The Shadows We Hide

Starred review from September 3, 2018
Joe Talbert, last seen in Edgar-finalist Eskens’s debut, 2014’s The Life We Bury, is now a Minneapolis-based Associated Press reporter. In this brilliant sequel full of deeply developed characters, Talbert feels compelled to investigate after he runs across a story detailing the murder of Joe “Toke” Talbert, a person he never met but could have been his father, in the small southern Minnesota town of Buckley. A junk car collector rumored to be involved in more than a few felonious crimes, Toke could have been killed by any number of locals. Talbert’s search for answers becomes complicated when he discovers that Toke’s wife recently committed suicide and his late father stood in line to inherit millions. Eskens keeps readers guessing until the last pages in this darkly lyrical and brutally intimate story of one man’s journey of self-discovery. Agent: Amy Cloughley, Kimberley Cameron Agency.

November 1, 2018

Joe Talbert's journalism career is on the line after a senator files suit over a story and Joe refuses to reveal his source. Just as Joe is forced to take a leave of absence, he receives word that his long-absent father has been murdered. Using the mystery of Joe "Toke" Talbert's death as a distraction from his legal worries, his responsibilities for his autistic brother, and a widening distance with his girlfriend, Joe takes off to investigate the killing. While he's not surprised to learn that Toke terrorized his neighbors, he's shocked to learn he might now be heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune. Even more shocking, he might have to split his fortune with a half-sister, Angel, if she survives an overdose-induced coma. Joe will have to wade into the waters of family dysfunction before he can find closure. VERDICT Featuring characters from Eskens's debut, The Life We Bury, this title by the "Max Rupert" mysteries author begins slowly but gains momentum as the circumstances surrounding Toke's death unravel. While the ending wraps up a little too perfectly, readers will enjoy the ride. Newcomers will be able to follow the story but may wish they had started with the first book. [See Prepub Alert, 5/14/18.]{amp}mdash;Jennifer Beach, Longwood Univ. Lib., Farmville, VA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2018
In this sequel to Eskens' debut thriller, The Life We Bury? (2014), Joe Talbert is a reporter for the Associated Press in Minneapolis when he's faced with a handful of emergencies. First, he's sued for defamation by a state senator whose sex scandal Talbert's reporting revealed; Talbert won't give up his source, leaving his career uncertain. Then he learns that a Joseph Talbert has been killed in a small town just hours away; could it be the father he has never known? Joe leaves the apartment he shares with girlfriend Lila, who's studying for the bar exam, and his younger, autistic brother, Jeremy, to check out the murder. But his nosing around is not particularly welcome: his relationship to the victim, known as Toke Talbert (whom no one in town is sorry to see dead), is suspect, especially with a sizable inheritance at stake from land handed down to Toke's wife, who committed suicide months earlier. This may lack some of the tension of Eskens' debut, but murder, arson, betrayal, and reconciliation will keep pages turning and leave readers eager for more of Joe Talbert.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)