What the Dead Know
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times bestselling author returns to the compelling terrain of Every Secret Thing and To the Power of Three with this indelible story of crime and vengeance in which the past becomes all-too-present.
When he’s called to the scene of an accident detective Kevin Infante is drawn into a shocking and puzzling crime that still haunts the Baltimore P.D. Twenty years ago, two little girls were kidnapped from a shopping mall, igniting fear and anger throughout the city.
Now, a clearly disoriented woman involved in the accident claims to be one of the missing girls. But instead of closing the case, her appearance marks the beginning of a nightmare that will once again rock Baltimore and threaten everyone it touches. The woman claims one of Baltimore’s beloved cops snatched her and her sister. Is it the truth-or the ravings of a damaged mind? There isn’t a shred of evidence to support her story: The cop is dead and her parents can’t verify the woman is even their daughter, for both girls were adopted and do not share their DNA. And who is the body in the unmarked grave the girl reveals?
With the department’s reputation, a dead man’s honor, and his own badge on the line, Infante must go back to a past he barely knows to find answers—and maybe even justice—once and for all.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
It’s hard to imagine anything more haunting than an unsolved missing-children case. In Laura Lippman’s thriller, a dazed woman involved in a car accident claims to be one of two sisters who vanished without a trace decades before. The Baltimore police snap to attention, but the woman’s stories are inconsistent and her agenda seems muddy—opening up a whole new can of seriously problematic worms. We kept thinking we had Lippman’s mystery worked out, only to discover the bestselling author had another shocking twist up her sleeve.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Edgar-winner Lippman, author of the Tess Monaghan mystery series (No Good Deeds, etc.), shows she's as good as Peter Abrahams and other A-list thriller writers with this outstanding stand-alone. A driver who flees a car accident on a Maryland highway breathes new life into a 30-year-old mystery the disappearance of the young Bethany sisters at a shopping mall after she later tells the police she's one of the missing girls. As soon as the mystery woman drops that bombshell, she clams up, placing the new lead detective, Kevin Infante, in a bind, as he struggles to gain her trust while exploring the odd holes in her story. Deftly moving between past and present, Lippman presents the last day both sisters, Sunny and Heather, were seen alive from a variety of perspectives. Subtle clues point to the surprising but plausible solution of the crime and the identity of the mystery woman. Lippman, who has also won Shamus, Agatha, Anthony and Nero Wolfe awards, should gain many new fans with this superb effort. 9-city author tour.
Customer Reviews
Rather disappointing....
I gave this novel 3 stars for the excellent writing skills of Laura Lippman, but I found the story to be somewhat dull and depressing. I continued to read, wanting to know what happened to the two sisters who disappeared from a shopping mall over 30 years ago, only to find that the solution to the mystery was lackluster at best.
If this book was meant to be about grief, the author did not delve deeply enough. If it was about family life in the mid-1970s, the Bethany's were a very ordinary family, and a few cultural references do not an "era" make.
Sadly, I could not find one major character in this story who was likable, for whom I could feel empathy or compassion.
I have read and enjoyed all of Laura Lippman's other novels and this is the only one that disappointed me.