I have read all of Allen Eskens’ books and they are all fantastic. They are not a series as such because the same characters appear in some and not in others.

I love his writing style and the suspense; his characters are very human. All of his books have been nominated for various awards. He is from Missouri and attended school in Iowa and Minnesota, so I guess there is a comfortable Midwest feel about the writing and the characters. Each book has a character as a focal point with other secondary characters. I read them in order as they came out. The author is the one who says they are not a series, but the characters are interrelated with info about them expanded in subsequent books, like LP. What I posted above about the various characters indicates that that character is the focal one in the titles following the character’s name. Joe Talbert is a reporter; Boady Sanden is a lawyer; Max Rupert is a detective and Lila Nash is Joe Talbert’s girlfriend. Definitely start with The Life We Bury. I would probably read them in the order they were published or according to the order of the titles following each character.