Anyone who knows me knows how much I love To Kill a Mockingbird. While school friends complained about the hours spent reading this in class and writing essays on it for GCSE, I was falling in love with the characters, the plot, and the clever criticism of society woven into its pages.

So why am I talking about To Kill a Mockingbird in a review of Laura Lippman’s Wilde Lake? Well, I challenge you to read this book and not have GCSE English flashbacks.

It would be unfair for me to say this is a complete modern retelling of this classic piece of American literature, but it would also be unfair to act like it isn’t heavily influenced by it, and that’s no bad thing.

Lu Brant has just been elected state’s attorney for her childhood home of Howard County, Maryland, a position her father used to hold. Spotting an opportunity to make a name for herself with a big murder case, Lu comes to find that the case will bring painful memories back to the forefront of her mind, and she comes to find that her family may not have told her the whole truth when she was a child, but she needs to know it now.

I really enjoyed this book, but admittedly it may not have been one I’d have picked up for myself. It was the first book I was sent through my subscription to The Willoughby Book Club, a great subscription service which picks books for you each month based on your likes, and posts them to you complete with gorgeous gift-wrapping and even bookmarks!

I’m really glad the guys at WBC chose this out for me, because I really did enjoy the plot, the characters, and of course, the throw-backs to Mockingbird, and would thoroughly recommend it.

If you want to get a Willoughby Book Club subscription with 10% off, use this referral code!! http://146thewilloughbybo.refr.cc/natalietipping