What the Dead Know

Second book for RIP……

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman.

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks(February 10, 2009)
ISBN-10: 006177135X

 

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Edgar-winner Lippman, author of the Tess Monaghan mystery series (No Good Deeds, etc.), shows she's as good as Peter Abrahams and other A-list thriller writers with this outstanding stand-alone. A driver who flees a car accident on a Maryland highway breathes new life into a 30-year-old mystery—the disappearance of the young Bethany sisters at a shopping mall—after she later tells the police she's one of the missing girls. As soon as the mystery woman drops that bombshell, she clams up, placing the new lead detective, Kevin Infante, in a bind, as he struggles to gain her trust while exploring the odd holes in her story. Deftly moving between past and present, Lippman presents the last day both sisters, Sunny and Heather, were seen alive from a variety of perspectives. Subtle clues point to the surprising but plausible solution of the crime and the identity of the mystery woman.

I do like a mystery when only small pieces at a time are doled out like pieces of a puzzle and you are to try to figure out how they fit together.  AND.. I love, love, love a book with short chapters! (it makes me read more at each sitting then I would if the book had long chapters).  This book had both.  Short chapters  and a “cold case” mystery to be solved.

Generally I am not a lover of a “detective” type mystery but when it isn’t always stating “police” it instantly becomes more interesting to me.

I think I originally picked up this (used) book especially for RIP and although it wasn’t all bloody and gory it was a good mystery, and being a 30 yr old cold case made it even more interesting.

Not a bad read at all, although it won’t make my “reread” list…that takes a “wow, fantastic” book . But if you like cold cases you will probably enjoy this book.

Meanwhile, I had begun a different book before What the Dead Know, called Nevermore.  According to the Amazon review it had everything I enjoy in a mystery book!… but after 129 pages I gave up.  The writing just didn’t capture me..but I like to put it out there because we don’t all have the same tastes when it comes to reading…

Nevermore by William Hjortsberg

From Library Journal

Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle join forces in this historical mystery with occult overtones. In his later years, Doyle has become a true believer in mediums who speak with the spirits of the dead. Houdini, as a master of illusion, takes pride in exposing and debunking such fraudulent people. Despite their opposing views, a mutual interest in the occult draws them together in a respectful friendship. When murders patterned after the tales of Edgar Allan Poe begin to occur, Houdini and Doyle are as fascinated as the rest of the citizens of New York. When they discover that all the victims have a distant relationship to Houdini, they decide to work together to solve the mystery. Nevermore is an enjoyable though sometimes gruesome adventure that is much enhanced by the author's use of the many details behind Houdini's amazing escapes and magic tricks