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I've just finished listening to Laura Lippman's latest stand-alone novel, Wilde Lake, which I enjoyed for the most part. Lippman here borrows heavily from To Kill a Mockingbird--and I do mean heavily. Names, situations, relationships, themes are only slightly tweaked. Just about every main character in TKAM has a counterpart here.
The backstory is told in first person by Luisa Brant (the Jean Louise Finch character), who relates events of her childhood with her principled lawyer father, older brother, and housekeeper. In the present, Luisa learns truths that force her to see her memories in a different light.
I listened to this book based on the author--I've read most of her other stand-alones--without reading reviews. When I finished it, I started skimming through the reviews at Amazon, and I am nonplussed that only a few of them mentioned the TKAM connection, which is not at all subtle--if you've read TKAM, you can't fail to see it. There's even a scene where Luisa is chastised for insulting another child for his table manners, a la Scout and Walter Cunningham. There's a Boo Radley clone who stabs his father in the leg. There's a Tom Robinson clone accused of rape. There's a Miss Maudie clone--also named Maude--whose house burns down. And on and on.
Which is not to say that there's nothing new here--it's a interesting take on the familiar elements. But ... could all those reviewers never have read TKAM???
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