The Shadows We Hide: The highly acclaimed sequel to The Life We Bury

Journalist Joe Talbert investigates the murder of the father he never knew, and must reckon with his own family's past, in this "brilliant sequel" to the national bestseller The Life We Bury (Publishers Weekly)

Joe Talbert, Jr. has never once met his namesake. Now out of college, a cub reporter for the Associated Press in Minneapolis, he stumbles across a story describing the murder of a man named Joseph Talbert in a small town in southern Minnesota.

Full of curiosity about whether this man might be his father, Joe is shocked to find that none of the town's residents have much to say about the dead man-other than that his death was long overdue. Joe discovers that the dead man was a loathsome lowlife who cheated his neighbors, threatened his daughter, and squandered his wife's inheritance after she, too, passed away -- an inheritance that may now be Joe's.

Mired in uncertainty and plagued by his own devastated relationship with his mother, who is seeking to get back into her son's life, Joe must put together the missing pieces of his family history -- before his quest for discovery threatens to put him in a grave of his own.

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Published Oct 1, 2019

352 pages

Average rating: 8.07

27 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Mary Pat Holt
Feb 05, 2026
6/10 stars
While this is a follow up story to The Life We Bury, it could be read as a stand alone. Joe Talbert Jr. is back. This time he is investigating the murder of the father he never knew while discovering things about his own past. Joe and Lila are still together and Joe's autistic brother, Jeremey lives with them. As Joe searches for the truth, will he lose those closest to him?

This is a well written story but I was having a hard time keeping some the characters straight. Not sure why, might have just been distracted but I still enjoyed the book. I really like Joe. He's very relatable.

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