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3.5 stars!
this is a very good mystery debut, with memorable characters and a fairly standard/familiar plot, but it's got enough promise in it that i am very confident his second book will be remarkable.
joe talbert is a 21-year-old college student tasked with writing a biographical piece on an elderly individual for his writing class. having no family members fitting the bill, he goes to a nursing home to find a willing participant. the only resident with enough cognitive capacity to take part is ...more
this is a very good mystery debut, with memorable characters and a fairly standard/familiar plot, but it's got enough promise in it that i am very confident his second book will be remarkable.
joe talbert is a 21-year-old college student tasked with writing a biographical piece on an elderly individual for his writing class. having no family members fitting the bill, he goes to a nursing home to find a willing participant. the only resident with enough cognitive capacity to take part is ...more

After the first few pages, I was reminded of how you should always be kind to people because you don't know what they are going through. And Joe Talbert was going through a lot - short on money, alcoholic mother, autistic brother - enough to crush just about anyone. Then, for a college class biography assignment, he meets Carl Iverson. Iverson is dying of pancreatic cancer and has been transferred from prison to a nursing home to spend his last days. He was in prison for raping and killing a tee
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I'm a sucker for books set in Minnesota, and this was competently written and kept me turning pages until the end. However, this book in particular desperately needed a good editor. "Breathe" was misspelled (along with a handful of other obvious misspellings), the punctuation needed a *lot* of work, and the one that made me laugh: In the author's acknowledgements, there's a typo in the name of the publisher (it's Seventh Street Books, according to the back cover, but Eskens thanked the folks at
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This really was a good book, but unfortunately I read it right after "The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy", a book that I just adored, so it was hard to also rate this as 5 stars. I did fell the ending wrapped up rather too precipitously and neatly, particularly in regard to the protagonist's brother, Jeremy. And, given a particularly narrow escape, the main protagonist had to be incredibly stupid to embark on his last "adventure". However, all in all this was a real nail biter of a mystery w
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📚***Book Review***📚
5 incredible ✨'s
This is the first five star book I read in quite a while. As a matter of fact, it's the first book I've opened that I've actually finished without DNFing it or losing interest all together, and boy, those last couple of chapters are real doozies. It's a story of a likable relatable boy, his older brother and the older brother's girlfriend and what can be uncovered with a little bit of digging. Sure I didn't agree with every single thing they did. As a matter of ...more
5 incredible ✨'s
This is the first five star book I read in quite a while. As a matter of fact, it's the first book I've opened that I've actually finished without DNFing it or losing interest all together, and boy, those last couple of chapters are real doozies. It's a story of a likable relatable boy, his older brother and the older brother's girlfriend and what can be uncovered with a little bit of digging. Sure I didn't agree with every single thing they did. As a matter of ...more

I loved the voice of Joe Talbert, the clueless narrator who always tries to do the right thing despite all the obstacles put in his way. The audio book's narrator was a perfect choice to give voice to Joe.
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This was a good thriller, though I guessed the "bad guy" before Joe did. But seriously... (view spoiler)
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A good murder mystery, but the last quarter of the book the narrator starts thinking he's an action hero and it's a little ridiculous.
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Jan 12, 2015
Mom2jngncna~ Stephannie
marked it as to-read

Feb 13, 2016
katie
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Apr 27, 2016
Meg
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Oct 29, 2017
Karol
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Dec 05, 2017
Lisa Vegan
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Jan 10, 2018
Jessi
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Jun 18, 2018
Lisa
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Jul 29, 2018
Sharon
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Aug 23, 2018
Nadine in NY Jones
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Apr 26, 2020
Shauna
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May 30, 2020
Flynn
marked it as to-read