Book Review | Detective Max Rupert series (Books 1-5) by Allen Eskens

Detective Max Rupert series (Books 1-5) by Allen Eskens

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. Carl 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?

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The Reason

I accidentally came across the first book as I was browsing Libby. I read it and loved it and wanted more, and the other books were available so I borrowed them all at once!

The Quotes

“No sin could be greater than a sin that cannot be rectified, the sin you never get to confess.”

“But we do have control of how much of our soul we leave behind in this mess. Don’t ever forget that. We do still have some choices.”

“What if, in all the eons of eternity, this was the one and only time that I would be alive. How would I live my life if that were the case?”

“But it also means that this is our heaven. We are surrounded every day by the wonders of life, wonders beyond comprehension that we simply take for granted.”

My Thoughts

All the books in the series are different enough that I feel like I should do an individual post for each one, but they’re also linked as a series, and I have something to say about the series as a whole, so I decided to do one post for them all. Plus, I’m lazy, so there.

These books are listed under the Detective Max Rupert series, but many of them feature characters in other series written by the author. The first book, The Life We Bury, is primarily listed under the Joe Talbert series, and features Joe Talbert as the protagonist. I intend to read that series as well because I love the Joe Talbert character, but I’ll be writing this post from the point of view of Detective Max Rupert as the overarching character.

Book 1 – The Life We Bury
Narrated by Zack Villa. I loved his portrayal of Joe Talbert. No notes.
For the reading challenge(s) – TBD

The first book features Joe Talbert as the main character; Detective Max Rupert plays an important but minimal role, and if I hadn’t been looking out for him (because he is the series’ titular character) I might not even have remembered his name. I loved Joe Talbert as a character though, and I loved this particular story. Joe is a student writing a story for a school project who stumbled upon a case and felt the need to get to the bottom of the story. I loved how the story played out, how thrilling it got, and how it feels different from other thriller stories. At the end of it, I felt a little disappointed that I was going to move on to the next book in Detective Max Rupert’s series rather than Joe Talbert’s series (one was available while the other was not), but I am definitely looking forward to reading more about Joe Talbert in the future.

Book 2 – The Guise of Another
Narrated by Jonathan Yen. My least favorite of the series’ narrators, but possibly because the MC is my least favorite character as well.
For the reading challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #8: A three-syllable word in the title)

This one features Detective Max Rupert’s brother, Alexander Rupert. I expected to see more of Max Rupert this time, and I did, but interestingly, Max was a side character to Alexander’s main. I was very much pulled into the story and got very invested in all the characters, regardless of their role in the story. I didn’t like Alexander as a person but his character was very interesting, and I loved that the story shocked and surprised me with the direction it took. It’s not your regular police procedural and I love that.

Book 3 – The Heavens May Fall
Narrated by R.C. Bray, David Colacci, Amy McFadden. They were great. I love the different voices for the different POVs.
For the reading challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #2: Kangaroo word on the cover [Heaven – haven])

The main character in this one is Boady Sanden, a lawyer and long-time friend of Max Rupert’s. Boady makes an appearance in The Life We Bury, but we see a lot more of him and his backstory in this book. Max Rupert plays a part in this story, but again, doesn’t take center stage. There is also a Boady Sanden series that doesn’t include this book that I will probably check out at some point. In this book, Boady and Max are at odds because Boady is defending a person that Max had arrested and believes is a criminal. Lila Nash, who is Joe Talbert’s love interest in The Life We Bury, also makes an appearance here and I love seeing her again.

Book 4 – The Deep Dark Descending
Narrated by R.C. Bray. It was perfect, especially for how intense this story was.
For the reading challenge(s) – TBD

We finally see Max Rupert as the main protagonist in this book. Very much front and center, very much raw and intense. There is such an interesting exploration of Max’s history and psyche, mixed in between the chaos happening in real time, that’s just incredible to see happening on the page. We also see more of Niki Vang, Max’s partner, who is definitely one of my favorite characters in this series. It’s hard to talk about this book without giving away key elements, but it’s almost like the intensity I feel with The Count of Monte Cristo, obviously on a much smaller scale because The Count of Monte Cristo is incomparable.

Book 5 – Forsaken Country
Narrated by Brian Troxell. I enjoyed his narration very much.
For the reading challenge(s) – TBD

Max is still a main character in this story although the primary storyline is about a colleague’s missing adult daughter and grandson. He’s asked to help with the personal investigation as the acting sheriff doesn’t believe the missing persons are actually missing or in trouble. The story itself is as thrilling as all the previous books, but we continue to get some more exploration of Max’s character arc and I love that too. I love where we landed on by the end of the book, but I’m definitely curious to see if there will be more books in the series and where they’ll go.

Overall
I’m not sure how the author planned these books because of how different each one of them are, and the fact that the titular character of the series don’t play main character roles in the initial books, but I loved how they turned out! And to be honest, I think what I loved most about these books is the fact that they’re all so different and not formulaic at all; the first book being from a journalistic POV, the second more like a police procedural, the third a legal thriller, and so on. It does feel like I’m reading completely different books, yet they are all immersive and interesting in their own ways. I’m loving this experience and I’m very interested in reading more from the author!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Four stars overall, because while I love the stories and find them very interesting on an intellectual level, I’m missing just a tiny bit of the emotional connection to the characters.

Have you read this series? Would you read this series? Did you like it or do you think you would like it?