Prom Mom

May 1, 2023
This gripping thriller from Lippman (Dream Girl) centers on the codependent relationships between the charming Joe Simpson and the women trapped in his orbit. Prom night 1997 at Baltimore’s Towson High School ends in the shocking death of a newborn baby, found in the girls’ restroom near the mother (and Joe’s date), a barely conscious Amber Glass. Though she has no recollection of what happened, Amber is arrested and swiftly convicted of manslaughter. While Amber is in prison, Joe meets and marries Meredith, whom he cheats on regularly. After starting her life over in New Orleans post-prison, Amber decides to return to Baltimore for the first time in more than 20 years to open an art gallery—when she does, she and Joe fall back into a relationship. By then, the Covid-19 pandemic is in full swing, dooming Joe’s hopes for the local shopping center he recently purchased. With Amber’s help, he concocts a scheme to bail himself out before he meets financial ruin, which goes predictably awry. Lippman works up a slow burn, gently teasing out a game of cat and mouse between Joe and Amber that comes into full focus toward the end of the novel. Readers who persevere will reach a devilishly satisfying conclusion. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary.

June 1, 2023
Prom Mom and Cad Dad reunite decades after the tabloid crime that blew up their lives. Amber Glass was never Joe Simpson's girlfriend; she was his tutor in high school, and though he was having sex with her, he would not have been going to the prom with her if his main squeeze hadn't dumped him. She hid her pregnancy until prom night, when she gave birth in a hotel bathroom to a 28-week-old preemie, whom she served time in a juvenile facility for murdering. Decades later, she moves back to their shared hometown of Baltimore and opens an outsider art gallery with her notorious name on the marquee. When they reconnect, as was her intention, Joe is adding her to a full dance card: He's married to his college girlfriend, the beautiful Meredith, now a successful plastic surgeon, and he's sleeping with Jordan Altman, a younger real estate agent from his company. What a mess for poor Joe, who is also hit with major financial troubles when the pandemic spoils his plans to flip an unpromising suburban shopping center. Except, who cares about Joe? Lippman seems to have purposely given the reader no one to root for in this unusual psychological suspense novel in which no crimes are committed or revealed until the final pages. All the characters are described as physically attractive but are unappealing otherwise; the relationships of the three female characters to the soulless, creepy, narcissistic Joe are inexplicable. This gives the book a coldblooded quality, a refusal to sentimentalize victims or to make bad actors into romantic antiheroes. As usual, Lippman creates a convincing portrait of a particular sector of Baltimore, this time well-heeled professionals in the northern part of town, and adds New Orleans to the mix as well, with a king cake and a side order of red beans working as plot points. A character study of pedestrian evil in the Wegmans-and-Peloton class, fascinating in its heartlessness.

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Starred review from July 1, 2023

Entitled men and the women who enable them receive the Lippman (Dream Girl) treatment in this novel that moves between the 1990s and the beginning years of COVID. In 1997, the Baltimore press dubbed Amber Glass "Prom Mom" after she gave birth on prom night and allegedly killed the baby. Amber had finagled Joe Simpson, whom she'd been tutoring, into being her date that night, but he ditched her for the girl who'd broken his heart. Amber doesn't remember what happened exactly, but she was convicted and jailed in juvie. She fled Baltimore afterward, but now she's back in her hometown, trying to create a new life as the owner of an outsider-art gallery. She is also trying to stay out of Joe's way--he's happily married and working in real estate--but that proves difficult. Readers will want to yell, wave their arms, and warn all the characters to run, don't walk, away. VERDICT This exquisitely crafted tale of triangulation and treachery builds slowly to a shocking ending. It's a future COVID classic that pairs well with Lippman's long-form essay The Summer of Fall and other love and revenge stories such as those in her 2021 collection Seasonal Work.--Liz French

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Starred review from May 1, 2023
Amber Glass is yet another compelling female character brought to life by Lippman. In 1997, Amber was "Prom Mom," an honor student who delivered and killed her baby on prom night. She has lived her life in hiding, struggling to get by, but in September 2019, she returns home to Baltimore to open an art gallery. Ironically, her area of expertise is prison artists. What are the odds she will run into Joe Simpson, her "Cad Dad" prom date? She paid a heavy price for her "crime" while he went on to become a successful real-estate investor, married to an accomplished plastic surgeon, living in a big house and enjoying the Range Rover lifestyle. However, Joe walks back into Amber's life almost immediately, and the ensuing cat-and-mouse game (or is it cats and mice?) is presented from all sides. A cast of extremely self-absorbed characters drive the ominous narrative, which becomes even more fraught with anxiety when Lippman masterfully brings the COVID-19 shutdown into the plot. The head-spinning conclusion will not disappoint. In her acknowledgments, Lippman calls this novel "a very long prequel" to James M. Cain's noir classic Double Indemnity, just as her 2018 novel Sunburn offered homage to The Postman Always Rings Twice. Absolutely brilliant. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Buzz starts early for any new Lippman book, and this one already has the cicadas in high gear.

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