By a Spider's Thread by Laura Lippman

8th in the series featuring Baltimore, PI, Tess Monaghan. This time out the determined reporter-turned-private detective agrees to help a handsome but off-puttingly rigid Orthodox Jewish furrier Mark Ruben find his missing wife, Natlalie, who disappeared with their 3 children. Natlalie is 13 years his junior and she married at age 18. Ruben makes Monaghan feel as if she knows nothing about being Jewish, even though her mother's family is Jewish. So Tess is driven to research the religion of her client, who's secretive, controlling, and apparently in denial. I love how she uses technology aka the Snoop Sisters, an online network of female PIs, that help her track down the family and even provides a retired librarian to tail her quarry.

As weeks go by, Tess uncovers a tangle of lies and dark plans that reveal that Ruben's gorgeous young Russian Jewish bride is anything but innocent. Yet much to Monaghan's amazement, nothing seems to dim Ruben's faith in his own tradition or to rock his sense of his role and responsibilities as a husband and a father.

To further complicate Tess's life, Crow, her boyfriend has left her and her Aunt is getting married and Tess is going to be the maid of honor as well as the best man. It' s a fun distraction to the dark storyline.

We see the story from Tess as well as the runaway wife and children. We quickly figure out that Natalie is no innocent and the situation is much more complicated than any one could have anticipated. It left me reading to the end to figure out why this was happening and it was well done. As always Lippman has this way of making me want to read more. She makes her characters and situations real but it is in no way predicable.