What the Dead Know - Hardcover

Lippman, Laura

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0752888501 ISBN 13: 9780752888507

Publisher: Orion, 2007

Synopsis

A middle-aged woman causes an accident on the Baltimore Beltway, flees the scene and is later picked up wandering on the shoulder of the Interstate. The accident occurs just a mile from the former home of the Bethany family, Dave and Miriam and their daughters Sunny and Heather. Thirty years before, twelve-year-old Heather persuaded her older sister Sunny to let her tag along on a visit to the mall. Neither of the girls has been seen since.

Now, the woman on the Beltway claims to be Heather Bethany. Today she has a different name; a different identity. What has prompted this woman to announce her true - if it is true - identity at this moment?

With her customary acute intelligence and empathy, Laura Lippman deftly unpeels the layers of Heather's past: revealing her parents, sister, friends, teachers, and the detective who handled the case, until the truth about what happened to Heather and Sunny on that long ago afternoon is finally uncovered.

About this title

Review:

Laura Lippman heightens the tension without any savagery or melodrama, while at the same time exploring the nature of family relationships in all their misery and necessity. WHAT THE DEAD KNOW is an impressive and engaging novel (Natasha Cooper TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT)

Taking a break from her Tess Monaghan series, Laura Lippman treats the sabbatical as a chance to produce something more testing, both for herself and the reader...stick with it, the reward is great. (SUNDAY TIMES)

Laura Lippman is best known for her excellent Tess Monaghan PI series, but she occasionally writes a stand-alone novel and What The Dead Know is one of her best (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

Shamefully late in the day, I've caught up with the acclaimed US novelist Laura Lippman, and what a knock-out she is...This is a real riveting suspense - a humdinger of a book (DAILY MAIL)

'Lippman's latest stand-alone novel is a really tantalising read with well rounded characters and unpredictable elements to the story. Lippman is a past-master at spinning the suspense and keeping us glued to the book' (TANGLED WEB)

'If you only know Laura Lippman from her Tess Monaghan series, or if you don't know her work at all, read "What the Dead Know." It's an all but flawless performance by a writer at the peak of her powers' (WASHINGTON POST)

'Laura Lippman's 'What the Dead Know' is 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' (NEW YORK TIMES)

In What the Dead Know, Lippman takes an imaginative leap and exercises a considerable amount of narrative ingenuity to solve the 30-year-old mystery of who abducted the two Bethany sisters from a Baltimore shopping mall - a crime suggested by a true-life event that gripped the city in 1975. All but forgotten when the story opens, the disappearance of 15-year-old Sunny and 11-year-old heather becomes an active police (NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW)

I defy anyone to guess the amazing twist to this story! (MY WEEKLY)

an excellent mystery and a thoughtful exploration of the nature and effects of grief and loss (Laura Wilson GUARDIAN)

I guarantee it is impossible to guess the end 'twist' - and yet the final revelation is completely believable. This is by far LIppman's best book yet (CRIME SQUAD)

this is one of her best works and is highly recommended (DEADLY PLEASURE)

Book Description:

A gripping standalone thriller that tells an 'Anastasia' story about a mysterious woman who claims to be a girl who disappeared without trace thirty years earlier.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0752888501
• ISBN 13: 9780752888507
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384