I’ve been following Allen Eskens since, The Life We Bury, his debut novel in 2015, which was super-good  Saving Emma is his 9th novel and has been on my radar since its release in September of this year. This is #2 in the Boady Sanden series and Sanden, a Minnesota lawyer, is now employed at the University, but still associated with the Innocence Project. The new case has its own connections to Sanden’s prior cases.  Sanden himself was a minor character in The Life We Bury and The Heavens May Fall, but he’s a major character in Nothing More Dangerous and this one, Saving Emma.  

Saving Emma 
by Allen Eskers
Read by a cast:  9h 1m
Rating: C / legal thriller 
(Boady Sanden series #2)

In “Saving Emma,” Boady Sanden learns that a church worker who claims he’s a prophet, Elijah Matthews, was wrongly convicted of murdering Jalen Bale, the head minister at a very upscale church near Minneapolis.  He is now residing in a local mental ward because he’s also delusional.  Ruth, Elijah’s sister, calls Boady and he agrees to take the case for the Innocence Project. Ruth believes Elijah strange messages.  

Meanwhile, Emma, the 14-year old ward of Boady and Dee Sanden, has been told that Boady could have saved her father from being shot by a police officer. This is not true, but it impresses Emma and she’s a mess.  A designated aunt is fighting for custody. 

There’s a heavy amount of Biblical talk here – Elijah considers himself a prophet as do others and his life’s work is to help others.  He speaks to God and says God speaks to him.  He quotes scriptures quite a lot.  And, as if that’s not enough, there is a lot of space given to symbolism – names like Elijah Matthews  and Lilith and Cain and  Bale (Baal)   Also,  I just get very annoyed by some protagonists saying “I promise” to everyone they cross.  On its own it was never as irritating as other aspects of the book. 

The problem with this book is that it’s so transparent and usually very predictable with a couple twists. At other times I thought I knew what was going on, but the protagonist was totally in the dark.  Yeah?  I was right about 75%.  Boady’s wife is just sooo wonderful, smart, tender and all-loving” with the “right” answers but soooo from her perspective so that she comes off as seriously bitchy towards her husband. The “bad guys” might as well have horns – there’s no complexity to most of them they’re interchangeable.   And I might as well add this here. Although audio-books read by a cast are often exceptionally well done, I generally do NOT like them. That’s trying too hard to be something they aren’t. I loved reading from books and my brain alone did wonders on the author’s chosen words. (I feel the same way about sound effects and over-dramatization. – Just leave the books as you found them!)

I’ll keep trying Eskens – his others have been fine, As and Bs.