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Aug 17, 2008

Susan rated it:

A middle-aged woman is involved in a hit-and-run accident. Two teenage girls are abducted from a shopping mall, never to be heard from again. These are the two major events that propel Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know, a disturbing novel of buried secrets and life's tragic surprises.

After fleeing a car accident, a middle-aged woman with no ID is questioned by both the police and hospital administration. Refusing to reveal her identity (and proof of health insurance), she instead hi More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2008

Britney rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2008

Shelley rated it:

I got a copy of this book at the airport in Chicago when my flight was delayed due to a snowstorm. I thought it looked interesting and would be an easy read. It wasn't interesting, it was tiresome and tedious, with a plot that was about as deep as a puddle and as hard hitting as a cocoa puff. To say the characters were one dimensional, is to give them at least three forths of a dimension. To say the dialog was flat and juvenile insults juveniles everywhere. And the ending of this little mystery More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2011

Yvette rated it:

Basically two sisters disappear after a trip to the mall. Their bodies were never found and all leads come to a dead end. After 30 years a lady shows up claiming to be one of the sisters. We are taken through a series of memories from different characters’ perspectives. At the end we are suppose to be surprise by the truth, unfortunately for me, I guessed early on. Although the story had an intriguing level to it I wasn't completely captivated. I can’t put my fingered on it, but something More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2007

Christina rated it:

I'd picked this up from reading the jacket information. Sounded like a very intriguing work about missing children. The basic premise is, a woman in a car accident claims to be one of the Bethany sisters, two girls who were abducted 25 years earlier and presumed dead. But is she, or is she pulling a scam? And if she is, what happened?

Unfortunately, this turned into a detective novel. It had a plot easily followed (though the woman's character was oddly written, to say the least). But More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2008

ayrdaomei added it

Laura Lippman used to write for The Baltimore Sun, so she's been an author I've thought about checking out for awhile. When I saw this title on a couple of "Best/Favorites Of 2007" lists, I figured this was the one to try.

What The Dead Know has a great title and an intriguing premise, but unfortunately, the story as written never clicked for me. I called it quits 97 pages in. It was neat to read about Baltimore County as it was 20 or so years ago, but I never connected More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Zelda rated it:

This was a really good book that totally taps into the fears in the early 70s of kids being kidnapped. When a women is caught after leaving the scene of an accident, she claims to be one of two sisters who were kidnapped from a local mall 20+ years earlier. The book bounces around those 20+ years from several different perspectives while describing what happened to the girls and those that were left behind. Throughly enjoyable, and while I figured part of the ending out before I got there, it More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 13, 2008

Kirsti rated it:

I tried an earlier Laura Lippman and didn't care for it, but the plot of this one sounded terrific. Two girls vanish from a shopping mall; years later, a woman in a hit-and-run accident blurts out that she is one of the girls. Parts of what she says are lies, but which parts? I'm glad I gave it a shot--I enjoyed the different points of view as the book followed different characters.

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Mar 21, 2008

Tina rated it:

Story line had potential but the writers style was choppy (and not in the Hemmingway manner). Transitioning between characters and time periods weren't handled well and made it hard to stay focused on the book.

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2009

Kathleen added it

What the dead know, by Laura Lippman. A.
Downloaded from audible.com

Sunny was just entering her teens while her younger sister, Heather, was just enough younger to spy on her, read her journal and in other ways annoy her. One Saturday, Heather tattled to their father that Sunny was planning to go to the mall. Their father said Sunny could only go if she took Heather with her. The two girls went to the mall and were never seen again. No bodies were ever found. Then, 30 year More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 28, 2008

Pam rated it:

04/27/08
TITLE/AUTHOR: WHAT THE DEAD KNOW by Laura Lippman
RATING: 5/A
GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Suspense/2007/369 pgs
SERIES/STAND ALONE: Stand-Alone
TIME/PLACE: 2005 & 1975/Baltimore
CHARACTERS: Heather & Sunny Bethany/missing sisters;
FIRST LINES: Her stomach clenched at the sight of the water tower hovering above the still, bare trees, a spaceship come to earth.

COMMENTS: 03/03/08 purchase from MOTB upcoming group read. The most well-liked More...

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Mar 24, 2010

Trish rated it:

In 1975, two Baltimore sisters vanish. Fifteen-year-old Sunny and nearly-12 Heather go to the mall one Saturday afternoon and never come back. There are no credible ransom demands, no bodies are found, and there don't seem to be any real clues.

Thirty years later, a woman skids on an oil slick on the highway near Baltimore. A chain reaction accident sends an SUV off the road, but the woman keeps driving, then walking. And when confronted by a police officer, she trots out the first f More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 04, 2007

Jessica rated it:

This top-notch mystery centers around the 1975 disappearance of two sisters, ages 11 and 15, from a Baltimore shopping mall during Easter weekend. The girls are never heard from again, until a woman driving another woman's car is in a traffic accident in Baltimore 30 years later, and claims to be one of the missing sisters. Her story is manipulative, mysterious, and confusing, but seems to have a kernel of truth that makes her impossible to dismiss.

Lippman manages the crisscrossing t More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 18, 2008

jo rated it:

this woman knows how to write. i'm exactly one chapter in, and i already feel relieved. thank god in heaven for good writers who know how to soothe our pain.

****

i finished it and am impressed by this novel, especially a) the consistently excellent writing, b) the representation of minor characters and c) the portrayal of the mind of an adult with a history of horrendous childhood trauma. what left me a little bit cold was the conclusion.

[MAJOR SPOILER]
More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 29, 2008

Carol rated it:

Mysteries are one of my favorite genres. I will now add Laura Lippman to my list of favorite mystery writers. Her outstanding plot and character development captured me from the beginning of this book.
Thirty years ago 2 sisters disappeared from a mall and their bodies have never been found. We watch the disintegration of their seemingly perfect family and are drawn in by the confused, or is it cunning, young woman who is involved in a hit-and-run accident and claims to be one of the f More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2009

Adrianne rated it:

This book tracks originally from the real, disturbing disappearance of the Lyons sisters from the Wheaton Mall. I finished it with my book club at the same time an article appeared in The Washington Post about how horrifying it was for families of victims to relive incidents through the penchant for television (Dateline or CSI, e.g.) or novels (John Grisham, e.g.) to do "ripped from the headlines" dramas. And therein lies my conundrum with this book, which was wonderfully written from More...

1 comment like

Dec 27, 2008

Perryville rated it:

If you’ve never read a novel by native Baltimorean Laura Lippman, let her latest—What the Dead Know—be your first.

Lippman, a former Baltimore Sun writer and Marylander through and through, is best known for her “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan mysteries (nine total). Lippman breaks free from her series this spring with the publication of What the Dead Know. Still a mystery, still Baltimore, Lippman’s stand-alone tale is one of her best to date. The ghost of a 30-year old kidnapping c More...

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Jan 05, 2012

Lígia rated it:

Finalmente, um livro de mistério que me voltou a prender à leitura compulsivamente, querendo ler mais, para encaixar mais uma peça do puzzle e mais outra e mais outra e mais outra, criando conjecturas ao longo da leitura. Mas já devia adivinhar que seria assim, pois a colecção Nocturnos da Difel/Gótica não me tem desiludido.

Peguei neste livro por impulso ou, como gosto de dizer, porque ele me "chamou" da estante, e logo na primeira noite li metade e em mais uma noite, foi More...

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Dec 26, 2011

pdxmaven added it

Well here it is December and I am finally writing this "review", for a book I can hardly remember. but it moved back and forth through time, and Miriam reminded me of myself, not infrequently......and then there are the references to Where the Wild Things Are running through it as well, in the border the mom (or it is the dad?) creates -- I SHOULD have thought of that one!:

So here are some quotes I marked:
"Neither one of them had grown up in observant homes. Mir More...

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Dec 10, 2011

June rated it:

Intriguing beginning... "What the Dead Know" by Laura Lipman is a most interesting story inspired by a true life mystery of the disappearance of two sister in 1975 that were never heard of again. It is a sad story because it’s certainly a parent's worse nightmare. Lipman’s fictional account is about an ordinary family living in Baltimore (and she gives a vivid picture of that area) in the 1970’s. One weekend 15 yr-old Sunny and her 11 yr-year-old Heather her sister go to mall and vani More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 11, 2011

Janet rated it:

I would like to give this 3 & 1/2 stars but I am happy to go with 4 rather than 3. Sometimes how you feel about a book has more to do with when you read it than with the book itself. In this case I read during a beautiful stretch of Indian Summer weather here is the Northeast. I was able to enjoy sitting in my hammock chair on the back porch & there is simply no better reading experience than that.

That said, this is a good read and I didn't want to put it down. It is a compelling More...

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Sep 04, 2011

Tony rated it:

Lippman, Laura. WHAT THE DEAD KNOW. (2007). ****.
This is the first novel I’ve read by this author. It was on the “ten best” list put together by John Connolly and Declan Hughes, so I felt it was worth a try. It just barely eked out a four-star rating. It is the story of the disappearance of two sisters, an eleven-year old and a fifteen-year old, when they had gone to the local mall one Saturday. They have been missing and presumed dead for almost thirty years. One day a woman who More...

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Jul 09, 2011

Svelteassassin rated it:

I don't read many books anymore, and when I do read I tend to non-fiction. For some reason, I tend to lose interest with fiction books very quickly. The reason I bring this is up is that if I'm going to give my opinion about a book, especially, a fiction book, know that's coming from someone who pretty much hates reading fiction.

So, that being said, I could not put this down!!!! I read it everywhere. Took it with me wherever I went. Easily one of the best works of fiction I have r More...

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Jun 27, 2011

Deb rated it:

Laura Lippman writes a mystery series described as "chick lit with guns," and that is about as far from my genre of choice as you can get. But facing a long drive and a paucity of choices, I picked up this audiobook - a standalone, not part of the series - and I really enjoyed it. So shame on snobby me.

The heart of the story is a question of identity. At the start of the novel, a woman has a traffic accident and tells the police that she is one of the Bethany Girls, two s More...

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Feb 09, 2011

Dan rated it:

Two girls are kidnapped from a mall one afternoon and decades later a woman stunned by a car accident claims to be one of the missing girls, but she is strangely reluctant to tell her story.

This book is of the are they an impostor subgenre of mysteries; one I'll admit to not being fond of. At the end all the reader can expect to learn is which of two possibilities is the case. With maybe an interesting back story of how things came to this pass. So the author has to keep throwi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 07, 2010

Sarah rated it:

Laura Lippman has quickly become a staple in my household. What the Dead Know is the second novel I've read by her in the past three months and I'm LOVING this author!

What the Dead Know is about two young sisters who both disappear from a shopping mall at the same time on the same day in 1975, never to be seen or heard from ever again. In present day, one of the sisters steps forward to tell the story of what happened that day, however mystery surrounds this woman as clues point to h More...

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Oct 05, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

WHAT is this book about?
In 1975, two sisters―15-year-old Sunny Bethany and 11-year-old Heather Bethany―disappear at a local Baltimore shopping mall. Thirty years later, a woman flees the scene of a car accident near Baltimore and, when found, claims to be the youngest Bethany sister. Police aren’t quite sure what to make of her claim due to her reluctance to provide identification or health insurance information. Although she seems to know a lot of details about the case, all of the informa More...

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Jul 16, 2010

ICPL added it

In 1975 the Bethany sisters, Sunny and Bethany, vanished, just disappeared from a Baltimore mall, and were never found. Today tho, a woman who’s in trouble from a hit and run accident claims to be one of the sisters. She’s pretty clearly lying, and refuses to say much more, but does have information that isn’t publicly known. Author Laura Lippman reveals the case thru many perspectives–both parents (who split up shortly after), the cop who never solved the case (now retired), the younger cop who More...

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Aug 26, 2010

Susan rated it:

The book is a good read, though not as intense as it could have been. A stronger editor would have helped -- some parts were overly wordy and other parts could have used more detail and depth. This was a real change from the Tess Monaghan books, which are light mysteries (fun and quick reads).

This book was engaging and unfolded nicely, though I guessed the identity of the "mystery woman" and other details about halfway through. The characters were interesting, though there More...

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Apr 06, 2011

April rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this! I've read a couple of Lippman's novels in the Tess Monaghan detective series, but this is the first of her stand-alone novels that I've read.

The focus of the story is the disappearance of two teenage girls from a Baltimore mall in 1975 and the aftermath of that event for the girls' parents. Thirty years later, a disoriented woman, having been involved in a traffic accident, tells police she is one of the missing girls. The story evolves from there a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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