The /Shadows We Hide by Allen Eskens

Front cover flap

I take this book personally, the fifth by Allen Eskens, I have read each one, but this was released on my November birthday!  A great present to me from me, I had preordered it on Amazon.  I read it  in November almost right after it arrived, all 339 pages,  and will be passing along my hardcopy to our local library. I think that one would be better off to have read the first novel, "The Life We Bury" to know something about the main character Joe Talbert.  This murder novel/ mystery centers on Joe's curiosity about his father, his namesake whom he has never met.  .  Joe is a successful AP reporter in this novel and still taking care of his brother Jeremy, living in Minneapolis with Lila who is studying for her bar exam and still without contact with his  errant mother.  But circumstances build and  Joe faces a crossroads of life, to give another yet second chance to his mother who  surely wore out her second chances in the last novel.  

The book opens with the lyrical writing that draws the

Back cover flap

reader in to turn page after page, "  I'm lying on the hood of my car, my back reclined against m,y windshield, knees bent, fingers laced together on my stomach and breathing relaxed to ease the throb of pain.  I'd like to say that having the tar beat out of me was the low point of my day, but that would be a lie......I feel like I'm in exile, a nomad of sorts, sharing my night with the stars and the trees and the occasional thistle seed that floats by on  the summer breeze."  He stumbles across a story about the murder of a man Joseph Talbert in a small town in southern MN.  And that sets the  turns and twists.  

Another excellent book by Allen Eskens.  A full 5 stars *****.   Buy it, read it. 

The Deep Dark Descending by Allen Eskens

Front Cover

Read this back in June,  the fourth novel by Eskens,  whom I met in April, see my previous reviews.  I reviewed this for Amazon and now will post here. It is another outstanding mystery, thriller novel.  The author has a knack for drawing the reader in and along and although I have enjoyed the 3 previous books, I agree that he keeps improving with each.  I have preordered his next one to be released in November, on my birthday and cannot wait.  This novel published in 2017 has 281 pages.  

Here is my review from Amazon, "  Another knock out thriller, mystery. I read this in June and just as with each one of Esken's novels, could not put it down. To me , it was helpful to have read his three previous novels for background in the formation of this story and how and why Max Rupert, the main character, does what he does. I was drawn along trying to second guess would Max or wouldn't he? I am not going to reveal what happens, do not want to be a spoiler. I enjoyed the reflection, page 8, of his" childhood notions of right and wrong, impressions as thin as tissue, but layered so thick in my memory that they have become walls of stone." This descriptive wording demonstrates what can stay with us through our lives despite our experiences and reflects the author's descriptive writing.style. Page 167 has another of my favorite passages, " we live in a world of gray. We are the ones in charge of the balancing. We are the reckoners." I think Eskens may have created that term, "reckoners", one unfamiliar to me before I read this mystery. And finally the consideration between justice and vengeance on pages 183-185. I am awaiting the release of Esken's 5th book soon. I became a fan of on Allen Eskens, after meeting him at our library event in La Crescent in April."  

Back cover

Not often do I eagerly await the next bpok, but Mr. Eskens told us he will not be writing quickly, a book a year might be all, this tells me he is not going to just crank out words. 

Others have commented that they are just as eager for the 5th book which will be different, as Mr Eskens revealed at his visit with us, "Max will be sitting and  contemplating.." Another reviewer addressed some negative comment about this book being written in first person, which did not bother me at all.  I agree with this review"There is one issue I want to address, however. An early review criticizes this book for being written in the first person. This book is all about Max Rupert and reveals details of his life growing up and the impact of losing his wife. It deals with his personal struggles and the questions he faces on a fateful night. This book needed to be written in the first person and is more impactful as a result."
 Another reviewer commented, "While the character of Max Rupert became increasingly important in Eskens's previous three works, the study of this police detective, clearly from this work ethical, moral, and dedicated, holds the reader grippingly throughout its relatively short span. The narrative is disturbing because quickly the reader comes to understand the deep-seated conflict Rupert faces - yes, there is a right way and a wrong way to do go about police business. And, yes, we've seen the experienced police operative driven to work off-the-books by the circumstances of the political bureaucracy that big-city police work has become. But Rupert's motivations lie deeper, more personal. And the best among us, I suspect, might quickly succumb to the dark sides of our souls given the stakes Rupert faces."

I believe it is the sign of a good read to generate so much discussion and thought.  Here is the last page, of what I consider  a 5 ***** novel   Read this novel if you like mysteries, but read the  previous first to better comprehend this character, Max. 

The Heavens May Fall by Allen Eskens

Just finished this, my 3rd Eskens book and absolutely enjoyed it.  I would recommend reading these from the beginning because of some of the characters who flow through.  Published in 2016, 298 pages, this is my favorite so far. This is a very good twister, in that just when I thought I had something figured out there was another turn.  I am enjoying Eskens because he writes in a way that draws me in, I find myself trying to solve the crime and sift the nuances, very engaging.  This story begins with the result and then  retreats to tell the story.  

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The opening paragraph, "The courtroom had fallen quiet, the judge's words lost behind a low hum that droned in Max Rupert's ears.  Max reached for his water glass, a waxy paper cup on the rail of the witness stand.  It lifted empty and light.  He didn't remember drinking the last of his water.  He paused, the empty cup halfway to his lips, unsure what to do next.  Pretend to take a drink?  Put the cup back down on the rail?"  Max Rupert, the detective,  is angry with his former friend Boady Sanders, who has returned as a defense attorney now for the defendant, Ben Pruitt on trial for the murder of his wife, Jennavieve.  Their friendship is now no more, the lines have been drawn and crossed.  Boady has not taken a client case since the death of an innocent client but comes out of his  retirement professor job to help an old colleague  Pg. 10, "He found an empty conference room, a space the size of a jail cell,  where attorneys fed false hopes to clients, a room where desperation clung to the walls as thick as grease in a fast food restaurant."  .  

Pg 15, "No, Kenwood was a neighborhood that prided itself on living well and peacefully, a neighborhood that liked to be left alone."  This is the neighborhood where the Pruitts lived.  

Pages 140-141, The title of the book comes from the Latin, "Fiat justitia ruat caelum" meaning let justice be done thought the heavens may fall.  It is a phrase Boady uses in an Ethics lecture.   " If a person is ever presented with that choice, that person must always do what is right even though it may bring on great personal loss."

Page 153, Chapter 30 begins, "There is a fog that can infect a person's brain, a thick, feverish sludge that engulfs sound and thought with an effect similar to being submerged in a tub of water. Max  had experienced this fog after his wife died.  He visited it once again the week his brother died,..."  I read and felt perhaps Max was not as rational as astute  right now, still suffering pangs of losing his wife.  

Page 177, "Boady would have returned the gesture in kind.  Winning had everything to do with knowing the case better than your opponent and nothing to do with feathers ruffling."  , 

I honestly had no idea how this novel would end, I felt that Ben Pruitt, the defendant was innocent that he  could not have killed his wife, that the cops got it wrong, Max was wrong.  Boady also believed Pruitt who had been a very successful defense attorney.  Boady agrees to represent him because he believes in Pruitt.  Because Max arrested Pruitt and is convinced he killed his wife although the alibi seems solid, Boady and Max are opposite each other.  By page 277, when the events twist and turn and turn again I never saw it coming.  Nor did I expect the ending that  happened.  This to me is a perfect mystery, written by someone very familiar with investigations.  

Pages 216-217 return back to the start of the book with Max on the witness stand.  

An excellent intrigue,  another 5 *****..  

2 novels, The Life We Bury and The Guise of Another both by Allen Eskens

Author Allen Eskens at La Crescent library

This is unusual to combine 2 novels in one post, but in April, Allen Eskens, local MN author, and new to me,  visited La Crescent and  spoke at the library.  It was by far the best talk by an author that  we have enjoyed locally, although I always enjoy meeting authors and learning about them and their writings. This was in the mid afternoon and the crowd was there, packing our small space inside the library, mostly all retired women who mostly had  had read his books previously.  I wondered why retired men do not read, but in our house Jerry prefers to do other activities and has never been the book reader like me.  The week before I was in Sam's Club and noticed "The Life We Bury" which I purchased  because I knew I would be hearing the author soon.  I did not have time to read the book before meeting him, but just out of curiosity I did read the first few pages, and I could not wait to get to it.  I was finishing another book.     Allen talked about his tendencies to daydream finally proving worthwhile as an author, how he was a below average student until he was introduced to drama and acting by an astute teacher.  A Catholic school boy from Nebraska who now lives in MN and had a previous career as a successful criminal defense attorney, he attributes his success to daydreaming, a habit he still has which keeps him taking copious notes about characters as  thoughts run through his mind.  Very interesting and then his success and sense of awe being in the same room with authors like David Baldacci,  etc.  

First novel published 2014

Well I sat there listening to him and thinking, "great just what I need another author whose books I will be buying" and thinking about my over full shelf of books I already have to read, but oh well, as he explained one novel a year is about his limit and how he tries to write about what he knows, how some of his life experiences make their way into the novels, and how he never set out to be an author nor to write a detective crime series but that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th novels just flowed that way featuring the detective Max Rupert, who actually appears at the end of The Life We Bury, his first novel.  What a great novel, and certainly not one I would have ever been  exposed to were it not for this appearance.  We learned that it is currently under consideration for film, aka movie production.  It was amusing when Allen said that once a book rights are sold to a film production company it becomes like selling your used car, you relinquish all rights and decisions to the film company.  His analogy of seeing your former car come down the street with painted fins and teeth was humorous as were several of his revelations about going to New York as a recognized author and meeting authors of renown, James Patterson, etc or merely being in the same room.  

Back cover, 300 pages paperback

Well, I knew I would want to read more than one of his novels and so was glad I brought cash along as he had a few books for sale and would autograph them, as well as any that we had previously purchased, like mine which I had also taken along for my walk up town.   I like to support authors who take the time to go out and talk with people.  So here I am with Allen Eskens and if you notice cash in my hand, ready to buy a few more books from him, sheesh I never realize how short I am until I see me in photos, although he is about 6 foot tall!  I am a midget!  Enough of my introduction.  The Life We Bury is a great mystery novel, a different perspective and I can appreciate how he has been awarded the Best Debut Mystery by the Left Coast Crime Rosebud Award, the 2015 Edgar Award Finalist for Best First Novel which got him to New York to meet the who's who of mystery writers, ITW Thriller Award Finalist for Best First Novel and the MN Book Award Finalist for Best Genre Novel.   Of course I had him autograph my books, and I really thought I would add them to my collection but I am determined to downsize.  I will be sending them along to a  longtime friend from CA, who reads vociferously too and now lives in NC, he will enjoy these..  

The opening to the Life We Bury draws a reader immediately, " I remember being pestered by a sense of dread as I walked to my car that day, pressed down by a wave of foreboding that swirled around my head and broke against the evening in small ripples.  There are people in this world who would call that kind of feeling a premonition, a warning from some internal third eye that can see around the curve of time.  I've never been one to buy into such things.  But I will confess that there have been times when I think back to that day and wonder: if the fates had truly whispered in my ear--if I had known how that drive would change so many things--would I have taken a safer path?  Would I turn left where before I turned right.  Or would I still travel the path that led me to Carl Iverson?"  These are the thoughts of Joe Talbert, the main character and this novel is written in the first person, Joe is on his way to University of MN, to complete college despite everything against him all his life.  His mother is a no account alcoholic who tends to blame her sons for her difficult life, he leaves behind his 18 year old autistic brother Jeremy, but events will change that. Interesting that Allen Eskens does not go into depth to physically describe his characters.  I wondered about that when he mentioned it, but I found while reading that  but actually prefer to go with my thoughts.  He mentioned in his discussion that he only describes what may become pertinent at some point, such as that Jeremy is better looking that Joe.  Carl Iverson will become  the center of the novel as Joe struggles to complete an English  assignment writing about an older person's life.  Joe will choose to go to a skilled nursing facility and after a struggle be given the chance to talk with Carl, who is a convicted murderer serving the final days of his sentience as a terminal cancer patient, Joe will learn more about Carl's life as a decorated Vietnam combat veteran and in the discussions  talk to Carl about his own late grandfather and his death, something Joe has never spoken about with anyone. The other characters  major to the novel are Lila Nash,Joes' apartment neighbor;  Crystal Hagen the teenage girl purportedly murdered by Carl,;Carl's only friend Virgil; Andy Fisher, Crystal's boyfriend;  Doug Lockwood, Crystal's stepfather; Danny Lockwood, Crystal's stepbrother, Berthel Collins a public defender law clerk when Carl's case was tried; Boady Sander a law professor of the Innocence Project, and Max Rupert, the Minneapolis police detective.    There are other incidental characters but I did not note them.  As it turns out I will be developing a matrix because this author uses some of these characters in subsequent novels, such as Max Rupert, the detective.  

A few quotes from The Life We Bury, Page 7, "maybe she knew who my mother was and figured that no one can change the sound of an echo.."    Page 31, "The archive room had the feel of a tabernacle with millions of souls packed away on microfilm like the incense in tiny jars, waiting for someone to free their essence..."  Page 61, "but as a sinner needs the devil, I needed a scapegoat, some one I could point at and say, 'You're  responsible.".  

Page 89 struck me, as about the 3rd time in the novel that the message, "I wasn't there, I had no say in what was or wasn't ok"  There is a theme of not to judge unless you were there and maybe not even then, Carl teaches Joe this lesson again on their first meeting.

Page 193, " But in the end there's no hole deep enough.  No matter how hard you try there are some things you just can't run away from"  

Page 195 indicates that this life is our heaven, " if I didn't live my life as if I was already in heaven, and I died and found only nothingness, well...I would have wasted my life.  " 

This is a great book, 5 *****,  my only disappointment, just like life, Joe and Jeremy's alcoholic mother seems to get by with  short changing her sons. When Joe has to bail her out at the beginning I kept hoping he would not and would just walk away, but he is a better person than her. 

The Guise of Another published in 2015 , 265 pages paperback, is the debut novel featuring Max Rupert, the Minneapolis detective but introduces Max' brother Alexander Rupert. This is when I realized I would  develop a matrix  of characters to track their appearances in the novels.    This novel opens with a tryst between to people married to others and their foolish sexual activities that ruin their lives and kill James Erkel Putnam, driver of the Porsche who turns out to not be James, thus giving the title meaning.  

The opening of this novel, "That night, there were a few things that the man knew to a religious certainty.  He knew that he's soon be having sex with the woman sitting in the passenger seat of his Lexus.  He knew that neither his wife nor the woman's husband yet suspected their infidelities.  And he knew that any whisper of guilt he may have felt would soon be silenced by the tumult of their act."  

Back Cover Guise of Another

Alexander Rupert  is a Minneapolis detective banished to fraud units investigations.  His life is spiraling downward.  He was a Medal of Valor winner ( a police honor) but now under subpoena by grand jury on suspicion of corruption, shunned by other detectives, suspects his status conscious wife is having an affair but seizes an opportunity to resolve a complex case of identity theft.  Alexander encounters a trained assassin, Drago Basta, veteran of Balkan wars with many aliases, who has been searching for James Putnam for years,  The firm Patrio International  is a focus of contacts,corruption, murder and more .  As Alexander pursues his hunches against the wishes of his superiors but helped out by his brother Max, the identity theft and international implications explode from Minneapolis to New York. Alexander become too late smart as the novel winds down and he realizes that running off with Ianna Markova is not wise,  it will cost him his life.   

Page 25, "  Alexander's fall from grace.  Their recent conversations skipped like stones across the surface of their lives, never finding depth, never touching the trouble that had been visited upon Alexander."

This novel is another  5*****.  I could not wait to begin reading the 3rd.