Notebook

And she had loved movies, once upon a time, not even a decade ago, when it was unthinkable not to be in line at the multiplex every weekend, when it was urgent and essential to see movies the very night they opened. In college, she had once driven to a Philadelphia art house, distance of more than a hundred miles, to see - well, what was it that she had driven almost two hours to see? A German film, possibly Herzog, maybe Wenders. "The American Friend"? "Aguirre, The Wrath of God"? That was it - "Aguirre," a film in which a character clutched something secret and vital in his hand, yet died without ever revealing what it was. Tess had left the theater almost in a swoon, so dazed and rapt by Herzog's images she forgot to get a cheese steak on her way out of town. - Laura Lippman, Another Thing To Fall

Not my favorite Lippman - the villains are a little too thinly drawn. Still enjoyable and colored by Lippman's love for Baltimore and for TV production; her husband David Simon is the creator and executive producer of The Wire.