Read The Heavens May Fall Online
Authors: Allen Eskens
Tags: #Thrillers, #Mystery & Detective, #General, #Police Procedural, #Fiction, #Legal
The Heavens May Fall
The Heavens May Fall
Allen Eskens
Prometheus Books (2016)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural, General, Thrillers, Legal
Fictionttt Mystery & Detectivettt Police Proceduralttt Generalttt Thrillersttt Legalttt
FEATURING THREE CHARACTERS FROM THE BESTSELLING BOOK-CLUB FAVORITE
THE LIFE WE BURY
, THIS NOVEL EXPLORES A RIVETING MURDER CASE TOLD FROM TWO OPPOSING PERSPECTIVES.
Detective Max Rupert and attorney Boady Sanden’s friendship is being pushed to the breaking point. Max is convinced that Jennavieve Pruitt was killed by her husband, Ben. Boady is equally convinced that Ben, his client, is innocent. As the case unfolds, the two are forced to confront their own personal demons.
Max is still struggling with the death of his wife four years earlier, and the Pruitt case stirs up old memories. Boady hasn’t taken on a defense case since the death of an innocent client, a man Boady believes he could have saved but didn’t. Now he is back in court, with student Lila Nash at his side, and he’s determined to redeem himself for having failed in the past.
Vividly told from two opposing perspectives, the truth about the stunning death of Jennavieve Pruitt remains a mystery until the very end.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
**
Review
“A mature and sophisticated cops-and-lawyers story, satisfying in every way. I loved it.”
—LEE CHILD, #1 bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series
“Another winner from Eskens.
The Heavens May Fall
is a taut, engrossing mystery that had me flying through the pages.”
—LAURA McHUGH, award-winning author of
The Weight of Blood
"
The Heavens May Fall
certainly adds to Allen Eskens’ growing reputation as one of the most talented writers in mystery fiction today."
—DEADLY PLEASURES
PRAISE FOR THE WORK OF ALLEN ESKENS:
"Eskens's elegant but chilly prose, like winter in the blood, is well suited to this fiercely told morality tale (and its deeply cynical ending), which is sure to send all of us wretched sinners straight to hell."
*—NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"Readers looking for a new voice should pay attention to Eskens."
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY* STARRED REVIEW
"Eskens has conjured up a marvelously black spirit of a novel. It's a taut, intelligent, heart-ripping story that explores the darkest places in the human psyche. After each unexpected twist, you'll tell yourself things can't get any worse. And then they do."
—WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER,
New York Times
-bestselling author of the Edgar® Award-winning
Ordinary Grace
"The talented Allen Eskens fulfills the rich promise of his Edgar®-nominated debut with this chilling, dark, and sinister thriller. With precision and authority, Eskens's determined cop hero takes one intriguing clue--and pursues it into spiraling disaster. With a deadly surprise around every corner and a bleak undercurrent of noir-like dread, this book will haunt you."
—HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN, Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of
Truth Be Told
"Another great, dark, and brooding page-turner from Allen Eskens, with a tragic protagonist who will break your heart. Eskens's characters will haunt you long after you finish reading."
—MICHAEL SEARS, award-winning author of the bestselling Jason Stafford series
About the Author
Allen Eskens
is the award-winning and
USA Today–bestselling author of The Life We Bury,
The Guise of Another
, and
The Heavens May Fall
. A criminal-defense attorney for twenty-five years, he lives with his wife in Minnesota, where he is a member of the Twin Cities Sisters in Crime.
ALSO BY ALLEN ESKENS
The Life We Bury
The Guise of Another
Published 2016 by Seventh Street Books®, an imprint of Prometheus Books
The Heavens May Fall
. Copyright © 2016 by Allen Eskens. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Cover image © Seth K. Hughes / Media Bakery
Cover design by Jacqueline Nasso Cooke
Cover design © Prometheus Books
This is a work of fiction. Characters, organizations, products, locales, and events portrayed in this novel either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Inquiries should be addressed to
Seventh Street Books
59 John Glenn Drive
Amherst, New York 14228
VOICE: 716–691–0133
FAX: 716–691–0137
20 19 18 17 16 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Eskens, Allen, 1963-, author.
Title: The heavens may fall : a novel / by Allen Eskens.
Description: Amherst, NY : Seventh Street Books, an imprint of Prometheus Books, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016018139 (print) | LCCN 2016023065 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781633882058 (paperback) | ISBN 9781633882065 (ebook)
Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Police Procedural. | FICTION /
Mystery & Detective / General.
Classification: LCC PS3605.S49 H43 2016 (print) | LCC PS3605.S49 (ebook) |
DDC 813/.6--dc23
LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016018139
Printed in the United States of America
To Mikayla and Jon
Always remember to follow your bliss.
Contents
Part 1 The Death
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Part 2 The Defense
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
PART 3 The Trial
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Acknowledgments
About the Author
PART 1
The Death
Chapter 1
The courtroom had fallen quiet, the judge’s words lost behind a low hum that droned in Max Rupert’s ears. Max reached for his water glass, a waxy paper cup on the rail of the witness stand. It lifted empty and light. He didn’t remember drinking the last of his water. He paused, the empty cup halfway to his lips, unsure what to do next. Pretend to take a drink? Put the cup back down on the rail?
And such silence; how was that possible in a courtroom full of people? So quiet that he could hear the blood pulsing through his ears, his rage thumping against his ear drums, flicking the tips of his fingers. He fought against showing any facial expression. The jury would be studying him as the echoes of the cross-examination pinged and settled into their memories.
Look at me, Sanden
, Max yelled in his mind, the words pounding like ball-peen on steel.
Look in my eyes, you sonofabitch
. He willed the attorney to raise his head, but Boady Sanden kept his gaze fixed on the legal pad at his elbow.
Max took a slow, subtle breath and tried to relax. He didn’t want the jury to see the emotion that fought to break free of its tether. He saw the empty cup in his half-raised hand. He’d forgotten about it for a moment. He raised the empty cup a few more inches, tipping it to verify that it was bone dry, not a single drop to trickle onto his dry tongue. He pretended to take a sip anyway, and then he gently returned the cup to the rail.
“You can step down now, Detective Rupert,” Judge Ransom said. Rupert detected a slight edge in the judge’s voice—the tone of a man who’d just had to repeat his words.
Max stood, picked up his file, and exited the witness box, glancing at the fourteen jurors as he passed them. Only one, an alternate, returned his look. As he passed the counsel table, Max looked down at the defense attorney, Boady Sanden, his friend—no, not his friend, not anymore.
Sanden kept his eyes focused on the yellow tablet in front of him. He pretended to be writing something, but Max could see that the man’s pen twirled in meaningless circles in the margin of the page. Max wanted Boady to look up as he passed. He wanted Boady to know that lines had been crossed and it would forever sever the connection they once shared. But Boady Sanden never looked up.
Max exited the courtroom, his thumbnail scuffing against the fold of the investigation file in his hand. He found an empty conference room, a space the size of a jail cell where attorneys fed false hopes to clients, a room where desperation clung to the walls as thick as grease in a fast-food kitchen. He spread his hands on the table, the cool metal chilling the sweat of his palms. He let his heart rate slow from a boil to a simmer as he watched a slight tremor twitch in his fingers. Anger? Sure. Embarrassment? Maybe a little of that too. But there was something more to that tremor, something that shifted his sense of balance and felt very much like doubt.
