College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same.

Iverson is a dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder.

As Joe writes about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with his dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving his autistic brother vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory.

Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. But as he and Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow higher. Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout?

艾伦•艾丝肯斯

Allen Eskens

美国资深辩护律师。出生于美国密苏里州杰斐逊市，就读明尼苏达大学，获得新闻学学位，后就读法学院，定居明尼苏达曼卡多。

作为有20多年工作经验的辩护律师，作者将亲身经历的众多骇人听闻的悬案融会贯通，写出了一系列犯罪悬疑佳作，如《我们掩埋的人生》 《另一个幌子》 《天堂可能坠落》等，并凭借《我们掩埋的人生》成功跻身美国一流畅销书作家行列。