All That Is Mine I Carry With Me
All That Is Mine I Carry With Me
by William Landay
Publisher: Ballantine Books an imprint of Random House
I’ve been waiting for a new book from Landay for ages. Defending Jacob was a novel that I thoroughly enjoyed, and it sticks out in my memory for how consumed I felt while reading it. (Side note: I don’t always go with the concept that the book is always better than the movie/TV show. However, in this case, the book is SO superior to the TV series.) Landay has done it again! I couldn’t put this book down.
When Phil, an author struggling for a topic for his next novel, reconnects with his old school buddy, Jeff. Phil finds himself delving into his friend’s family mystery that centers around a mother who vanished one day and has never been found. Jeff’s lawyer father, artistic sister, and not-present brother round out the family. Detective Glover plays the roll of the cop who latched onto a case and won’t let it go. He has suspicions, the family each has an opinion, and the community certainly has thoughts on what really happened. What unfolds is a cloudy mystery with lots of court room drama, ripped-from-the-headlines serial killers, and a gut-wrenching family drama.
A few non-story-based asides ran through my mind while reading. First, Detective Glover is telling his version of events to Phil and references a minor detail from the day. When questioned about it, he makes the comment that, “It’s part of the story for me.” This really struck me how we generally think of large life-changing events in the terms of the main facts (X person died of X and then such and such happened). However, the truth of these events is far more detailed and personal for each person involved. Little interactions stick out for each person and it is part of the story for them. Think about your own life and a big event. IF you were to describe it in a way that places you back in that moment, you would likely include interactions that really only you experienced. This led me to thinking about how authors use this concept to help build more suspense in mystery novels. It’s the small things that often help the detective solve the mystery, but sometimes they are just red herrings.
Second, for some reason whenever it was clearly Phil’s voice we were hearing, I kept reading his words in the voice of Leon Neyfakh. (If you enjoy great podcasts, check out Slow Burn.)
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