The Shadows We Hide by Allen Eskens @aeskens ‏@HachetteAudio @mulhollandbooks #ZachVilla

Posted November 27, 2018 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review / 8 Comments

Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


The Shadows We Hide by Allen Eskens @aeskens  ‏@HachetteAudio @mulhollandbooks #ZachVillaThe Shadows We Hide by Allen Eskens
Narrator: Zach Villa
Series: Detective Max Rupert #5
Published by Mullholland Books, Hachette Audio on November 13, 2018
Genres: Mystery, Suspense
Length: 9 hours, 4 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
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One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star

Joe Talbert, Jr. has never once met his namesake. Now out of college, a cub reporter for the Associated Press in Minneapolis, he stumbles across a story describing the murder of a man named Joseph Talbert in a small town in southern Minnesota.

Full of childhood dreams about who his father might have been, Joe is shocked to find that none of the town's residents have much to say about his father's murder - other than that it was long overdue. Joe discovers that his father was a loathsome man who cheated his neighbours, threatened his daughter, and squandered his wife's meagre inheritance after she, too, passed away - an inheritance that may now be his.

Mired in uncertainty and plagued by his own tenuous relationship with his mother, whose sobriety has led her to seek reconciliation with her distant son, Joe must put together the missing pieces of his family history - before his quest for discovery threatens to put him in a grave of his own

I loved The Life We Bury which was the start of the   Detective Max Rupert series , but he is barely present. The next three books are more closely about Max Rupert. Now we are back to Joe Talbert and the characters from the first book. Close to 8 years have passed.  I’m still enjoying the Minnesota setting.

Joe has a few things happen all at once. I always feel that when it rains, it pours.  When you’re already feeling overloaded, the problems pile up.  I don’t want to spoil any of the books in the series; they are all SO excellent.

Joe has these things happen and he has to figure out how to deal with them, at work, at home and with his past. They all get tangled up.  Joe ends up searching for the truth. Unfortunately, people don’t want him to expose the truth about the past or present, and they are willing to kill him to shut him up.

The Shadows We Hide has everything I could want. The world-building and character development,  the suspense and mystery,  the elation of survival, and the gut-wrenching realization when things go wrong.  Through it all, Joe finds out what kind of man he really is.  Highly recommended.

 

Narration:

I was thrilled to start listening and come home to the narration of Zach Villa.  It is the sound of Joe Talbot for me. I had been listening to the last few audiobooks at 1.5x but went back to 1.25x speed on this one. He does well with all the voices and I especially love his performance of Jeremy.

Listen to a clip:

About Allen Eskens

Allen Eskens is the USA Today-bestselling author of The Life We Bury, The Guise of Another, The Heavens May Fall, the Deep Dark Descending and The Shadows We Hide. He is the recipient of the Barry Award, Rosebud Award, Minnesota Book Award, and the Silver Falchion Award and has been a finalist for the Edgar Award, Thriller Award, and Anthony Award. His work had been published in 21 languages and his debut novel, The Life We Bury is being developed for a feature film.

Allen lives with his wife, Joely, in greater Minnesota and is represented by Amy Cloughley of Kimberley Cameron and Associates, and is published by both Seventh Street Books and Mulholland/Little Brown.

Rating Breakdown
Plot
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Writing
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Characters
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Narration (Audio)
One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Overall: One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Anne - Books of My Heart
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • 2018 Audiobook Challenge
  • 2018 New Release Challenge

Posted November 27, 2018 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review / 8 Comments


8 responses to “The Shadows We Hide by Allen Eskens

    • Well this is a genre I love. Joe Talbert is a journalist. This series is kind of 2 series. The first book is when Joe is a college student and he ends up helping to catch some bad guys. Max (police detective) is barely in that book or the next one, Max is the focus of 3 ans 4, where Joe is only briefly mentioned in one of them. This one is back to Joe with no Max at all.

    • I got the first one from the library when I saw the Audible daily deal and LOVED it. I went right on with the series and looked forward to this one as it is a more direct followup to book 1. See my above info to Robin about Max and Joe. They are not both in all the books. The bad motivations are definitely on display in these books.