What the Dead Know

By: Laura Lippman

Narrated by: Linda Emond

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)

Surprisingly Good

This is my second Lippman book. Having heard good things about the author, I tried a listen to a Tess Monaghan story and came away very mixed. This book leaves me with no mixed feelings. Definitely the audio version of a page-turner. I found myself making excuses for 15 minute trips to get another few minutes with the story. Well penned, well read. I guess I need to go back and see if my opinion on the Monaghan series changes...

Wow!! Perfect!

This book was not what I expected, but so much more. If you like mysteries, this is a fantastic book in every way. I truly could not quit listening to it once I'd started. The narrator is perfect and the writing is amazing. It's like listening to - savoring - a wonderful jigsaw puzzle being put together. Can't wait for more from Ms. Lippman.

Too Much Filler

I enjoyed the reader and will look for more from her! But as much as the plot was good, there was far too much filler in between the 'good plot' for me. The book could have been shortened to there being 1 part only as I had fast forwarded to part 2 in no time. I wonder what that will be like.

Just ok

The recording had musical interludes that seemed weird. Also, the last 3 chapters were repeated at the end.

Excellent story!

I am usually pretty great about guess the ending of murder or "mystery" novels, but I have to hand it to the author, Laura Lippman, I was totally surprised by this book. I enjoyed it very much and was happy it wasn't predictable. The characters were believable and the story was too. I will recommend this one to all my friends.

Repeated Chapters

Why are Chapters 43, 44, 45 repeats of Chapters 40, 41, and 42? That was very strange...

A good story

Like all her books - Interesting plot and array of characters. Twists and turns. Very entertaining.

I want more

This is my first Lippman listen, and as you other listeners know, if you pause for too long, you can easily lose the plot. This tale moves back and forth in time with few clues as to where you are. A reader can easily flip back a few pages to refresh his/her memory, but listeners will have a harder time. That said, it is well worth the effort. The characters stories at first seem very disconnected, but in the end they all come together in a believeable, but hard to predict ending. A very worthwhile , hard to put down book, especially if you're are familiar with Balimer.

excellent narrator

My first Laura Lippman. Although the solution to the mystery was easy enough to predict, the writing was good enough to keep me listening. And the narrator was excellent. You audible listeners know how a poor narrator can almost spoil a good book, This one was very good.

Not bad, not great

This writer has an interesting story to tell, and she does it skilfully. This is not a book you can listen to, put down for a couple of days, and come back to. As other reviewers have said, it skips around, and it will be difficult to follow if you put it down for awhile before you finish it. My main criticism is that at the very end, things wrap up just a little too neatly, and there's a little too much of a "happily ever after" quality about it. But it's still a good "read" and I recommend it. Not as cliche' as other books of this genre tend to be.