I’ve had so much going on this summer and early fall with trying to promote CHASING ALLIECAT and living life, that I’ve neglected to review some of my favorite reads this year. I’m going to try to rectify that, but no promises. This one, I can’t avoid writing about.
SAVING EMMA by Allen Eskens was one of my top reads of the year.
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 over from one book to another, so I’ve met the attorney Boady Sanden before. I think Eskens does the best job of writing dark stories of anyone I’ve ever read; maybe that’s because he practiced criminal law for 25 years, and he understands the dark side of humanity. Boady is our hero in SAVING EMMA, but he’s far from perfect, and Eskens isn’t afraid to dive into those dark parts of a character, which we can’t help but identify with–and that makes this story so discomfiting. I think I read it in two days. Boady Sanden is so thoroughly developed that after I finished the book, I think of Boady as a real person.
This plot is my favorite this year. A Mega Church is at the heart of the murder mystery here, and the cult following is an amazing parallel to today’s politics as well as social commentary on Mega Churches and cults themselves. Dismantling the veneer that masks a narcissistic love of power is horrifying and satisfying at the same time. If you read Robert Galbraith’s (J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym) RUNNING GRAVE, I promise you will love SAVING EMMA. Both novels that take on cult beliefs and behavior enthralled me.
How very kind of you. I hope that when you read The Quiet Librarian, it too becomes a favorite. It was great seeing you at the Deep Valley Book Festival.