Book of the Week: What the Dead Know

Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know begins with the appearance of a clearly unsettled woman involved in a hit and run. The woman has no ID and no health insurance, but hints that she is the younger of the Bethany sisters, who were kidnapped thirty years before.

 The narrative jumps back and forth from past to present, with the woman revealing precious little of what she knows, only enough to keep her out of jail. Why won't she reveal the truth and the fate of her sister? What the Dead Know is a mystery – by the end I was eager to find out what happened to the Bethany girls and who was behind their disappearance – but it is also moving as a portrait of loss and grief.

What happens to a couple when their children disappear out of thin air? How does one cope when it seems that a daughter has resurfaced after more than three decades with more secrets than answers? Lippman tries to answer these questions in a novel that manages to be both gripping and touching.

4/5

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