The Life We Bury

Joe Talbert is a college student trying to build a life away from his chaotic family. For a class, he has to write the biography of a stranger, and he is sent to a nursing home to meet Carl Iverson.

Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran. Thirty years ago he went to prison for raping and murdering a fourteen-year-old girl, and he has now been let out on medical parole. He was also a decorated soldier. Joe cannot easily reconcile the hero of the war record with the killer in the court file.

As Carl talks, Joe begins to doubt the conviction. With Lila, a skeptical neighbor, he starts digging into a decades-old case. Pulling him the other way is home: his mother is alcoholic and bipolar, and his younger brother, Jeremy, who is autistic, needs more than Joe can give.

The book is a Minnesota-set mystery that blends a cold-case investigation with a coming-of-age story. It took the Barry Award for Best Paperback Original, and it was a finalist for the Edgar, the Anthony and the Thriller. It begins the Joe Talbert and Detective Max Rupert series.

The further Joe pushes into the old case, the more dangerous the search becomes, and his family keeps tugging at him all the while.