The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

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🔍 The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

Murder, Minnesota, and the most emotionally unavailable nursing home resident ever

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 out of 5 stars)
💔 Mystery | 🎓 Coming-of-Age | 😱 Crime Fiction | 🥶 Blizzards & Betrayals

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT!
This blog post spills more secrets than a nosy Minnesota grandma with binoculars. If you haven’t read The Life We Bury yet, go grab it first. Trust me — the twists deserve your full attention.
Buy The Life We Bury on Amazon

📖 Plot Summary: The Homework Assignment That Uncovered a Killer

Meet Joe Talbert, a 21-year-old student at the University of Minnesota, just trying to survive school, support his autistic brother Jeremy, and not get murdered while writing an English paper.

His assignment? Interview an older person and write their biography.
His first idea? Interview his mom, Kathy, who’s... not great. (Picture a tornado of poor decisions, bad boyfriends, and alcohol.)
So instead, Joe heads to a nursing home with no hills and zero views (Hillview Manor, the irony), where he’s introduced to Carl Iverson: a Vietnam War hero... and convicted murderer/child molester.

Nothing says “A+ biography” like war medals and murder charges.

🧓 Carl: The Human Moral Dilemma

Carl is dying of pancreatic cancer, which means he’s got zero time for Joe’s polite college-boy nonsense. He also claims he’s innocent of the brutal rape and murder of 14-year-old Crystal Hagen, even though her burned body was found in his backyard, and her fake nail on his porch.

Seems pretty damning, right?

But Joe isn’t convinced. Especially after meeting Carl’s war buddy, Virgil, who insists Carl was a genuine hero and absolutely not the murdering kind. In Vietnam, Carl literally had a gun pointed at his head for refusing to rape civilians. So, yeah — not the usual serial predator profile.

👶 Family Drama? We’ve Got That Too.

Let’s not forget Joe’s personal chaos.
His mom, Kathy, is either MIA, drunk, or letting her boyfriend Larry hit Joe’s little brother Jeremy. So Joe becomes a part-time parent, full-time student, and accidental amateur detective.

Also, we must pause to appreciate the adorable slow-burn romance with his neighbor Lila, who bonds with Jeremy before Joe can even work up the courage to say hi. (Jeremy literally knocks on her door, complains about the TV, and boom — she’s watching a movie with him like they’re besties.)

Jeremy: 1
Joe: 0

🔎 The Investigation: CSI: Dorm Room Edition

Joe digs into Crystal’s murder like a true crime TikToker with no chill. He cracks open her old diary, where she describes a stalker named “DJ” — but the final entries are written in code.

Enter: Jeremy, the unexpected code-breaking genius.

Jeremy figures out the key is “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” (Because of course it is. Shoutout to typewriter class.) They decode the journal, and BAM — Crystal names her attacker as DJ.

So who is DJ?

  • Douglas Lockwood, Crystal’s lovely stepfather, has the middle name Joseph.

  • Daniel Lockwood, the stepbrother, doesn’t.
    So naturally, everyone’s eyes are on Douglas.

But wait. It gets twistier.

🚗 Kidnapping, Cinder Blocks, and Cabin Fever

Joe confronts Douglas, who responds like any totally innocent person would:
by whacking Joe with a whiskey bottle and throwing him in the trunk.
(Okay sir, this is not how alibis work.)

He even ties cinder blocks to Joe’s ankles because… you guessed it… it’s Minnesota Murder Season.

Luckily, Joe MacGyvers his way out of the trunk during a blizzard and hides in a random cabin like he’s starring in his own Dateline episode. An old man with a shotgun finds him, and Joe eventually gets rescued. Douglas? Missing. His house? Mysteriously on fire. Suspicious? Very.

🧬 Plot Twist: You Thought It Was Douglas?

Wrong again. Turns out DJ is Daniel Junior.

That’s right — the stepbrother, not the stepfather, is the real killer.
Douglas was just covering for his murderous son.
(Dad of the Year, honestly.)

Joe and Lila try to grab DNA evidence (cigarette butts — how glamorous), but Daniel kidnaps Lila and demands the evidence back.

Joe, being the resourceful boyfriend he is, calls Detective Max Rupert from a backup phone, leaves breadcrumbs of evidence, and delays Daniel long enough for the cavalry to show up.

Daniel threatens to rape and murder Lila, and just when we all start panicking…

BANG. BANG. BANG.
Max shoots Daniel. Dead.
Reader stress level: 10/10.

⚖️ Justice, Finally

With Daniel dead and his DNA confirmed as the killer in Crystal’s case and another high-profile murder in Davenport, Carl’s name is officially cleared — just in time for him to die peacefully, knowing he’s not going down in history as a monster.

Virgil gives Joe Carl’s war medals, including two Purple Hearts, as a thank-you.
😭 Cue the tears.

Joe and Lila are now officially together. Jeremy lives with Joe full-time. They split the reward money three ways, because Jeremy earned that cut with his code-breaking brilliance.

💭 Final Thoughts

The Life We Bury is everything I want in a mystery:

  • A morally gray situation that makes you think

  • A hero you want to root for

  • A villain you never saw coming

  • A little romance to soften the trauma

  • And a Minnesota setting cold enough to freeze your soul

🛒 Buy the Book

📕 Buy The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens on Amazon

📚 If You Loved This, Read These Next:

  • The Shadow of Death by Jane Willan – Another twisty, smart crime story with heart.

  • Defending Jacob by William Landay – Legal thriller meets family drama.

  • Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine – For fans of “run-for-your-life” tension and strong women.

  • Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson – A dark and clever suspense novel about obsession.

🧨 Final Rating:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 out of 5 stars
For the perfect blend of emotional depth, thrilling plot, twisty mystery, and characters that stay with you long after the last page.

Want more suspenseful, emotional, plot-rich reads that’ll make you text your friends “YOU HAVE TO READ THIS”?

Subscribe to the blog — and bring snacks. Things get intense. 🍿📚

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