Book Review: The Deep Dark Descending

Author:  Allen Eskens
Book Title: The Deep Dark Descending
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Police Procedural
Date Published: October 3, 2017
Paperback: Seventh Street Books
Pages: 285 

Synopsis:  

Homicide Detective Max Rupert lost his wife 5 years ago. No one knows who killed her. 

He fears that he cannot move on until he knows what happened that day at the hospital where she worked.

And so Max struggles to balance his job as a law enforcer with the vengeance he so desires as he hunts down the person who took everything he held dear.

It comes to a head on a frozen lake on the US/Canadian border. 

He has the person who he believes killed his wife right where he wants him. At his mercy.

First paragraph from the book...

I raise the ax handle for the third blow and my arm disobeys me,  stiffening above my head, my hand tangled in knots of shouldn'ts and shoulds, and all those second thoughts that I swore wouldn't stop me. My chest burns to take in oxygen. My body trembles with a crystalline rage, and my mind screams orders to my mutinous hand. For Christ's sake, get it over with. This is what you came here for. Kill him!

What will he do? Will he listen to the deeply ingrained voice of right and wrong that is urging him to stop what he's bent on doing? Or will he get his vengeance? 

Told in alternating time frames, Eskens' masterful words will keep you reading until the very end. 

Excerpt: Chapter 17...
The tide of a man's mind isn't always governed by those conspicuous forces whose gravitational pull is so massive as to be able to bend light.

About The Author

Allen Eskens is the USA Today-bestselling author of The Life We Bury, The Guise of Another, The Heavens May Fall and The Deep Dark Descending. He is the recipient of the Barry Award, Minnesota Book Award, Rosebud Award, and the Silver Falchion Award and has been a finalist for the Edgar® Award, Thriller Award, and Anthony Award. His debut novel, The Life We Bury, has been published in 16 languages and is being developed for a feature film.

Allen has a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota and a law degree from Hamline University. After law school, he studied creative writing in the M.F.A. program at Minnesota State University-Mankato, as well as the Loft Literary Center and the Iowa Summer Writer’s Festival. 

Allen grew up on the hills of central Missouri. He now lives with his wife, Joely, in out-state Minnesota where he has recently retired from his law practice to devote the entirety of his energy to writing novels.