What the Dead Know: A Novel

If you love mystery and suspense you have to read this engrossing intelligent story. Has a missing girl returned from the dead and is she who she claims to be or is her identity some elaborate hoax? One of the best novels based on a real case that I could not put down!

In "What the Dead Know," Laura Lippman displays her literary flair and stylistic genius in a tightly woven, hypnotic, highly intelligent adventure. In 1975, two sisters vanished without a trace from a Baltimore mall. It was a dead end crime---no reliable witnesses, no clues, no leads, no hope. Thirty years later a hit and run driver (with no ID) claims to be Heather Bethany (one of the sisters). She has knowledge that only the sisters would have. As the story shifts between the decades, between fact and fiction, between imposter and the genuine article; detective Kevin Infante (a wonderful character) feels something about "Heather's" story is out of kilter. The skeptical Infante is unconventional and uses good old-fashioned shoe leather to track down clues, hunches and intuition. His efforts lead him to believe Heather may be one a half dozen identities---or maybe all of them, or none of them. The three-dimensional characters are caught up in loss, redemption, scrambled identities, in this evocative tale of intrigue. Filled with pop culture touchstones from the different eras, this powerfully suspenseful crime story, seamlessly spooled out from various points of view will leave you sleep deprived. Laura Lippman is an uncompromising novelist who is dazzling at hiding clues in plain sight. She creates a morass of deception where the details are as important as the narrative. "What the Dead Know" is subtle, shrewd and so tightly plotted you cannot afford to skip a page.

From the very beginning I was blown away by What the Dead Know - it's the American equivalent of a Ruth Rendell book in its penetrating psychology, mordant wit, perspicacious view of modern life and expert mystery plot, which was, as it should be, surprising and inevitable at the same time. Since I think that Rendell is not just one of the finest mystery writers but one of the finest writers in the world period that's no small praise. Like Rendell's best books (many of which are written under the name Barbara Vine) What the Dead Know is a stand alone rather than a series book. It centers on that great old mystery trope of Brat Farrar and countless others - is the adult who appears out of nowhere really the grown up version of the child who disappeared so mysteriously years ago or an imposter? In the end the theme is simply identity, and Lippman explores it masterfully, moving through the consciousness of many characters (thankfully in the third person), slipping through time and space to construct a moving picture of our time. I'll gleefully point out that Lippman is no product of an academic MFA program, but learned her craft the old fashioned way (you know, like that Hemingway guy) as a reporter. It was also very encouraging to see that this book entered the NYT bestseller list at #11, which (almost) restores my faith in the American reading public. I'm not going to go on and on about it, except to recommend it most highly. It certainly blows away most of the "serious" fiction that's out there these days, suspenseful while remaining profound and engaging. (In the interest of total transparency I must reveal that Laura Lippman once stole some Fig Newtons from me, but that act did not influence this review in any way).

On Easter weekend in 1975 two sisters disappeared. Eleven year old Heather Bethany and her 15-year-old sister, Sunny, had gone to the mall, Security Mall, and vanished without a trace although there would be rumors, "...sightings of the girls as far away as Georgia, bogus ransom demands, fears of cults and counterculturists. After all, Patty Hearst had been taken just the year before. Kidnapping was big in the seventies." Time passes, some thirty years, and a woman flees the scene of a traffic accident. Later she's found wandering, apparently deranged, without any money or identification. She's taken to St. Agnes Hospital, checked in as a Jane Doe because if she knows who she is she refuses to say. Thus begins Edgar Award winning author Laura Lippman's riveting story about a family, once a strong, loving unit or were they? Detective Kevin Infante is dispatched to the hospital to question the mysterious woman. He doesn't go eagerly as Infante is a tough cop, cynical, a memorable character who views the world and many of its inhabitants with a jaundiced eye. When the woman still refuses to speak his solution is to send her to jail. Kay Sullivan, the social worker at St. Agnes, is the one person who befriends the woman, and when the woman says, "I'm going to say a name. It's a name you'll know," Kay is convinced Heather Bethany has surfaced after some three decades. But Infante doesn't believe this for a minute. How to prove whether she is Heather or not? The police decide finding the mother of the Bethany girls is their only hope. But, would a mother recognize her daughter after this length of time? Lippman who was a news reporter at the Baltimore Sun again sets her story in Baltimore, a city she obviously loves and knows well. Her narrative is meticulously crafted, moving in time from the day the girls disappeared to the present time. As scenes change readers are made aware of what the parents went through following the loss of their daughters, their attempts to cope and the final impact on them. This author creates some of the most vivid characters to be found on a page, and again presents a story that haunts. Highly recommended. - Gail Cooke

This is one of the finest suspense novels I've read in years. Lippman is always terrific, whether she is writing her Edgar-winning Tess Monaghan series or stand-alone crime novels, but this book is exceptional, even by her high standards. Inspired by an actual incident, WHAT THE DEAD KNOW is a brilliant examination of old crimes and their present consequences. In 1975, two teenage sisters disappeared from a Baltimore shopping mall, and their fate was never determined. Now, thirty years later, an emotionally unstable woman claims to be one of the missing sisters. Her story has a lot of holes in it, and the search is on for the truth of what happened on that long-ago day. Lippman brings just the right Gothic/Noir touches to her masterful tale, slowly building the tension until it is almost unbearable. Don't miss this haunting, beautifully written novel. Highly recommended.