What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (Book Review)

Title: What the Dead Know
Author: Laura Lippman
Publisher: Harper Collins

First sentence: Her stomach clutched at the sight of the water tower hovering above the still, bare trees, a spaceship come to earth.

About the book: In 1975, two girls went missing, sisters - ages 11 and 15. They were never found nor were their bodies recovered. Now - it is 30 years later and a woman who was involved in a car accident is claiming to be Heather Bethany - the younger missing sister.

This is the beginning of a journey that shows us a family, that in the '70's was just beginning to show some cracks in it's foundation. Dave, the father, was basically married to his store - The Man with the Blue Guitar or tbg as it later came to be known. He was also very involved with a set of beliefs called the Agnihotra - part of the Fivefold Path. Miriam, the mom, a realtor who was having an affair with a co-worker. Sunny, the older Bethany sister just beginning to show some "teenage angst" and Heather, not quite 12, who just wanted to go to the mall with her big sister.

When the Bethany girls came up missing - it didn't take long for Dave and Miriam's marriage to disintegrate under the added stress.

I did not see the ending of this book coming and loved the last few twists! The ending was not AT ALL what I expected. This was my first Laura Lippman book and I really enjoyed the style of writing and the way the story was told. I look forward to reading more books by Ms. Lippman in the future.

About the author: Laura Lippman was a reporter for 20 years, including 12 years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working full time and published seven books about "accidental PI" Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. Her work has been awarded the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe, and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. She was the first-ever recipient of the Mayor's Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognized as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association.

Ms. Lippman grew up in Baltimore and attended city schools through ninth grade. After graduating from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Md., Ms. Lippman attended Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Her other newspaper jobs included the Waco Tribune-Herald and the San Antonio Light.

Ms. Lippman returned to Baltimore in 1989 and has lived there since. (from author's website)

Has anyone out there read any Laura Lippman books? What is your favorite?

What the Dead Know
Publisher/Publication Date: Harper Collins, March 2007
ISBN: 9780061128851
384 pages

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Friday Finds 5-1-2009

Wow- May already!! Nuf said. Here are my finds this week.

What the Dead Know
By Laura Lippman

Thirty years ago two sisters disappeared from a shopping mall. Their bodies were never found and those familiar with the case have always been tortured by these questions: How do you kidnap two girls? Who—or what—could have lured the two sisters away from a busy mall on a Saturday afternoon without leaving behind a single clue or witness?

Now a clearly disoriented woman involved in a rush-hour hit-and-run claims to be the younger of the long-gone Bethany sisters. But her involuntary admission and subsequent attempt to stonewall investigators only deepens the mystery. Where has she been? Why has she waited so long to come forward? Could her abductor truly be a beloved Baltimore cop? There isn't a shred of evidence to support her story, and every lead she gives the police seems to be another dead end—a dying, incoherent man, a razed house, a missing grave, and a family that disintegrated long ago, torn apart not only by the crime but by the fissures the tragedy revealed in what appeared to be the perfect household.

In a story that moves back and forth across the decades, there is only one person who dares to be skeptical of a woman who wants to claim the identity of one Bethany sister without revealing the fate of the other. Will he be able to discover the truth?

Darling Jim
By Christian Moerk

When two sisters and their aunt are found dead in their suburban Dublin home, it seems that the secret behind their untimely demise will never by known. But then Niall, a young mailman, finds a mysterious diary in the post office’s dead-letter bin. From beyond the grave, Fiona Walsh shares the most tragic love story he’s ever heard. . .and her tale has only just begun.

In Christian Moerk’s gripping tale of love, family, and murder, Niall soon becomes enveloped in the mystery of the sisters, and of “Darling Jim,” an itinerant storyteller with uncanny powers of seduction who insinuates himself into their lives. Armed with Fiona’s letter, Niall begins a dangerous search for truth – and the vanished third sister – hoping there’s still time.

Therapy
By Sebastian Fitzek

No witnesses, no evidence, no body: Star psychologist Viktor Larenz’s twelve-year-old daughter, Josy, who had suffered from an inexplicable illness, has vanished under mysterious circumstances during a visit to her doctor, and the investigation into her disappearance has brought no results. Four years later, Viktor remains a man shattered by this tragedy. He has retreated to a remote vacation cottage on a North Sea island, where a beautiful stranger named Anna Glass pays him a visit. She claims to be a novelist who suffers from an unusual form of schizophrenia: all the characters she creates for her books become real. While writing her most recent novel, Anna has been tortured by visions of a little girl with an unknown illness who has vanished without a trace, and she asks Dr. Larenz to treat her. Viktor reluctantly begins therapy sessions with the stranger, but very soon these sessions take a dramatic turn as the past is dragged back into the light. What really happened to Josy? Do Anna’s delusions describe Josy’s last days? And is Larenz a danger to himself and others?

Therapy is an absolutely gripping psychological thriller, an intelligent, fast and furious read that will stay with you for a long time after you have followed Viktor into the depths of his own psyche, and have figured out who Anna Glass really is.

Hard Time & Nursery Rhymes: A Mother’s Tales of Law and Disorder
By Claudia Trupp

What kind of woman leaves three young daughters at home every morning to spend her days representing convicted murderers and rapists? That is the question criminal defense attorney Claudia Trupp confronts in this sharp and riveting memoir as she seeks answers—for herself and, mostly, for her daughters. Every working mother faces the challenges of balancing work and home, but the nature of Trupp’s work makes her juggling act all the more precarious—and at times hilarious and bizarre. Trupp’s domestic anecdotes of life with her kids run parallel to narratives of her most memorable, and often unsettling, criminal cases, each providing a platform to explore broader issues such as faith, perspective, and charm. The navigation of two radically different realms—the maximum security prisons where clients serve hard time, and the home front where the nursery’s bookshelves are lined with the tales of Mother Goose—makes for thought-provoking and affecting reading. While the working mother has been a popular subject of fiction and self-help guides, this may be the only book offering a woman’s deeply personal and unapologetic account of how embracing a challenging job while simultaneously guiding a family reaps unexpected benefits on both fronts. In a memoir that will resonate powerfully with all women, Trupp candidly conveys to the reader and to her daughters the struggles and rewards of the conflicting roles in her life, the joy she has found in being a mother, and the value of meaningful work.