CANCELLED Laura Lippman’s series of 12 (to date) Tess Monaghan novels has a collection of interesting, well-developed characters. In her 11 stand-alone novels, characters from the Monaghan books pop up in cameos. But perhaps the most consistent character, one you can always count on to show up and play a big role, is the city of Baltimore. Lippman treats her hometown the way you would a family member, sometimes exasperating but impossible to imagine living without.

Lippman is the guest at this year’s Mt. Lebanon Public Library Speaker Series, an event to honor the memory of Joe Wertheim, an avid reader and long-time library patron who had served nine years on the library board, including a term as president, and the president of the Friends of Mt. Lebanon Public Library. Lippman’s books will be available for purchase from City Books.

Lippman grew up in Baltimore and spent 12 years as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Know who else worked for the Sun? David Simon, author of Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co-author of The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood and writer and producer of Homicide, The Wire, The Corner andTreme. The two have been married since 2008. All of Simon’s TV shows except for Treme were filmed in Baltimore, and Monaghan characters occasionally grumble about the traffic jams and other hassles caused by the clueless Hollywood film crews that litter the town.

Lippman’s work has received just about all of the prizes a detective novelist can aspire to: the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and  the Macavity.

She will discuss her latest novel, Lady in the Lake, which is based on a true Baltimore crime.