What the Dead Know

• The Bethany family: Dave and Miriam (née Toles); daughters Heather and Sunny • Penelope Jackson – registered owner of a car in a highway accident • Detective Kevin Infante – lead investigator • Harold Lenhardt – Infante's sergeant • Gloria Bustamante – lawyer • Nancy Porter – police researcher and Infante's former police partner • Kay Sullivan – social worker at St. Agnes Hospital; children Seth and Grace • Dr. Schumeier – psychiatrist at St. Agnes Hospital • Chester "Chet" V. Willoughby IV – retired detective • Stan Dunham – former Pennsylvania property owner • Irene – a foster mother • Tony Dunham – man killed in a Florida house fire • Roy Pincharelli – music teacher • Joe – art gallery owner • Javier – art gallery employee • Jeff and Thelma Baumgarten – couple in fidelity crisis • Ruth Leibig – Ohio school girl • Estelle and Herb Turner – practitioners of Fivefold Path spirituality • Priscilla "Syl" Browne – employee at "Swiss Colony" restaurant == Critical reception ==

Reviewers saw What the Dead Know as a success both as a well-crafted mystery and as an emotionally powerful novel. The Guardian described the novel as a "realistic and poignant detailing of emotional hide-and-seek, ... an excellent mystery and a thoughtful exploration of the nature and effects of grief and loss." Kirkus Reviews praised the novel, noting that "Lippman (To the Power of Three, 2005, etc.) crafts a tale that resonates long after the last page is turned." Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised What the Dead Know as "an uncommonly clever imposter story", "three-dimensional", and worthy of reading a second time — "You read it once just to move breathlessly toward the finale. Then you revisit it to marvel at how well Ms. Lippman pulled the wool over your eyes." ==References==