suitable for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/05.]-Amy Brozio-Andrews, Albany P.L., NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
From the Publisher
Every Secret Thing is an American-cheeseburger version of Highsmith’s bloody filet mignon, and that suited me fine.” — Nick Hornby on Every Secret Thing
“Wonderfully paced, realyl well crafted....The best book of hers that I’ve read.” — Kate Atkinson, author of Case Histories
“Lippman is a pro at finding fresh way to tell compelling stories.” — Orlando Sentinel
Nick Hornby on Every Secret Thing
Every Secret Thing is an American-cheeseburger version of Highsmith’s bloody filet mignon, and that suited me fine.
Kate Atkinson
Wonderfully paced, realyl well crafted....The best book of hers that I’ve read.
Orlando Sentinel
Lippman is a pro at finding fresh way to tell compelling stories.
Orlando Sentinel
Lippman is a pro at finding fresh way to tell compelling stories.
