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A review by annevoi
Over Tumbled Graves by Jess Walter
4.0
This, Walter's first novel (of seven), is a mystery-thriller, but it's also very much about the place it's set in—Spokane, Washington, Walter's hometown—and the relationships of people depicted in it. So it's not just about (a) murder, (b) police investigation, (c) murder solved. It's more than that. With a twist at the end that I expected but was not at all disappointed to see. It wasn't one of those out-of-left-field twists; it felt organic to the whole.
The basic plot involves the search for a killer, which quickly overlaps with the discovery of one, then two, and ultimately five murdered prostitutes, laid out along a riverbank as if to gather attention—perhaps even of the FBI variety. There are a couple of detectives, good at what they do, who have an unrequited thing for each other. There are a couple of FBI profilers who despise each other. The killer at the start is observed and followed, but although he remains elusive to the cops, we get to know him a little, and to sympathize with him. And through all of this, the neighborhoods and shady areas and river of Spokane draw us along.
Walter is a great observer—of detail, but also of character and desire and where a person stands on the sliding spectrum from earnestness to wiseassery, energy to exhaustion. The people in his books always seem very real to me. I admire that in any writer, but I admire Walter for always pushing the envelope and trying out new situations, characters, and motivations.
The basic plot involves the search for a killer, which quickly overlaps with the discovery of one, then two, and ultimately five murdered prostitutes, laid out along a riverbank as if to gather attention—perhaps even of the FBI variety. There are a couple of detectives, good at what they do, who have an unrequited thing for each other. There are a couple of FBI profilers who despise each other. The killer at the start is observed and followed, but although he remains elusive to the cops, we get to know him a little, and to sympathize with him. And through all of this, the neighborhoods and shady areas and river of Spokane draw us along.
Walter is a great observer—of detail, but also of character and desire and where a person stands on the sliding spectrum from earnestness to wiseassery, energy to exhaustion. The people in his books always seem very real to me. I admire that in any writer, but I admire Walter for always pushing the envelope and trying out new situations, characters, and motivations.