I am doing a good job making a progress on the mystery-related stories on my TBR! I saw mystery-related because I didn’t think this really had the tropes of a mystery or a thriller, it was more like a character study in the guise of a mystery to me.

What the Dead Know starts when a woman has an accident and then runs away. When caught by the policeman, she claims that she’s one of the Bethany girls, the twin (blonde, obviously) sisters who disappeared thirty years ago. Kevin Infante and the rest of the detectives have to verify her claims – is she who she says she is, and are the accusations she’s making true?

The reason I say this is a character study wrapped in a mystery is because while the mystery of why the girls disappeared is solved in the end, it feels like the focus of the book is on the characters and what they think/feel. The book has a triple-timeline structure (before the disappearance/after the disappearance/present day) so we get to see how Heather Bethany, the younger sister, was feeling; what Sunny Bethany felt; how each parent reacted to the disappearance of their daughters; some insight into most of the police force mentioned – what does Kevin Infante think of the women he meets, what does the retired Chet Willoughby think of the young detective Nancy, etc.

Of course, the pacing of this book is pretty slow since it has to cover all this emotion and multiple timelines. There was some tension coming from the fact that we don’t know what happened that day, but honestly, I wasn’t in a rush to get to the end of the book. If it weren’t for the fact that I read this while Iwas sick and unable to do much except read, I don’t think I would have finished the story so quickly.

That said, I did enjoy the story. Pretty much no one here is likeable, but there is something fascinating about watching all these people. I honestly didn’t like the child Bethany – she was really a brat trying to manipulate, I’m sorry to say. Sunny, I felt pity for because I understand what it’s like to feel awkward. The detectives were trying to do their job, but honestly, the entire case was solved by one person that wasn’t part of the police, so it felt like there were there to provide more characters for the story.

I know my review sounds pretty negative, which is strange because I normally wouldn’t finish a book if I didn’t like it – my days of having to complete everything I start are over. I guess despite it all, there was something in this story that held my attention and got me through to the end.

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