Speak Ill of the Living: An Eddie Bourque Mystery

By Mark Arsenault

Book Overview

Praise for Speak Ill of the Living... "Arsenault is a crackling good stylist with a knack for quirky characters." -Kirkus Reviews Everybody thought a carjacking had led to the banker's murder. Then he turns up in a photograph taken by his kidnappers. If the banker is still alive, whose ashes are buried in his grave? Reporter Eddie Bourque is a real maverick, stubborn as a mule, smart and intuitive. And now he's got the tip of a lifetime. But it leads him to ask difficult questions and chase down unlikely leads-like his imprisoned brother, Henry Bourque. Does Henry have a real clue or is he conning Eddie, not just about the banker but about whether he committed the double murder that sent him away for life? Eddie's hunt for answers takes him across the neighborhoods of Lowell, Massachusetts, and deep into his own family's dark secrets. As Eddie and his new sister-in-law struggle to untangle the knots, they hear the echoes of a forgotten crime and find bodies blocking their path to truth. Someone is killing Eddie's new sources.... Mark Arsenault's first novel, Spiked, about a murder inside the Lowell, Massachusetts, heroin trade, was a finalist for the Shamus Award for Best First Mystery. His second, Speak Ill of the Living, was inspired by two years of jailhouse interviews inside Rhode Island's more notorious prison when he was a reporter for The Providence Journal. www.markarsenault.net

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590585089
• ISBN13: 9781590585085
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Even better than the first!

As much as I enjoyed Arsenault's first book "Spked!," this was even better as there wasn't a slow spot in it. Eddie is a wonderful protagonist, realistic, and introspective. He loves his coffee and cat, General VonKatz. There are interesting secondary characters in Detective Orr, brother Henry and his wife Bobbie. The book's sense of place, dialogue, suspense and pacing all contribute to capturing and keeping the reader turning the pages. If you've not yet read Arsenault, do. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

fantastic journalistic thriller

Bank president Roger Lime was carjacked; later the coroner Dr. Crane identified the body using dental records. Now Roger Lime's picture is shown in the Second Voice, a weekly newspaper, very much alive and freelance journalist Eddie Bourque is covering the story. Eddie's brother Henry who participated in a bank robbery, took six million dollars in gold, killed two security guards, but was caught thirty years ago writes a letter to his little brother that contains a newspaper account on the Lime story and the message "I know who's doing this". For the first time Eddie visits his brother in prison. Hank tells Eddie that in the accompanying picture to the Lime article is a table that he made and gave to his partner's "old lady". Hank's wife demands Eddie get her husband released because the only person who testified at the trial was Dr. Crane who slanted the case like many others for the prosecution. While Eddie tries to help, someone wants Eddie dead to keep him from learning the Lime truth. Although Eddie has never seen his brother before his first visit to the prison, he soon realizes he has familial feelings for the man and if he is innocent, he wants him out of jail. He wants to get to know the man. After several attempts on his life he realizes that he has no idea who wants him dead or why but it has to be related to his newfound relationship with Hank. Speak ILL OF THE LIVING is a cleverly constructed mystery with so many people wanting thegold that Eddie doesn't know who he can trust. Mark Arsenault uses misinformation to create a fantastic journalistic thriller. Harriet Klausner