What the Dead Know

by Laura Lippman

First published 2009

A disoriented woman crashes her car during rush hour traffic in Baltimore. When police arrive, she makes a startling claim: she is one of the Bethany sisters who disappeared from a shopping mall thirty years ago. The case captivated the city because no one could explain how two girls vanished from a crowded mall on a Saturday afternoon without witnesses or clues. Now this woman wants to reclaim her identity as the younger sister, but she refuses to explain where she has been or what happened to her sibling. She points investigators toward a beloved Baltimore police officer as her captor, but every lead crumbles. The dying man she names becomes incoherent. The house she describes has been demolished. The grave she mentions cannot be found. The Bethany family fractured long ago under the weight of their loss. Only one skeptical investigator questions her story, determined to uncover why she emerged after three decades of silence while leaving her sister's fate a mystery.

Genres: suspense, mystery, contemporary, thriller

Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: missing-sibling, unreliable-narrator

Setting: Baltimore

Period: 30 Years Ago

400 pages · Kindle Edition · William Morrow

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