Sunday, August 15, 2010

Books: What the Dead Know

What the Dead Know is another book I found around the house that I hadn't read. Laura Lippman is a new author for me and I already feel bad because I probably won't read another.

The premise is that two sisters go missing and years later a woman appears at the site of a hit and run claiming she's one of them.

The most interesting part of the book was the last 38 pages - and the book is 366 pages long. I really don't even feel like I know the characters because she spent a lot of time describing the scenery through the characters eyes. One expects to have the author spend a lot of writing on the set up at the beginning. At about 40 pages in one has a good idea of the story. That set up was about 300 pages long. I kinda felt like I was walking through sludge.

Amazon reviewers gave her an average of 4 stars. But everyone who gave it 1 or 2 was feeling the same way I did about the book. Sorry, but you'd have better luck reading the back of the book and coming up with a great story yourself. :(

1 comment:

Oh to Be a Muse said...

sucks that you had to read almost 400 pages when there were only about 40 good pages. i hate when the back cover is so much better than the book itself. i'm actually trying to find a new book for book club--got any ideas? (no romance novels though) :)

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