What the Dead Know

By: Laura Lippman

Narrated by: Linda Emond

Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Thirty years ago, two sisters disappeared from a shopping mall. Their bodies were never found, and those familiar with the case have always been tortured by these questions: How do you kidnap two girls? Who or what could have lured the two sisters away from a busy mall on a Saturday afternoon without leaving behind a single clue or witness?

Now a clearly disoriented woman involved in a rush-hour hit-and-run claims to be the younger of the long-gone Bethany sisters. But her involuntary admission and subsequent attempt to stonewall investigators only deepens the mystery. Where has she been, why has she waited so long to come forward? Could her abductor truly be a beloved Baltimore cop? There isn't a shred of evidence to support her story, and every lead she gives the police seems to be another dead-end: a dying, incoherent man; a razed house; a missing grave; and a family that disintegrated long ago, torn apart not only by the crime but by the fissures the tragedy revealed in what appeared to be the perfect household.

In a story that moves back and forth across the decades, there is only one person who dares to be skeptical of a woman who wants to claim the identity of one Bethany sister without revealing the fate of the other. Will he be able to discover the truth?

©2007 Laura Lippman (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Edgar-winner Lippman...shows she's as good as Peter Abrahams and other A-list thriller writers with this outstanding stand-alone." (Publishers Weekly)
"An uncommonly clever impostor story, so cagily constructed that it easily fulfills the genre's two basic demands. First, Ms. Lippman is able to keep her reader guessing about the main character's disputed identity until the very end of this book. Second, when the revelation comes, it makes perfect sense, and it has been hiding in plain sight. This is not one of those mysteries with a denouement that feels tacked on, half baked or pulled out of thin air." (The New York Times)

Too Much Going On

We are told from the very beginning that Heather is lying mostly, with half truths intermingled. So it is the reader's task to try to figure out what really happened.
This is a murder/abduction mystery told by several perspectives. It was hard for me to keep up with all the characters, especially since the main character ("Heather") kept changing her name throughout. I did begin to have my suspicions about halfway through the book as to who she really was, so the ending was not much of a surprise.
It might have been a better story if there were less focus on the investigating detective, Kevin Infante. He was a caricature of the worst male chauvinist imaginable. I almost suspect that the author might have been projecting some of her own man issues into her writing. His character was unbelievable. While I wanted to root for him, and hope that he solved the murder/abduction, I absolutely despised him. Most of his deep thoughts that Ms. Lippman wrote about were completely irrelevant to the story and prevented me from having any connection to his character.
I also could not bring myself to connect with Heather. By the end of the story, I could somewhat understand her coldness and lack of any moral ethics, but while reading it, I just wanted to see her lies exposed.
It perhaps would have been a better read if some of the content would have been edited out. The mystery apsect of it was a good premise though and did keep me interested enough to finish the book. The narration was very good.

Interesting twists

The story was good and really required attention to the details. Only two distractions were the same randomly played musical interludes which was totally unnecessary and the final few chapters repeated after the story ended. Editing mistake possibly?

a perfect experience

many mysteries start off well, and leave you unsatisfied in the end. I found this book stunning in its psychological complexity and truthfulfness. it takes you into the minds of all the major and minor characters, keeps you wanting to know more, reveals just enough, and comes to a believable and heart wrenching conclusion. I, too, guessed the identity of the protagonist, but was utterly surprised by the details of her story. One of the most wonderful books on tape I have experienced. Not to take away from the skill of the narrator, who is wonderful, but the story is what will grab you.

Good Story-Telling, One-Trick Ending

The story unfolded slowley, but I liked the characters enough to stay with it. The twist at the end was satisfying. Kept my attention, which is good enough.

3 ½ stars. Good story telling. Kept my interest.

Absorbing mystery. It’s a very unusual story - when you learn everything at the end.

BUT, when it was over I felt like I had just been told a sad story. Good people are hurt. Bad people get away with things. It’s semi happy for a few at the end, but not really. Overall I felt depressed and sad. Here it is the next day, and I’m still grieving for someone. So, since I read for entertainment, and this leaves me down, I’m rounding down to 3 stars.

I was bothered by: Someone is killed and we never learn the details. We don’t know what the killer or victim said before it happened, or how it happened. This book is done in third person. We should have been able to get that.

I did not like the main character Heather/Penelope or whatever her name was. Other main characters were not sympathetic. There was no main character to like. That’s not a requirement, but it helps me enjoy a story.

NARRATOR:
I loved the narrator Linda Emond. I could listen to her read anything. She doesn’t rush. Her voice is warm and pleasant. When I was debating whether to buy another book by Lippman, as soon as I saw that Linda Emond was narrating, that was it. I bought it due to the narrator.

Genre: mystery

excellent story

I enjoyed the mystery of this story. it was compelling and intersting. I finished this in less than 3 days.

great story, well narrated

good twist at the very end. very compelling characters. audio production interrupted unnecessarily with terrible music.

Beat Narrator EVER!

This was a great book. I just purchased When She was Good by the same author and was thrilled I would get the same narrator. She is amazing at doing different voices. It was funny because the main character 'Heather' I found loathsome but was torn because maybe because she was the victim of an abduction was the cause for her narcissistic attitude. But the narrator could go back and forth so well my dislike for the character didn't spoil the book for me. This book kept me guessing until the end and I stayed up until 4am just to figure it out! Definitely worth a credit or two!

Choppy, eventually a good story

The beginning was very choppy. With it being an audible book, it was often difficult to discern who was speaking.
The music at the beginning of sections was very distracting. It had no place and it was unnecessary to have music playing over the dialogue.
The last couple of chapters repeated. Not sure why.
Ultimately, the story was interesting for a short period of time. Entertaining but not the best.

Compelling story

Another great mystery from Laura Lippman. Just when the reader thinks she has it figured out, the plot veers on another path. Lead to a satisfying conclusion.