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)

Loved "When she was good" but this was so slow

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I kept having to skip through boring sections. I usually love stuff that goes back from the past to the future, but I figured out the identity of the girl right away, and the other characters weren't very interesting. I wanted to get to her story and the reunion. I was also became frustrated with the small lies, and stopped caring about the details. I just wanted to get to the conclusions. I liked the scenes with Heather in them, but there was this kind of drudgery to the way the book moved. I heard from a lot of characters that were no longer alive. I felt like I didn't care about this relevance.

Would you ever listen to anything by Laura Lippman again?

I got this because I adored Laura Lippman's "And When She Was Good," but this was too different for me. Too slippery and frustrating. But because I loved "And When She Was Good" so much, I might try again. I also believe her to be great at crafting characters and stories, this one just wasn't to my taste. Plus, I've already ordered "Life Sentences,"

Have you listened to any of Linda Emond’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I listened to "And When She Was Good" and I felt the narrator related to that character much more than these ones, although I am biased. Clearly Linda Edmond is a talented reader.

Was What the Dead Know worth the listening time?

Some of it, but not all.

The music?

Really liked the story was very interested but got slow at times. I really didn't get the music though? Seemed to be at random times. Other than that really enjoyed!

Just Say NO to musical interludes

I really liked this story. The switching around of the protagonists was annoying especially because both the detective and social worker are somewhat pointless to the way the story unfolds. Don’t get me wrong— they are well written characters whom I didn’t mind, but because they ultimately play no part in the A story, it seems that the only reason why their characters were fleshed out was because some editor (one who’s taken too many creative writing workshops) gave the author a note to “develop more characters” and said author overcorrected said note.

The musical interludes in between chapters are absolute trash. Why any audible book would include a musical interlude is beyond me. If you want to “add drama”, as one reviewer suggested, add it by way of writing. A musical addiction to a novel is a hat on a hat: ridiculous.

Also note that after the book is finished audible repeats the previous 5 chapters making the book appear to be longer than it is.

Just like a "cold case" mystery episode.

I thought the story was so so... it reminded me of the TV series "cold case". slow place, no action. My husband and I listened to it on a long road trip. we skipped ahead at chapter 30 so that we didn't have to endure the rest at home.

One of the best!!

This is a very entertaining book. It is exciting, suspensful, and has well-developed characters that I really cared about. The ending of this mystery of what really happened to two girls who "go missing" from a mall years earlier will be a surprise, I promise you!

Listen to it, or read it!!!

After listening to this book, at first I wasn’t sure what I thought about it. But then I realized what all it said “between the lines”.At first I was so angry at some of the detectives attitude, and then later, I would see that perhaps it wasn’t so unfair, etc. So, listen to this book. . . . and enjoy it. I’m tempted to listen to it again so that, realizating what I do now, I’ll enjoy it even more 😊😊😊

Ok book, poor audio editing

Interesting book, and the narrator was good, but the audio production overall was lacking. The music between chapters/parts was annoying, and then there was an extra hour at the end of the book repeating several chapters.

just ok

The story wasn't bad but there was a huge lead up, like OMG what happened to the girls!?!?!?!? Then in one very quick short dialogue it was explained.

a little anticlimactic

on a side note ... the music in between some chapters was just odd.

a positive... this is the 1st Laura Lippman book I've listened to that all the city names were pronouced properly 😀

Stop the music

The storyline is intriguing BUT the music between chapters is way to annoying! Enjoy the story.

Interesting story

but struggled to finish because it became a bit confusing at time, the way it was told. But altogether, not bad.