Priscilla Collins

In his debut novel The Life We Bury, Allen Eskens writes a gripping mystery that leaves you guessing until the very end. The story begins in Minnesota, where a college student, Joe Talbert is working on an English assignment. Joe isn’t altogether thrilled about the assignment because his home life is less than prefect. The professor has asked each student to interview a person in their life and write that person’s biography. Many students pick the obvious choice of a family member, but for Joe that isn’t an option—he doesn’t know his father and his mother is an alcoholic who suffers from a bipolar disorder.

In the story, Joe has left his hometown of Austin, Minnesota in hopes of shedding the reminder of the mother who isn’t a mother at all. The only thing that keeps Joe in contact with his mother is his younger brother, Jeremy. He knows Jeremy will always need him because although his mom does the bare minimum in her role as a parent, Jeremy requires much more than that because he has autism.

Joe feels that neither his mom nor his brother are unsuitable candidates for his biographical assignment, and Joe has no living grandparents that he can interview, so he decides that visiting a local nursing home may be his best choice. He quickly realizes after a discussion with the receptionist at Hillview that most of the residents are not good candidates either. These patients have been placed in the nursing home because they suffer from Alzheimer’s, dementia, or some other neurological disease that makes them no longer able to care for themselves. Joe had not previously considered these realities of nursing home life, but he does manage to find one Hillview resident who is capable of being interviewed: he is Carl Iverson.

When Janet (the receptionist) and Mrs. Lorngern (the director of Hillview) are arguing over who Joe could actually interview, Carl’s name is first presented. Mrs. Lorngern cuts Janet off when she mentions his name, but Joe insists that they tell him who Mr. Iverson is; after some convincing, they tell Joe his story. Carl Iverson is a convicted murderer who was paroled and sent to Hillview to live out his last three burrowed months because he is dying of pancreatic cancer. The two women show little remorse for the dying man, and instead fill Joe in on the gory details. They tell him that thirty years ago Carl raped and murdered a fourteen-year-old girl and attempted to hide the evidence by burning her body in his shed.

These facts leave Joe with a decision to make. He knows Carl will have a story to tell, but he must ask himself if the story is worth writing or, more importantly, will he believe the story Carl tells him?

After meeting Carl, Joe realizes the man he sees doesn’t look like a murderer, but the first judgement cannot always be trusted. Carl begins the interview by telling Joe that he knows why he wants to interview him. He knows Joe wants the story about the murder case; he presents Joe with a statement that will leave the young college student questioning every detail from here on out. Joe refers to Carl’s murder as “killing someone,” but Mr. Iverson corrects him: “There is a difference. I’ve done both. I’ve killed…and I’ve murdered.”

As the story unfolds Joe and his cute neighbor Lila begin digging into the past of Carl Iverson. What will they find concerning this thirty-year-old case that’s long been considered solved and closed? Will they uncover evidence that wasn’t there before? Or will they discover the truth about Carl Iverson and the buried truth about Crystal Hagen, the fourteen-year-old girl whose life was taken?

This is only some of the suspense and mystery in The Life We Bury. Each chapter brings more details for Joe and Lila to ponder, causing them to question every minuscule detail of that fall day in 1980. With the addition of his alcoholic mother who can’t stay out of trouble, and his autistic brother who can’t be left alone, Joe dives into the past of Carl Iverson and Crystal Hagen to uncover the truth that gives him more than he’s bargained for and in the end he may not want to know.

For a debut novel, Eskens has set the bar high in this thrilling fiction. Eskens keeps the interest of his reader through the relatable character of Joe Talbert and the real life issues he must deal with: his dysfunctional mother, the brother who needs him, and the girl next door who does more than catches his eye. Like Joe, many of us have family members who we were not all proud to call ‘family.’ We can relate to Carl Iverson in our own regrets when we ourselves choose the path that is less straight. Lila is skeptical throughout the book, and its easy for us to understand why. Pair this with the intriguing story of Carl Iverson and the murder he has been convicted of, and we have a book that is hard to put down.

The intended audience for the novel is young adult and older. There are certain parts of the book that would be neither appropriate for a younger reader nor understood. As a reader one must put into practice the “willing suspension of disbelief.” While reading, you take in every word and detail as if your own life is that of Joe Talbert. It is hard to keep from being enthralled in the suspense of the murder case from the long forgotten past. The title of the book, The Life We Bury, could not be more fitting. More than being a well-chosen title, it also serves to tie together the main motif of the story: each of the characters has secrets in their past and dark places in their lives that are uncovered. Along with the appropriate title, the book cover aims to spark any reader’s interest. The cover is a simple picture of a small shack or barn in the dead of winter and the ground is covered in snow. This leads the reader to think of what could be buried under the snow and the implications of the appearance snow gives to a yard or field full of sticks and rocks. The book jacket also provides enough details to spark interest without spoiling the ending.

Allen Eskens attended the University of Minnesota where he majored in journalism. He later went on to earn a Juris Doctorate from Hamline University School of Law. From there he developed his writing skills further in a Master of Fine Arts program at Minnesota State University. Eskens has practiced law in criminal defense for 23 years. In addition to writing novels, Eskens continues to practice law. His latest work is a novel titled Guise of Another, which is once again a crime packed story revolving around an actual detective.

There’s no doubt that his years as a lawyer have provided him with vast knowledge on the subject of crime and helped him to develop intriguing mysteries. Eskens also uses something else in his background to help improve his writing—a technique he has named “The Jack—and—Jill exercise.” Here is Eskens’s explanation from his blog:

Basically, the Jack-and-Jill exercise is to take a nursery rhyme (like Jack and Jill) and rewrite it into a short story of some length relying on skills other than plot. Because the plot is already laid out and well known before the exercise begins, it forces me to focus on those other elements of story such as description, dialogue, pacing and character. To me, it feels like I’m working out those literary muscles that tend to atrophy when I focus too much on plot.

Eskens is exactly right in his ideology behind the story versus the plot. As a writer one must focus on the devices of literature just as much as the content. As an analogy, I like to think of a couple dancing together. In the genre of thrilling mysteries, the couple would likely be dancing the tango. In a precision dance like the tango a dancer must be very responsive to their partner. They must move when their partner moves, while also complimenting the partner’s abilities.

A well written story works in the same manner. The form and literary devices that are used must be responsive to the content that is contained within them. When these two elements of technique and content tango well together, the result is a story worthy of being a great story. If The Life We Bury is any indication of what we can expect from Allen Eskens, then we as readers are in for great suspense and thrill through dynamic settings and well-written story lines.

(1). Eskins, Allen. The Life We Bury. Amherst: Seventh Street Books. 2014 (Ebook edition).

(2). Eskens, Allen. “How nursery rhymes helped my writing.” Allen Eskens blogspot. Web. 24 Mar. 2016