Life Sentences Lippman, Laura

Cassandra Fallows built a career turning other people's tragedies into bestselling memoirs. Now she's back in Baltimore for her high school reunion, where she finds herself drawn to Calliope Jenkins — a woman whose childhood murder case once gripped the city. Callie served seven years for killing her infant son, but always maintained her innocence. Cassandra sees a book in this, naturally. But as she digs into Callie's story, the lines between observer and participant blur dangerously. Laura Lippman, a former Baltimore Sun reporter and multiple-award-winning crime novelist, delivers a sharp, uncomfortable look at the ethics of true crime storytelling. The question isn't just whether Callie is guilty — it's how far Cassandra will go to own someone else's story. For fans of Gillian Flynn's moral ambiguity and anyone who's ever felt queasy about their true crime podcast habit.