Saving Emma

Starred review from July 17, 2023
Eskens (Forsaken Country) brilliantly combines legal and personal drama in this stellar standalone mystery. Minnesota law professor and Innocence Project volunteer Boady Sanden has been caring for Emma Pruitt, the daughter of his college friend, Ben, since the public defender was gunned down by police four years ago while facing charges for killing his wife. One afternoon, Ruth Matthews brings her brother Elijah’s file to Boady at the Innocence Project: Elijah has been convicted of brutally murdering pastor Jalen Bale, but Ruth’s certain he’s innocent. She buttresses her claim with a photo, never presented in Elijah’s trial, that clearly shows him at a magic show at the exact moment of Bale’s murder. Then a bomb drops: Elijah was Ben’s last case before he died, and—having recommended that Ben become a public defender—Boady feels responsible for clearing Elijah’s name. Meanwhile, Emma’s aunt convinces the teen that Boady and his wife are covering up information about the deaths of her parents and leverages that claim for custody. Eskens peppers the thorny, propulsive plot with superior turns of phrase (unreliable memories are compared to “the boards of an aging footbridge, the planks heavy with decay”) and fully realized characters. Scott Turow fans will be enthralled. Agent: Amy Cloughley, Kimberley Cameron and Assoc.

August 1, 2023
Boady Sanden, former director of the Innocence Project, is persuaded to reopen a case that was closed four years ago. And the clock is ticking. Ruth Matthews is convinced both that her brother, Elijah, is a prophet who talks with God and that he didn't kill Jalen Bale, the pastor bashed to death while Elijah was a janitor at the Church of the New Hope, even though he's been locked in a mental hospital since having been found not guilty by reason of insanity. The evidence against Elijah was overwhelming, but the real reason Boady doesn't want the job is that Elijah's attorney was Ben Pruitt, Boady's law partner and best friend, who killed his wife, nearly got away with it, and then, when Boady confronted him with proof of his guilt, committed suicide by cop in Boady's study as his partner looked on. The good news is that Boady almost immediately starts to find holes in the case against Elijah, who's more interested in oracular prophecies than answering simple questions. The bad news is that Emma Pruitt, the daughter Boady and his wife, Dee, took in as a ward four years ago without telling her how her father died, has been turned against them by her wealthy, rapacious aunt, Anna Adler, who's filed papers to replace their guardianship of Emma with her own. Now Boady has two impossible tasks--vindicating Elijah before the hearing that will permit his doctor to scramble his brain with electroconvulsive therapy and persuading Emma to return to his family--and that second one cuts agonizingly close to the bone. Somehow he manages to collect more and more information that exonerates Elijah and throws suspicion elsewhere. But will he be able to rise above his own bias for seeing every conflict in legal terms and convince Emma that he loves her like a father? Ambitious, absorbing, and deeply satisfying.

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July 28, 2023
Boady Sanden is a familiar character in Eskens' novels, including The Life We Bury (2014) and The Heavens May Fall (2016). He's a lawyer, professor, and volunteer for the Innocence Project, which seeks to prevent and vacate wrongful convictions. He is also relentless in his pursuit of the truth. In this fine novel, Boady agrees to represent Elijah, a man who says he has spent four years locked away in an asylum for a crime he didn't commit (the murder of a megachurch pastor). He also says he is a prophet of God. Boady expects the case to be difficult, but he doesn't anticipate that it will force him to take a closer look at a four-year-old case that hits uncomfortably close to home--the murder of Boady's colleague, Ben, inside Boady's own house. When Emma, Ben's daughter and Boady's goddaughter, becomes distant, Boady knows he must free Elijah and confront the past to save Emma. Eskens practiced criminal law for 25 years, and it shows: his novels have a realism and accuracy derived from experience. A first-rate legal thriller.

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