The Life We Bury

Thru at least halfway thru this book it was a solid five stars. Somewhere after the halfway mark, the shift of focus was not only less enjoyable, but often implausible. The narrator; however, did a very nice job.

thenextgoodbook.com

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
300 pages

What’s it about?
Joe Talbert is a University of Minnesota college student with a complicated family life. Behind on a college assignment he decides to write the biography of a convicted murderer named Carl Iverson. Has he learns more about Carl he is slowly drawn into the circumstances of the crime. Who really committed the murder back in 1980? Was it Carl or someone else?

What did I think?
Unintentionally, I find I am reading one good first novel after another! This was a really good suspense thriller. A few times I had to check by disbelief, but in general I found the pages just flew by.

Should you read it?
Absolutely! This novel has crime, suspense, and romance- what more could you ask for in a page turner?

Quote-
“The idea of interviewing a murderer didn’t sit well with me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I warmed up to it. I had put off starting this project for too long. September was almost over and I’d have to turn in my interview notes in a few weeks. My classmates had their horses out of the staring gate and my nag was still back in the barn munching on hay. Carl Iverson would have to be my subject- if he agreed.”

If you like this try-
The Hand That feeds you by A.J. Rich
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

What drew me in initially was the murder mystery, but on its own I’m not sure that would have kept me. The crime itself isn’t especially perplexing; I correctly guessed the truth pretty early on (though, admittedly, I did let one red herring draw me briefly off course). But the book gains some depth from the parallel storylines—especially Carl’s time in Vietnam and the plight of Joe’s brother—which give the book enough depth to keep you intrigued. The combination of crime story, moral reflection, and personal drama works well. There are connections and reflections among them, so that each lends the others more weight, and the pacing is handled well enough to keep them in balance. There are a few issues. As usual, I wasn’t crazy about the frame. I admit that it was necessary: Joe makes a good narrator precisely because he’s not part of the original story at all, so obviously there was going to have to be some kind of frame to bring him into that world. And he’s a fine conduit into the story. His voice feels believable, and he’s easy to spend time with. But the frame itself stretches well beyond believability, and undermines the book overall. Then too, I have to say that Joe’s guilt narrative is pretty thin—it felt like a shallow reflection of Carl’s much more compelling, less absurd backstory. Carl’s bouts of conscience are weighty and resonant, though I couldn’t believe they would cause him to acquiesce so easily to his own conviction—especially as he knew it would let a murderer go free. It’s not hard to see, after all, that DJ’s later victims would have been saved if the truth in this case had been found. To whatever extent Carl’s docility allowed DJ to stay free, that too becomes something he has to answer for. Also, for crying out loud, that would have been an easy “code” (actually just a very simple cipher) to crack. Supposedly they tried using the frequency-of-letters approach, but that certainly would crack such a basic cipher. You just have to suspend disbelief there; otherwise the story stops cold. To be honest, this detail alone has made me waver between three & four stars for the book. It seems unfair to dock an entire star for one plot point, but it is a point that the entire plot hangs on, and it’s sooooo weak. In the end, since I think the other plotlines are at least as important as the murder mystery, I’m going to give it a pass. But back to what worked . . . the ending does. The red herring with the father is cleverly handled, and the step-brother’s reveal feels earned rather than artificial. The wrap-up of Joe’s own story is both believable (ish) and satisfying, as is the well-timed resolution to Carl’s. In all, it’s a better-than-average genre read, and I could see why someone might want to continue with the series.

Very interesting read. I was drawn in right away and stayed compelled to read to the end. Great twists and turns.

You know those stories that you just know are going to stick with you? This is certainly one of those for me!