What the Dead Know

Thin mystery–not much mystery there at all. Hated the time frame jumping. Too much about the parents and not enough about the mystery. Did like how the discrepancies played out. Sad story.

Writing was really good. Too much switching of POV and time. Too much about the parents. Touched on difficult subjects without getting too dark. I liked the pacing.

Took SO long to set up characters, but they were still 2 dimensional. Kevin Infante was loathsome.

Infante was so obnoxious–but 2 dimensional. He didn’t get a chance to be a real character. I liked the twist/flip at the end. This was not really a mystery.

The opening hooked me–tense, interesting, exciting. Then the rest of the book let me down. Too many POVs. Should have been a family drama and not such a thin mystery.

Did not finish, too much bouncing around with time switches and POVs.

Excellent writing, I just love how Lippman can capture such granular emotions. Fragility, vulnerability, grief, but also slyness and barely contained anger. She captures the family dynamics prior to the girls going missing, and the heart-wrenching grief of the parents after. The exploration of guilt is complex and allows for moral failings without condemning anyone in a cartoonish manner. There was too much back story on Kevin Infante (cop), Gloria (defense attorney) and Kay (social worker). If this was a series and those characters were going to re-appear, then fine. But since not, it took too long, dragged on, detracted from the story. I felt the switch of perspective and time line was pretty well done.

Too many shifts, too depressing.