Customer Reviews

Bury Me Deep (Thorndike Mystery)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have read both Ms. Abbott's previous Noir's, 'Die a Little' (which is my absolute favorite), and 'The Song Is You' (also very, very good). I had high hopes for this book, but was somewhat disappointed upon starting it. The first 30% of the story seemed rushed and disjointed. I didn't feel as though I was getting to know the characters, and people and places jumped around so much it was hard to keep things straight. I almost gave up on it. I'm so glad I didn't.

This story is based loosely on the real life crime tale of Winnie Ruth Judd (a.k.a. The Trunk Murderess) in the 1930's. However, don't think you can just head on over to Wikipedia, read the story of Winnie Ruth, and think you have Ms. Abbott's novel all figured out (I made this mistake, but it made the ending all the more enjoyable). Ms. Abbott has altered the actual events into a 'What would have happened if...' , and it makes for a riveting story. Marion Seeley does not meet the same fate as her real life counterpart, and some key players involved in the crime and Marion's life, have a very different ending to their stories as well.

While the beginning of this novel frustrated me, the rest more then made up for it. Overall, I absolutely recommend this. I am not a regular fan of dark novels filled with sex, drugs and murder, but Megan Abbott is one of the ONLY authors of this genre that I always keep an eye out for. While her style of writing may take a little getting used to, she has a way of pulling you right into the seedy side of a long-past era of glitz and glamour.

but sometimes fiction fills the gaps that truth leaves behind.

Not just another one of those tawdry tales of victims and vice, filled with complex characters and more shades of gray than all the dark hours before dawn. A thread of lurid truth, expertly woven absolutely gives this absorbing novel its feeling of authenticity. Painstaking research and darkly poetic language make this a touching and tragic story that I simply could not put down. Megan Abbott is absolutely one of my favorite finds of the last few years and she certainly scores again with Bury Me Deep.

In the last six months I have been trying to read all of the GREAT hard-boiled/noir writers. Megan Abbott was a wonderful discovery, and her two novels "The Song is You" and "Die a Little" were both fantastic reads. Five Stars, read these two books, you will love them.

I had similar expectations for "Bury Me Deep", but found that it Bored Me Deeply. Others have stated that the first third of the book is back story; I would say that more than half of the book is back story. The narrative reads like a teenage romance novel in which a young girl breathlessly telling us about her first love.

Between the 100+ page set-up, the annoying "breathless" style, and a disappointing ending, I cannot recommend the book. Megan Abbott's previous writing was better than this book-- much, much better. Sorry Megan; your other books were gripping page-turners. In this book, I just did not like your main character Marion.

Marion Seeley's husband abandons her in Phoenix, Arizona while he takes a job at a mining company in Mexico because he lost his medical license due to drug use.

Marion begins working as a secretary in a TB clinic, and is soon befriended by Louise Mercer, one of the nurses at the clinic. To supplement their income, Louise and her roommate Ginny hold gin-soaked thrill parties at their apartment for the wealthy and powerful men of the city.

Bury Me Deep is loosely based on a real-life crime that took place in October 1931. A Los Angeles stationmaster found two large abandoned steamer trunks with a dismembered body in each. The sensational case became known as "The Trunk Murderess" and the perpetrator, Winnie Ruth Judd, was convicted and sent to prison for killing her two friends in what appeared to be an open and shut case. Unfortunately, the truth was much more complicated.

Author Megan Abbott writes in a third person noir style popular during the 1930s and 40s. She successfully draws the reader deep into every scene. She handles with honesty and realism the transformation Marion undergoes as an innocent young woman looking in at a seemingly fascinating lifestyle, then becoming a major player in the degradation that overtakes her life.

This novel is as deeply unsettling as it is rich in the darkness of the times. Abbott writes with perfect pitch detailing the dark world in which the men and women lived and loved. She brings hard-boiled crime fiction to the forefront with stellar dialogue and strong characterization. It's no wonder she is often compared to noir master Raymond Chandler.

If you are a fan of the genre, you will want to read this worthy fourth Megan Abbott novel.

Respectability is a mug's game. Megan Abbott has traded away the crisp prose and rapid action that made her first three novels so spectacular. In return, we get the gimmicky run-on sentences, florid descriptions, precious metaphors, and crawling pace de rigeur in contemporary "literary fiction". A raw deal all around.

There are still some short, sharp shocks to be had here. Bad Abbott is decent anybody else. Her eye for emblematic detail is just as keen as ever, and she still captures the knife-edge dance between temptation and repression that makes noir so compelling.

But "belabored" and "slow" are deadly sins for a noir writer. Here's hoping Abbott retraces this misstep and gets back to writing for the readers instead of the prize juries.

Wow. What an exciting read. Abbott's attention to detail makes you really feel like your reading a story from the 1930s. After a slow deliberate start the book has a pay off with plenty of sex, blood and scandal... all done without being crude. This is one of the best hard-boiled tales I've read in a while. Highly recommended.

During the Great Depression, Dr. Everett Seeley obtains a position in Mexico having been barred from practicing in the states due to drug abuse. He leaves his young naive wife Marion behind in their home. She soon obtains a clerical position at the Werden Clinic.

Nurse Louise Mercer warns the young Marion that the doctors take advantage of the nurses and the other female staff, but also invite her to their wild parties. At one gala, Marion meets Joe Lanigan, a friend of the physicians who provides cash and parties for the nurses. Soon Louise and her nursing roommate Everett are shocked with Marion's behavior with Joe and confront her over it. Marion is livid that it is none of their business. However their argument turns to homicide.

Once the personal history is established and the decadence of the Jazz Era anchored, BURY ME DEEP turns into an exciting crime thriller based on the true crime Brighton Trunk Murders. The story line is driven by Marion who people see differently leaving readers to wonder who the real Marion is. With a great final twist, fans of those 1930s femme fatale capers will recognize the lead character as playing the tough broad and the innocent young lady; depending on whether Louise and Joe make the assessment.

Harriet Klausner

BURY ME DEEP is a stunning piece of noir. Megan Abbott effortlessly brings the reader into 1930's Phoenix and into the parties and excesses. The questionable morality of the time and place is shown to us through the prim and proper eyes of the focus character as we see her, in her loneliness and despair; react, accept, then bend, bend and ultimately break as she comes into her sexual awareness. All too soon, sex and sin becomes, somehow, darker and then darker still.

A stunning work. Painful and wonderful. Fantastic!

This is my first Megan Abbott read and now I am hooked. Bury Me Deep is on Ken Bruen's top ten list, so I thought I would check it out. So glad I did. The style of the prose matches the story beautifully. I generally have a hard time finding interest in historical fiction, but this one pulled me in from the beginning and kept me turning the pages.

I havent enjoyed a piece of literature like this so much since Dennis Lehane's The Given Day, and I can't wait to read more of her work.

Megan Abbott reimagines the true story of Winnie Judd, the infamous 1931 "Trunk Murderess" of Phoenix, Arizona. In Abbott's fictional account, an attractive young woman named Marion Seeley, is left alone by her husband, a doctor, who is going to Latin America temporarily.

Marion gets a job at a medical clinic and is befriended by two party girls, one of whom is a nurse at the clinic where Marion works. Marion soon falls under the influence of the women who supplement their income by entertaining local businessmen. The attractive young Marion is seduced by a local civic leader named Joe Lanigan, and her life rapidly disintegrates.

Marion ultimately gets into a terrible fight about Joe with her two friends, Louise and Ginny. A tragic accident is compounded by a vicious murder, and Marion finds herself in a hopeless predicament.

This book takes a while to really get going, but once it does, it hurtles toward the proverbial startling conclusion. It's well worth the ride.