The Life We Bury (2014) By Allen Eskens

 

The Life We Bury is the debut novel published twelve years ago by writer Allen Eskens. He has been rather prolific since then, penning an additional ten novels mostly following the careers of various characters first introduced in the debut book.

Blogging on mystery books is always difficult because I don’t want to divulge the ending, and I will not with this book. That said …   

The main character in The Life We Bury is a college student at the University of Minnesota. His name is Joe Talbert and this semester he has a writing class. His assignment for the class is to write a biography of a living person – the premise being that every person’s life is an interesting story, whether they are a rock star or a house painter, and a good writer ought to be able to find that story. Running out of time to find an interview subject, and write the assignment, Joe goes to a nursing home in a last minute search of an interesting person.

The resident he settles on is a convicted rapist and murderer named Carl who has been transferred from prison to the nursing home for hospice care to live out the final two-three months of his life sentence before he dies from cancer. Believe me, this is by no means a Tuesdays with Morrie kind of story but is perhaps as compelling.

To prepare for the interview, Joe begins researching the court records and news clippings of the trial from 30 years ago. Informed, Joe meets with Carl, who denies the rape and the murder, but seems uninterested in clearing his name before his pending death. Joe thinks he’s guilty but continues his assignment.

Each step of the writing project takes Joe deeper into the case, to the point he begins to believe Carl is actually innocent.

There are a number of subplots that are vital to this story. One is Joe’s family situation, which consists of his alcoholic mother, and a brother with autism named Jeremy. Joe’s need to escape this environment for his own sanity by going away to college, is counter balanced by his overwhelming feeling of guilt for doing so, his pain is real. Inadvertently, Jeremy will play a critical role in the story. Another subplot of importance is Carl’s military service during the Vietnam “Conflict.”

Recommendation: Good read. I will read more of Eskens’ novels.