The author grew up on
the hills of central Missouri and now lives in Austin, Minnesota. Allen
has a law degree, but retired from his criminal defense law practice to
write novels. In addition to earning a law degree, he studied creative
writing and earned a journalism degree from the University of
Minnesota. Writing is his passion and he is drawn to mysteries because of
his former criminal law practice. He admittedly is not a good reader, but
proclaims himself as a thinker. Allen’s first novel was rejected by 150
agents!
One of the main
characters in The Life We Bury, Joe, is modeled somewhat after
Allen. Joe is a teenager “dying to get out of this blue collar
town”. Allen went to college far away from his hometown to escape from being
drafted into the family drywall business. Joe also loves a good
mystery. In this novel, Joe’s college writing assignment, along with his
curiosity and desire to solve a mystery, take him on quite a journey, one that
he will never forget!
The characters are
Joe, Lila, Carl and Jeremy - Joe’s autistic brother, Joe & Jeremy’s mother,
Larry who is mom’s boyfriend, Virgil and Grandpa Bill and Kathy Nelson. The story begins with Joe’s trip to the local nursing home to find a willing
participant to interview and write a brief biography about for his college
English writing assignment. He is matched with resident Carl Iverson who
has been “medically paroled” after spending 30 years in prison and begins
interviewing him. Joe soon learns that there is much more to Carl
than the crimes he was found guilty of. How does a Vietnam War
medal of honor recipient go from heroism to committing rape and
murder?
Joe only has a
short time to unravel Carl’s life story and confirm his guilt or prove his
innocence. Not only does Joe’s
assignment have a deadline, Carl could die any day from his cancer. Joe’s own life story does not make it easy
for him – it’s one almost as complicated as Carl’s. Joe’s mother is an
alcoholic and abuses her sons. Now that Joe has gone off to college, his
autistic brother is left behind to take the brunt of those beatings and Joe is
not there to protect him from their mother and mother’s boyfriend. When
Joe ends up having to take care of his brother, life becomes even more
complicated.
--> We all agreed that we were drawn into the story from the beginning. We laughed about and could relate to the Spam reference! Allen now lives in Austin, Minnesota, the home of Spam!! For the most part, the book received high ratings from the Lit-Wits. Some do not like thriller mysteries, especially if they deal with rape, war, etc. and some did not like the last 1/4 of the book feeling it became unbelievable, unrealistic drama. Most agreed that it was an easy read and we tagged the same characters as heroes and demons.
Author's website: http://alleneskens.com/
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