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Allen Eskens: The life we bury (2014) 3 stars

"An ordinary writing assignment for a college English class brings Joe face-to-face with a dying …

Review of 'The life we bury' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Came highly recommended, but just hit enjoyable for me. I also was surprised to see it touted as first in a series for a character who barely appears. Interesting strategy.

We follow Joe Talbert, college student who has had a bit of a tough upbringing but is pulling himself up by his bootstraps, friends. You are meant to like him instantly. He's a good guy with a crappy mother and an autistic brother. Joe has to write a biographical story and chooses to write about some random person in a nursing home. Luckily for him, a convicted murderer is spending his last dying days there, and we are off to the races with a series of unfortunate events. Oh, and Mr. Nice Guy Joe is all about his neighbor, and he eventually nice guy's his way into her life, as you might expect. Odd partners in crime, but they determine the killer is wrongfully convicted and run off to accuse the real killer. That's as bad of an idea as it sounds, for sure.

It was decent enough for 3 stars and I would tell you to give it a read if you like mysteries and characters who don't always make good decisions.