What the Dead Know: A Novel - Softcover

Lippman, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006177135X ISBN 13: 9780061771354

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2009

Synopsis

One of the most acclaimed and honored writers in the field of crime fiction, Laura Lippman offers readers a gripping tale of deception and delusion, of family wounds and betrayals.

Thirty years ago, the Bethany girls, ages eleven and fifteen, disappeared from a Baltimore shopping mall. They never returned, their bodies were never recovered, and only painful questions remain. Now, in the aftermath of a rush-hour hit-and-run accident, a clearly disoriented woman is claiming to be Heather, the younger Bethany sister. Not a shred of evidence supports her story, and every lead she reluctantly offers takes the police to another dead end—a dying, incoherent man; a razed house; a missing grave. But she definitely knows something about that terrible day—and about the shocking fissures that the tragedy exposed in the foundation of a seemingly solid family.

About this title

About the Author:

Since Laura Lippman's debut in 1997, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the "essential" crime writers of the last 100 years. Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her family.

From AudioFile:

In Baltimore a young woman flees an accident and when she's apprehended, she stonewalls police about herself except to reveal that she is one of the Bethany sisters, who disappeared thirty years before. The young woman has a flat affect, and Linda Emond characterizes her tonelessly as she makes one evasion after another about the present while claiming decades of abuse and the adopting of multiple personalities to survive. Linda Emond's voice is neutral in filling in the aftermath of the abduction. She saves emotion for her depiction of the suspicious detective who reopens the cold case. Emond's characterization of this feisty, sexually charged man is edged with rough and passionate tones. S.W. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 006177135X
• ISBN 13: 9780061771354
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 372