All of the Mother/Daughter relationships are expressed differently to give a broad portrait of all the possibilities.

The nuances of female relationships with each other are expertly explored. Whereas it’s a given that student A will go to college Student B needs to raise fat hogs to sell at a county fair to add money to the college coffers. Some of the most interesting characters are the daughters of the hold out farmers who must contend with their more well to do class mates while they them selves live an existence that they find embarrassing as it becomes an increasingly harder cross to bear. The retreating farmlands, the land developers who buy the farms, the hold out farmers all serve to give us a socio-historical account of not only an ostensibly small portion of Maryland but on a much larger scale other areas of the country where this is happening as well. Given Lippman’s childhood in Columbia and my own firsthand knowledge of this type of setting there is a pervasive feeling of accuracy in her portrayal of the suburban sprawl that encroaches on rural areas bringing with it new found problems. While the town of Glendale is fictitious, the surrounding areas of the story are not. Wisely choosing the backgrounds of the three main characters and some of the other students we are treated to an accurate cross section of this area. Parents, teachers, guidance councilors, friends, relatives and other students all become fully realized as the portrait of life in affluent Glendale is explored. Lippman also takes great pains to make sure that we are also intimately aware of those adults and students that surround the three girls. We are taken back to when they first meet, in the third grade, and when all is said and done we will know these three girls as real, three dimensional people, including all of their personality quirks as well as their flaws.

Since we know the out come of the murder right from the start To the Power of Three establishes itself as a deep character study of the three principle friends, Kat, Josie and Perri. What really happened in that room? What caused such a breakdown in this supposedly unpenetrable friendship? Is someone lying, if so why? The only living witness and most of the evidence points to one outcome but a few minor pieces of evidence and the professional eye of a veteran murder police point to other possibilities. Three seniors who were life long friends: one will be dead, one will be critically wounded and the other injured. Before the start of first period the next day a murder will take place behind a locked bathroom door. To the Power of Three opens with a letter being written on the eve of a school shooting by the shooter.

Laura lippman book reviews