I really liked this psychological thriller written by Laura Lippman. This book is set primarily in Maryland, in the city of Baltimore. Having lived in Maryland most of my life, I really like the references to places I know. I also really liked the characters in the story, and the ordeals the girls went through in this book.

3 ½ stars. Good story telling. Kept my interest. Absorbing mystery.It’s a very unusual story - when you learn everything at the end.BUT, when it was over I felt like I had just been told a sad story. Good people are hurt. Bad people get away with things. It’s semi happy for a few at the end, but not really. Overall I felt depressed and sad. Here it is the next day, and I’m still grieving for someone. So, since I read for entertainment, and this leaves me down, I’m rounding down to 3 stars.I was

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.

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]for one, it's pretty clearly announced befo...

This felt weaker than the other Lippman books I've read. I think this is written earlier than the other ones and I felt like it was kind of obvious. The writing wasn't as good as the other ones, but it wasn't bad either. I just think the characterization was a bit much, like the way the woman is described as a master manipulator felt pretty unrealistic and over the top. I also feel like it was kind of obvious that (view spoiler)[the woman was Sunny not Heather (hide spoiler)] but the rest of th...

Laura Lippman - image from APPenelope Jackson is the name on her ID, but when a woman has a traffic accident in Baltimore and is taken to the hospital, she is revealed to be someone else entirely. She claims to be Heather Bethany, the younger of two sisters abducted in 1975. With parallel time lines we see both the efforts of contemporary investigators to figure out whether she is who she claims to be and the events of this person’s childhood and trauma. It is an interesting tale, well done, eng...

This was a quick and entertaining mystery for me. Lippman is always guaranteed to tell a story with a few twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. This one involved a cold case of two missing girls which suddenly comes to light years later when a young woman claims to be one of them. Thus the story unfolds. A bit slow going at first, dragging even, but picked up about half way in and I was anxious to get to the end....the who done it so to speak. Was this woman one of the missing girls, or

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 was am...

I was into this book a little ways before I remembered that I had heard this interview with the author on NPR radio. The idea for this book is based on [inspired by] an actual event that occurred in a Washington, D.C. suburb in 1975 when two teenaged sisters disappeared from a mall without leaving a trace or clue of what happened to them. The mystery of what happened to those two girls has never been solved. In this novel the author provides a scenario of what might happen if one of those missin...

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

Laura Lippman is just a wonderful writer. This isn't about thrills and spills, but creeping dread and wonderful prose, with a turn of phrase that will makes this fellow writer bow in admiration.

AUDIO ONLY.Lately, I've gone through a very fast run of mediocre audio books. I'm sure these books are perfectly fine to read in print, but they absolutely did not work for me to listen to and in most cases, I did not listen very long. Either the narrators are no bueno or the format of the book does not lend itself well to audio. I want to keep a list, so I won't try them again on audio.

I was not a fan of this book. There were too many point-of-views shared for one thing, and I found myself only concerned with what happened to "Heather" after she was kidnapped, not any of the other characters.I also spoiled myself and looked to see "Heather"'s real identity, but I didn't care about how the story was resolved. After reaching page 200, I skipped ahead to the big reveal and just finished that part.I guess mystery readers would enjoy the whole thing, but I'm not one of them. I chos...

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 wa...

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 hints that she...

I hated Heather Bethany. And not just a little bit either. Even though she had her reasons for her half-truths and lies, reasons that become apparent later, I still found it hard to forgive her. Since much of WHAT THE DEAD KNOW revolves around her, this proved a slightly difficult obstacle for me to overcome. Yet, Laura Lippman proved up to the challenge with an engrossing story that spanned decades and bounced back and forth in time like a shooting star set on repeat.Despite the back and forth,...

This book had a very unfortunate title translation to Turkish, it is called 'Hysteria'. Maybe it was the translation but I didn't remember enjoying it. The reveal took too long to arrive, could have been shorter.

I wanted to try a Laura Lippman novel, because she's from my home state of Maryland. I listened to about 25% of the audiobook before I finally gave up. The narration was so boring, but if I had read the book, I think I would have thought the same thing about the writing style. There's way too much telling and not nearly enough tension. After listening to this for about two hours, I'm ready for a nap. It really sucked the energy right out of me. Sorry, it just didn't work for me.

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 sisters who disappeared f...

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.