Author Allen Eskens
The Shadows We Hide

The Shadows We Hide

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 curiosity about whether this man might be his father, Joe is shocked to find that none of the town’s residents have much to say about the dead man—other than that his death was long overdue. Joe discovers that the dead man was a loathsome lowlife who cheated his neighbors, threatened his daughter, and squandered his wife’s inheritance after she, too, passed away—an inheritance that may now be Joe’s.

Mired in uncertainty and plagued by his own devastated relationship with his mother, who is seeking to get back into her son’s life, 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.

[A] brilliant sequel full of deeply developed characters… darkly lyrical and brutally intimate story of one man’s journey of self-discovery.
Publishers Weekly, starred review
Part personal journey, part grim mystery… [this] mystery takes a few delirious twists before the surprising, satisfying ending.
—B&N Reads

Murder, arson, betrayal, and reconciliation will keep pages turning and leave readers eager for more of Joe Talbert.
Booklist

Eskens vividly renders how small towns try to keep their secrets, and how sometimes they cannot.
—Author Ron Rash

Full of surprises…you don’t want to miss this one from a talented writer.
—New Hanover County Public Library

Author’s Note

The Shadows We Hide is the sequel to The Life We Bury. It is the story of Joe Talbert, his brother Jeremy, his mother Kathy, and of course, Lila Nash, Joe’s girlfriend. The story picks up six years after the end of The Life We Bury and revisits the aftermath of decisions made in that book.

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Full Praise

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Barnes and Noble Reads November’s Best Mysteries
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Pick of the Month by Mystery People
Top 21 New Releases by BookClubbish

“[A] brilliant sequel full of deeply developed characters…. Eskens keeps readers guessing until the last pages in this darkly lyrical and brutally intimate story of one man’s journey of self-discovery.”
Publishers Weekly, starred review (read the full review)

“Part personal journey, part grim mystery, Joe learns as much about himself as he does about the man who might be his father as the mystery takes a few delirious twists before the surprising, satisfying ending.”
—B&N Reads (read the full review)

“Whether you like mysteries with surprise endings and terrific twists or you are a reader who never reads a mystery, but loves literary novels that explore the emotions that bring families together or tear them apart, you will want to read Allen Eskens’s excellent novel, The Shadows We Hide.”
—Phillip Margolin, New York Times bestselling author of The Third Victim

The Shadows We Hide is a riveting novel about one man’s search for his father that becomes a perilous journey into a labyrinth of deceit and lies. Eskens vividly renders how small towns try to keep their secrets, and how sometimes they cannot.”
—Ron Rash, author of Serena

“Murder, arson, betrayal, and reconciliation will keep pages turning and leave readers eager for more of Joe Talbert.”
Booklist

“Full of surprises…you don’t want to miss this one from a talented writer.”
—New Hanover County Public Library

All Books

My books are not a series, but rather character arcs that revolve around a small community.
Click on the names below to see who appears in each novel.