There's a serendipity to real life that the Internet can't duplicate. Do you use the library? For anything? Well, sometimes you end up picking up the book next to the one you were looking for, and it's that book that changes your life.

In addition to writing Laura Lippman teaches at Goucher College in Towson Maryland just outside of Baltimore. Her 2007 release What the Dead Know was the first of her books to make the New York Times bestseller list and was shortlisted for the Crime Writer's Association Dagger Award (see side box for more awards). C.