Summary from GoodReads:

In this modern twist on Rear Window, Tess Monaghan has been put on bed rest for the last two months of her pregnancy. Day after day she watches a girl in a green raincoat in the park with her greyhound, until one day Tess ominously notices the dog running loose. Convinced some harm has befallen its owner she becomes dangerously obsessed with learning her fate.

My Review:

I’ve never read a book by Laura Lippman.  I’m not sure why I haven’t (although it could have something to do with my recent falling out of love with the mystery genre), but I’ve seen her name around the book blogging community and when I saw this offering on the NetGalley site, and noticed that it was under 200 pages long I figured I’d give it a go.

The Girl in the Green Raincoat is the eleventh Tess Monaghan story, but in spite of not knowing Tess at all, I found myself easily getting my bearings and figuring out who was who fairly quickly.  I felt sympathy for Tess and her bedridden state, although I had a harder time understanding just why she seemed to feel resentment toward her unborn daughter.  I admit to snorting with laughter at the opening few pages of the book and, as a result, easily understanding the relationship between Tess and Whitney.  The mystery was okay, with a nice twist thrown in that, while not completely unseen, still gave me a few details that I hadn’t thought of.

I do have one nit-picky thing to say though.  The raincoat that plays so prominently in this story is described in the book as being “celery green”.  The book on the cover is definitely not “celery green”, being more of an emerald color.  It was that very color that drew my eye to the book in the first place, so to have it be described in the book as more of a celery color got to me (probably more than it should have).  Such an easy thing to fix – I wonder why it was done that way.

Examples:

Celery – Emerald –

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”