Lippman sets many of the stories in this anthology in familiar territory: her beloved Baltimore. But Lippman is also unafraid to travel -- to New Orleans, to an unnamed southwestern city, and even to Dublin. Tess Monaghan is here, in two stories and a profile, aligning herself with various underdogs. And in her extraordinary, never-before-published novella, "Scratch a Woman," Lippman takes us deep into the private world of a high-priced call girl/madam and devoted soccer mom, exploring the mystery of what may, in fact, be written in the blood.