Recommended for fans of heartfelt crime mysteries. The Life We Bury is an engrossing tale of a college student's mission to write a biography about a dying Vietnam veteran. Uncovering the truth of Carl Iverson's past pushes Joe to navigate challenging personal issues, and sets the stage for an unexpected crime mystery. Readers will be intrigued by the story's poignant character development and the unraveling of a convict's past.

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• Barry Award for Best Paperback Original (2015)
• Anthony Award Nominee for Best First Novel (2015)
• ITW Thriller Award Nominee for Best First Novel (2015)
• Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel (2015)
• Minnesota Book Award Nominee for Genre Fiction (2015)
• Left Coast Crime Award for Best Debut Mystery (The Rosebud) (2015)

College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder. As Joe writes about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with his dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving his autistic brother vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory. Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. But as he and Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow higher. Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout?

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