Author: Allen Eskens
Year published: 2014
Category: Adult fiction (thriller)
Pages: 304 pages
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Location: (my 2025 Google Reading map): USA (MN)
Summary: College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder. As Joe writes about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with his dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving his autistic brother vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory. Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. But as he and Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow higher. Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout?
Review: I have enjoyed the previous Allen Eskens novels that I've read: The Quiet Librarian, Saving Emma, Foresaken Country, and Nothing More Dangerous (links to my reviews). OMG. I finished this book in one blissful day of reading. I had a Saturday with not much going on and got pulled into this novel, Eskens' debut.
Eskens is so good at building tension, leading the reader down storylines that are tight, interesting, and so believable. His characters are real, and each time, I feel I am in the story with them. I despise the villains and I desperately want the main characters to be successful and ok.
This story was complex, with red herrings (of course) that were totally believable, a tragic storyline (with a hint of hope throughout), and a crime that makes the reader want the villain to be caught... NOW.
If you've read other Eskens novels and enjoyed them, I highly recommend this one.
Challenges for which this counts:
- Alphabet (Title)--L
- Cover Lover--Creepy old house or building
- Literary Escapes--Massachusetts and Russia
- Mount TBR
No comments
Post a Comment