Tuesday, October 13, 2015

The Guise of Another

I loved Allen Eskens' book The Life We Bury  and was excited to see he has another book, The Guise of Another, coming out.

Initially I had thought that Eskens second novel would be a sequel to his first, and was a little confused when I began reading since I didn't recognize a single character.




But I quickly got over that because I was totally sucked in to this mystery.

When James Putnam dies in a car crash, detective Alex Rupert quickly realizes that James Putnam died years earlier and another man had assumed his identity.  

Rupert is having his own problems: he thinks his wife is cheating on him and he has to go before a grand jury after his partner has turned him in for taking money from various drug busts they made.

This case of mistaken identity that Alex begins to investigate is a deadly one, and Alex is hoping to redeem himself professionally, as he investigates who assumed James Putnam's identity and what he had to hide.

There is plenty of action in this novel, which fits in well with the police/crime novels I have read in the past.  Eskens has several different strands that all tie in together nicely and kept me in suspense.  I loved the midwest setting; I always find it fun to read about places I know.

The Life We Bury was an excellent mystery, and I wasn't sure Eskens' second novel could live up to it. However, The Guise of Another was fantastic and may be even better than his first novel.

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