Hear the Dead by Ann Dávila Cardinal (publication day October 6, 2026) is a pulse-pounding thriller centering on 66-year old Elena Altieri, a former punk rock photographer who has been living a quiet life as a teacher in Vermont for the past forty years, since she fled New York City one awful day that she remembers few details of.
In the opening scene, Elena is in the doctor’s office, where she learns that she is likely headed towards total hearing loss soon, and needs hearing aids. After leaving, her Gen Z cousin calls her to tell her that her photographs from when she was young, of the recently deceased Eddie Carcinogen (who read to me like a Billy Idol-type), have gone viral after Eddie’s death. Apparently one of his songs was used in a recent streaming show so there is a renewed interest in his work 40 years later.
Elena, at the time called Lens, has locked up this part of her life, but seeing the photos she took then brings the memories right back, except for that day she left that she cannot remember.
Later chapters switch back and forth between the 1980s and the present. Soon Elena’s agent calls, and tells her that the Guggenheim wants to use her photographs as the central exhibit for a punk retrospective. She can’t say no to that, as she’s behind on her property taxes for her hermit cabin in the woods. But it hurts to think of her best friend Sin Calhoun, a bass player who was right beside her through their punk rock times . . . until she wasn’t. Just a week after Elena left the City for Vermont, she read Sin’s obituary, which claimed she died of an overdose. Elena never believed it, because neither of them ever touched the stuff.
As the story progresses, Elena keeps hearing things that she’s not sure if they are real or her tinnitus doing strange things. And sometimes when she touches something from that time period, she hears women screaming. And she begins dreaming about Sin. In New York, at the Guggenheim, they’ve recreated the CBGB’s actual bathroom for the exhibition, and there Elena hears more strange things that she’s not sure are real. Along with the strange things, she begins to remember more and more about that day, and her curiosity about what she’s hearing and what she never remembered lead her to specifically look at her photographs and see if they trigger anything.
Of course they do. She hears the sounds of several women dying when she touches their photographs. With the help of a potential love interest from long ago, Elena starts asking questions. But can she trust him? Can she trust her agent? Can she trust the people that are still around from that time long ago?
It is a wild ride–one I read in just about a single sitting! I consider it weight-neutral with one instance of mild anti-fatness said in a self-deprecating way. I loved the fact that the main character is in her sixties, still vibrant and learning more about herself. I should have expected no less from Cardinal, as I really loved her 2024 We Need No Wings. I plan to put her other books on my TBR list.
