Book description
A lawyer's race to reveal a wrongful conviction collides with the dark shadow of a murder in his own home in this propulsive and perfectly-plotted thriller from "one of our best crime writers at the top of his game" (William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author).
"Ambitious, absorbing, and…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Saving Emma as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Allen Eskens is adept at melding literary fiction with crime, mystery, suspense, and psychological thriller.
In this book, his lawyer-protagonist (Boady) is trying to save two unrelated people: the teen-aged Emma, but also Elijah, who is locked up in a psychiatric hospital, convicted of murder. And he has to save himself.
I love how these stories are interwoven, how Boady struggles with family, his work with the Innocence Project, and his own grief, fears, and failings. I found the Elijah story especially gripping—to save Elijah, he must unpick the knots that keep Elijah from helping himself, and at the same…
From Ellen's list on life during and after prison.
I've read all of Allen Eskens' novels, and every time I finish one, I think it was my favorite.
Since I read this novel in 2024, it's my current favorite of his, and it skyrocketed to the top of my favorite reads this year. I loaned it out, and can't wait to get it back to reread it, and see how he planted so much in a few hundred pages. I don't reread novels very often, either, but I want to dig through it to absorb how he did this one.
Eskens does not write series, but his characters tie…
If you love Saving Emma...
These Blue Mountains
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
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