Have you had a chance to read a book by award-winning novelist Laura Lippman? I have not and am planning to remedy that very soon. She has written the popular Tess Monaghan series which is set in Baltimore as well as some stand alone books.

So if you are new or already a fan here’s your chance to win some of Laura’s books. I’ve got two copies of The Girl in the Green Raincoat and one copy of I’d Know You Anywhere.

The Girl in the Green Raincoat is the 11th book in her Tess Monaghan series. Previously serialized in the New York Times, and now published in book form for the very first time, The Girl in the Green Raincoat is a masterful Hitchcockian thriller.

The story starts when Tess is ordered to complete bed rest and as she grows bored while watching life go by outside her window she starts to pay attention to the little things.  One day a dog without it’s owner or dogwalker, makes her wonder what happened and before you know it she’s putting her investigative skills to use.

I’d Know You Anywhere is just now out in paperback and get this, the book is a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

“There was your photo, in a magazine. Of course, you are older now. Still, I’d know you anywhere.”

Suburban wife and mother Eliza Benedict’s peaceful world falls off its axis when a letter arrives from Walter Bowman. In the summer of 1985, when Eliza was fifteen, she was kidnapped by this man and held hostage for almost six weeks. Now he’s on death row in Virginia for the rape and murder of his final victim, and Eliza wants nothing to do with him. Walter, however, is unpredictable when ignored—as Eliza knows only too well—and to shelter her children from the nightmare of her past, she’ll see him one last time.

Don’t these books sound great? So if you would like to enter the giveaway just leave me a comment and let me know which book you’d like. I’ll announce the winner on Monday, May 23. Good luck!

P.S. While I’d love to have all my readers participate in the giveaway, winners must be US and Canadian-based readers.

As I was running errands this weekend I finally visited Recycled Reads, Austin’s Public Library bookstore. To my surprise it was much bigger than I expected. I didn’t have a lot of time before I had to be somewhere else so I couldn’t really sift through the shelves but I did find a Europa book, Sorry by Gail Jones and Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis. I’ll have to go back another time.

I’ve been trying to catch up a bit on my blog reading this weekend. Goodness, how easy it is to get behind isn’t it? The good thing is that I’ve been able to enjoy some extra time with my current reads. For some reason this year, my reading just feels really slow.

Anyway, I have been on a bit of a library ban as well as I want to read more from my stacks but I got a note that one of my holds had come in finally and you know how that goes. So I picked up A Lesson In Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear (yay, Maisie Dobbs!) and ended up adding a couple of more books to my bag.

I checked out The Raising by Laura Kasischke for it’s premise, a beautiful and popular young woman dies but then rumor has it she’s back. Spooky. Enough About Love by Herve Le Tellier which is a story of course about love and wives and husbands and lovers. My other book is Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton which sounds like it’ll be a great thriller.

It’s still a bit early and the weather has been so nice today so I’m off to enjoy a bike ride. Hope you’ve enjoyed your weekend and stop in tomorrow for a giveaway!