If you have never read a Tess Monaghan novel, please don't start with this one. Not because it can't stand alone (it can) or because it is a bad book (it definitely isn't) but because seeing Tess and Crow's relationship up to this point is important to enjoying all its elements. Tess and Crow inadvertently wind up in the middle of a high profile case that everyone wants to have just disappear - and discover "the other Baltimore" in the process of exposing the killer.

Crow brings home a street kid named Lloyd, trying to help him out. The kid tries to steal from them and gets into an accident with Crow's car. And that should have been the end of that.

But while Tess is talking to Lloyd, she realizes that he knows something about the current red ball, the murder of a Federal Assistant District Attorney!

Tess forces him to tell most of what he knows, but even telling reporters who swear they won't reveal his name turns out to be way too dangerous.

So Crow goes off on a spur of the moment romantic road trip with Lloyd and leaves Tess to take all the serious heat and pressure that comes down.

Given everything Tess goes through, I thought she should have been furious with Crow. But it was nice to see part of the plot through his eyes.

This book is excellent, just as most of Ms. Lippman's books are. You won't regret reading it.

PI Tess Monaghan really steps into it this time. She unexpectedly finds a witness to a murder and proceeds to do all in her power to protect him. US Attorney's office, DEA, FBI and local cops are all somehow involved. Her live-in boyfriend, Crow, is also caught up in the adventure of protecting Lloyd. A very layered tale with lots of characters both good and bad. A really good read.

Read All Book Reviews of "No Good Deeds Tess Monaghan"

A thoroughly enjoyable mystery .
This is the first of the Tess Monaghan books I have read and now I am hooked.

A Tess Monaghan mystery involving a young street kid who is key to solving a murder.

Read All Book Reviews of "No Good Deeds Tess Monaghan"