The Guise of Another

Starred review from August 10, 2015
Edgar-finalist Eskens follows his highly praised debut, The Life We Bury (2014), with an equally compelling second novel starring Alexander Rupert, a disgraced Minneapolis police detective. Toiling away in the fraud unit while a grand jury investigates charges that he stole drug money, Rupert happens upon a case that he believes could return him to the department’s good graces: a man who faked his death 15 years earlier in a boat accident off Coney Island has just died for real in a Minnesota car crash. Rupert wants to know who James Putnam really was and why he staged the coverup. While his own life continues to spiral toward the drain, Rupert finds himself increasingly attracted to Putnam’s former live-in girlfriend, a temptress with elusive motivations. Eskens moves his plot along in a spare, sure-handed manner, avoiding clichés and stock situations. Elevating the story further are several unexpected turns down the homestretch, as well as several well-crafted characters who serve as examples of how good people can succumb to weakness. Readers looking for a new voice should pay attention to Eskens. Agent: Amy Cloughley, Kimberley Cameron Agency.

August 1, 2015
A freak accident provides a detective the chance to redeem his good name. The speeding car of a thrill-seeking couple jumps a median in late-night Minneapolis and kills a man in another lane. His license identifies him as James Putnam. But Detective Alexander Rupert, who's lately been transferred to the Forgery and Frauds Unit from the scandal-ridden Joint Drug Enforcement Task Force, finds out from an ambulance chaser that the dead man is actually someone else. Alexander eagerly takes on the case of identity theft as a chance to salvage a career that's under federal investigation. When the dead man's sexy live-in girlfriend, Ianna Markova, lets Alexander see his hard drive, the detective finds records of a tidy fortune and 10 annual deposits of $10,000 each. Alexander's big brother, Max, a homicide detective to whom he's close, pulls strings to get him sent to New York to track down Putnam's real identity. With the help of a feisty detective who might be a good match for the widowed Max, Alexander discovers that in 2001, the imposter, Jericho Pope, was supposedly killed in a boating accident. Instead, he swam to shore, went into hiding, took his roommate Putnam's identity, and started blackmailing the men who tried to kill him. He put certain incriminating videos on a flash drive Alexander wants so he can break the case and offset his former partner's testimony against him, his looming grand jury appearance, his wife's coolness, and even Max's growing doubts. Meantime, a hired gun without a human heart wants the drive too and is targeting everyone who gets in his way. As the bodies pile up, Alexander makes a desperate move that may be his only way out. Eskens (The Life We Bury, 2014) has upped the pace and the stakes in his second novel but with less success. His instincts are best when he focuses on the floundering Alexander and the brother who acts as his conscience.

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September 1, 2015
Minneapolis detective Alexander Rupert's life is in a downward spiral. Reassigned from the discredited narcotics division to the fraud unit, he's about to face a grand jury investigating corruption, and he's just learned that his wife is having an affair. Then a stolen-identity case turns up that may be his road to redemption. A man known as James Putnam, recently killed in a car crash, turns out to be Jericho Pope, who supposedly died years earlier in an explosion at sea that also killed Richard Ashton, the CEO of defense contractor Patrio. But Ashton was actually murdered by sociopathic Serbian assassin Drago Basta, on orders of Patrio cofounder Wayne Garland, with the killing recorded on a flash drive obtained by Pope, with which he had been blackmailing Garland. After Pope's death, the hunt for the flash drive is onby Rupert; by Pope's longtime live-in lover, Ianna Markova, who has her own agenda; and by Basta, who's taking care of loose ends. From the author of the highly praised debut The Life We Bury (2014), this is pulse-pounding crime fiction on the dark side.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)