Whispers from the Dead

Whispers from the Dead (1989), a young adult mystery novel by American author Joan Lowery Nixon, follows 16-year-old Sarah Darnell, whose near-death experience in a swimming accident leaves her able to communicate with ghosts: haunted by the spirit of a migrant worker named Rosa Luiz, Sarah decides to investigate her murder. Whispers from the Dead was hailed as “yet another carefully plotted, subtly terrifying thriller” (Publishers’ Weekly) from Nixon, the only author to have won four Edgar Allen Poe Awards (the highest award given by the Mystery Writers of America), on top of five further nominations.

One summer in Spring, Missouri, 16-year-old Sarah Darnell goes swimming with her friends at a local lake. She is testing her ability to stay underwater when a friend cannonballs, landing on her and driving her to the lakebed, where her leg becomes tangled in weeds. Running out of oxygen, Sarah begins to drown and has a profound out-of-body experience.

Promptly rescued, Sarah survives without long-term injury. However, she is left with a phobic terror of swimming and large bodies of water and, as time goes on, she begins having visions, which seem to reveal the memories of dead people. Soon Sarah is convinced that she is really seeing “the other side,” and she reveals her experiences to her closest friends. They are skeptical and worry about her mental health. Sarah’s parents have the same reaction, sending her to a psychiatrist. Sarah learns to keep her visions to herself, but she can’t doubt their reality.



Sarah’s father announces that he is being transferred to Houston, Texas, and the whole family is glad to put Sarah’s brush with death behind them. Sarah isn’t sorry to say goodbye to her disbelieving friends. However, the moment Sarah steps inside her family’s new home, she feels paralyzed by a powerful chill, which it’s evident her family doesn’t feel:

“Then, out of the silence came a whisper so heartbreaking, so desperate, that it dragged me forward: ‘Ayudame! Ayudame!’

“My heart was pounding so loudly that I could hear it in my ears as I moved closer to the railing, bent over, and looked straight down.



“Directly below me, under the brown-red splattered walls, lay a pool of blood.”

Sarah is convinced that something awful once happened in the house, and her conviction is confirmed when she obtains a Spanish-English phrasebook and learns that “Ayudame” means “Help me.”

Asking around at school, Sarah learns that, in fact, everyone knows that something terrible happened in the Darnell’s new home. Darlene, a pizza delivery girl was inexplicably murdered by Adam Holt, the teenage son of the house’s previous occupants. Adam confessed to the murder but was freed on a procedural technicality unique to Texas state law. His family has moved away from the neighborhood.



Sarah’s father isn’t too impressed to learn this information: the realtor who sold him the house is also their next-door neighbor.

Meanwhile, Sarah soon learns that Darlene wasn’t a Spanish speaker. Investigating further, she learns that the Holts had a Spanish-speaking maid, Rosa Luiz, possibly an illegal migrant from Latin America. She disappeared while the Holts were still living in the house, but everyone assumed she had gone home.

Alongside her investigations, Sarah is settling into her new life better than she had hoped. She has become good friends with the neighbor girl, Dee Dee, and she has even found a boyfriend. Tony is an older boy who lives on the other side of the city. Mysterious and charismatic, he is powerfully attractive to Sarah, who has never been blown away by a boy before. He also seems to truly care about her, and it is all Sarah can do not to fall head-over-heels in love.



Sarah continues to commune with Rosa, learning about the life of an illegal migrant worker and piecing together the circumstances of Rosa’s death. In a vision, she learns where Rosa’s killer hid her belongings and she finds them, still in place. Finally, she catches a glimpse of her killer: “Suddenly a scream tore the air, and I clapped my hands over my ears. Before me, I saw Rosa being dragged across the floor. Her blouse had been ripped off. Her skirt was torn. She was screaming, struggling against a tall blond boy who bent over her, his right hand clutching a kitchen knife.”

Knowing that Adam Holt was tall and blond, Sarah is certain: Adam killed Rosa and concealed her body. She knows that if she tells her parents they will be worried about her, so instead, she goes to the police and tries to persuade them to open an investigation into Rosa’s disappearance. Without evidence of a crime, they won’t proceed.

Increasingly frustrated, Sarah decides to take the risk of revealing her secret to Tony, whom she has grown to trust deeply. She tells him about her visions, explains her theory that Adam killed Rosa, and reveals the evidence she has found. Tony believes her, but he warns her to be careful who she tells. He also has an idea for a date: he wants to take her to a remote lake. Sarah explains that she is frightened of water.



Someone breaks into Sarah’s house: nothing is missing except Rosa’s belongings. Sarah concludes that the murderer is still around and fears being caught.

In another vision, Sarah learns that Rosa’s body is buried—together with the murder weapon—by a remote lake. By piecing together clues from the vision, she works out which lake it is. It’s the lake Tony wanted to take her to. The clues snap into place and Sarah realizes that Tony is Adam Holt. She calls the police and waits in their car while they investigate.

Tony arrives at the scene and attempts to kill Sarah with the knife he used to kill Rosa. The police kill him. The novel ends with Sarah overcoming her fear of water and swimming again.