What the Dead Know

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?

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.

Loved It!

Well written, twisted story, great narration. Need I say more? I'm listening to it again to see why I didnt figure it out from the start.

Great Walking Companion

Would you consider the audio edition of What the Dead Know to be better than the print version?

I have not read the book so can't comment.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes, the plot kept moving and had numerous threads running at the same time.

What about Linda Emond’s performance did you like?

Her voice and accents are good and convincing.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Although I the book has kept me intrigued, it really is too long to listen to in one sitting and I enjoyed spreading it out to extend the enjoyment. Having said that, I ended up walking more than six miles the other day because I was so engrossed in the story!

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.