Bury Me Deep: A Novel (Paperback)

~ Megan Abbott (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Edgar-winner Abbott (Queenpin) explores gender inequality and its sometimes tragic results in her well-crafted fourth crime novel, inspired by the true story of Winnie Ruth Judd (aka the Trunk Murderess). In 1931, Marion Seeley, a young woman whose husband has gone abroad on undisclosed business, secures a clerical job at the Werden Clinic in the capital of an unnamed Midwest state. From a veteran nurse, Louise Mercer, Marion learns that doctors have been misbehaving with the clinic's nursing staff. Marion becomes involved with Joe Lanigan, a close friend of the doctors and a reliable source of entertainment and money for the often cash-strapped nurses. When Louise and Ginny Hoyt, Louise's roommate, confront Marion about her relationship to Joe, the women get into a heated argument that leads to murder and a startling predicament for Marion. Readers should be prepared for a lot of backstory before the pace picks up and hurtles to a shocking ending. (July)
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Review

"Word for word, pound for pound, Megan Abbott delivers more than any writer I know. Her influences appear to range from Hollywood Babylon to Theodore Dreiser, but her work transcends pastiche and homage. Bury Me Deep extends an already jaw-dropping winning streak, showcasing Abbott's gorgeous prose and clear-eyed empathy. She is simply one of the most exciting and original voices of her generation."-- Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of What the Dead Know

"Working once more...from a true crime... Edgar-winner Abbott brings the era to life...Her nearly stream-of-consciousness narration is direct and powerful...her prose carries an urgency that brings hard-boiled crime fiction kicking and screaming into the modern age. Abbott takes readers on a wild thrill ride with an utterly believable and strangely sympathetic heroine."-- Kirkus, Starred Review

"In [Bury Me Deep] Abbott turns the stuff of sensational confession magazines into a rich meditation on the unclouded depths of the soul."-- Carl Rosen, New York magazine

"[F]abulous characters, delectable plotting, a unique story and a steamy yet gossamer setting....A stunning work of fiction, it is Abbott's love for her central character that makes Bury Me Deep so accessible and so far away at the same time. Imagine Hammett wrote Daisy Buchanan and not Fitzgerald. And you are Gatsby... so close and yet so far away. This is Bury Me Deep."-- Ruth Jordan, Crimespree

"Edgar-winner Abbott...explores gender inequality and its sometimes tragic results in her well-crafted fourth crime novel...that leads to murder and a startling predicament...Readers should be prepared for...a shocking ending."-- Publishers Weekly

"[S]omething for everyone: true crime (it's based on a notorious 1930s trunk murderess' case), plus it's a women's story with noir embellishments. It has tough times, drugs, and pandemics. It screams 'today!' -- only retro. Done in that rat-a-tat delivery that...can't miss. Recommended heartily for fans of Edgar Award-winning Abbott's retro-noir crime fiction."-- Library Journal

"In a word: amazing. In more words: Megan Abbott, who has never delivered anything less than an excellent novel, exceeds expectations and takes a very bold and very necessary step forward both in the quality of the prose, the development of her characters and especially in portraying how obsession seeps into the very soul of people, transforming them into their worst nightmares all too easily. Just read this book. And then tell many others to do so as well."-- Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind

"Megan Abbott's virtuoso fiction [is comparable] to the great James M. Cain....Bury Me Deep is literary fiction that happens to include a crime...beautifully wrought...[Abbott is] an author destined to be a leading writer of her generation."-- W.E. Reinka, Mystery News, FIVE STARS

"[A] cunningly fictionalized...exquisite book, told in delicate, shimmering prose that heightens the nightmarish quality of the story. Megan Abbott is often compared with James Ellroy...but her writing is far more economical and focused, and her sensibilities are feminine to the core. This is noir mystery writing at its very best."-- Tom and Enid Schantz, The Denver Post

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416599096
• ISBN-13: 978-1416599098
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #75,186 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stick With It, It Definitely Picks Up..., July 24, 2009

By	Mercedes L. Johnmeyer "The Most Happy" (Kingsland, GA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic, September 16, 2009

By	Steve-O "film noir of the week blog" (Milford, CT USA) - See all my reviews

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Abbott is on her way to becoming a bestselling author, September 15, 2009

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

If you have never read the work of Megan Abbott, do yourself a favor and get a copy of BURY ME DEEP right now. In this, just her fourth novel, she has already established herself as one of the great mystery writers working in America today and is on her way to becoming a bestselling author.

Abbott labors in the hard-boiled, noir section of the mystery genre. She, along with authors like Charles Ardai, Jason Starr and Charlie Huston, is breathing fresh life into one of America's most important literary contributions of the 20th century. All of her previous novels were nominated for Edgar Awards, and QUEENPIN, her second, won both an Edgar and Barry Award. BURY ME DEEP stands an excellent chance of getting her another Edgar.

What Abbott does that is so unique and fresh is revisit old true crime cases from the glory days of noir and re-imagine them. So QUEENPIN was inspired by the true life story of Virginia Hill, part-time actress, mob courier and, most famously, main squeeze of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. Her third novel, THE SONG IS YOU, fictionalized the real-life disappearance off the face of the earth of dark-haired starlet Jean Spangler in 1946. Of course, Abbott is not the only mystery writer who works this side of the street. James Ellroy has turned the real history of 1950s Los Angeles and modern America itself into noir in a series of excellent books, the latest of which, BLOOD'S A ROVER, will be out in September. BURY ME DEEP tackles the now forgotten but once tabloid-fueled case of Winnie Ruth Judd, the "Trunk Murderess" or "Blonde Butcher" as the papers christened her. The case was right out of film noir.

In October 1931, the bodies of two young Phoenix women were found dissected in two abandoned steamer trunks left at the Southern Pacific Railroad Station in LA. After four days the trail led to the 26-year-old Judd, who confessed, claiming self-defense. Only an insanity plea kept her from the gallows. She would spend 30 years in a mental institution despite seven attempts to escape. In her meticulous research, Abbot uncovered a sliver of doubt. After all, in film noir, nothing is what it seems. Could Judd have been set up by a powerful man in the community who she and the girls were involved with? Using many of the actual details of the case, Abbot weaves a spellbinding tale.

She tells the story from the point of view of Marion Seeley, a young naïve woman whose doctor husband is a morphine junkie. Unable to hold a medical license in the states, Dr. Seeley in desperation takes a job as a doctor at a Mexican mine. He can't bring his wife, so he gets her a job as a clerk in an Arizona TB clinic until he can make some money and return for her. The lonely girl is soon befriended by two women: Louise, a world-wise nurse at the clinic, and her roommate, Ginny, who is slowly dying from TB.

Abbott does a perfect job of bringing us back into this lost world, a world of kidskin gloves, soft cloche hats and "shingle bob" hairstyles. Prohibition is still in effect, so the book floats along in a sea of bootleg gin and booze. And even though the Depression is lingering into its second painful year, the spirit of the Jazz Age is alive and well with the girls, who are famous for their wild house parties. You can almost hear "The Charleston" playing in the background. The hilarity might still be there, but the world is suddenly a much darker and more ominous place.

Louise, of course, has something of a reputation at the clinic. Rumors swirl about the night the cops were called to the Dempsey Hotel and Louise was spotted on the fifth floor corridor "going on two o'clock in the morning, only one shoe on, and they brought her in and they let her go because some calls were made..." Rumor also has it that young Marion "liked their (Louise and Ginny's) lively ways." Early on, Marion wonders, "Who did these girls know?" Our heroine is going to find out.

Within 34 days of her arrival, Marion has dyed her hair to look like a "platinum pleasure blonde." She resembles actress Joan Bennett. And here, Abbott turns classic film noir on its head. Usually, it is the "femme fatale" who draws the unsuspecting male to his doom. But here there is a "homme fatale" who attracts Marion with his siren call. "Gentleman Joe" Lanigan is an important man in the community, owner of a chain of pharmacies and regular attendee at Sunday mass. He is also married with children and an invalid wife he must care for. "Gentleman Joe" is a frequent guest at the girls' parties, and he, like many other outstanding men in the community, including the sheriff, enjoys giving the girls swell gifts and the most modern appliances.

There have been great female writers of hard-boiled crime stories in the past, such as Dorothy B. Hughes and Patricia Highsmith. It was never exclusively a male preserve. But Abbott perfectly and beautifully captures Marion's descent into the vortex: a sensual world she never knew existed. She falls hard for Joe. Abbott writes noir from a female perspective, which makes this not just a mystery novel but also a work of women's literature. She writes: "When he looked at her, she could feel it like his finger, the tip of his finger, was tickling the lace bristles on her underthings. Like it was flicking up and down down there. And she didn't know where she got this idea because nothing like that had ever happened to her."

However, this is anything but a romance. This is noir where, once the descent begins, it ends inevitably in disaster. Marion is wretched by guilt while thrilled by desire. She imagines writing her sick husband: "I am a sinner, Dr. Seeley. What's more, I came to love my sin." And in another imagined letter, Abbott puts in Marion's words the very definition of noir: "For some things, there can be no forgiveness, nor even words. Some things are meant only to be fevers in the brain." Wow!

And like all great noir, Marion's plight sucks you in as the ending steadily builds along with a growing sense of dread. In recent years, film fans such as myself have been delighted to see a return of interest in Pre-Production Code Hollywood movies. Those were the films made from 1930-1934 before the iron-clad censorship of the Production Code, dictated in large part by the Catholic Church, decided what viewers would see for the next three decades.

This book perfectly reflects that era. Imagine the great Barbara Stanwyck in the 1934 movie Baby Face. That is Abbott's Marion. She has to fend for herself in a man's world --- a world where powerful men use women as sex objects and then casually dispose of them when they become a threat. And as the Jazz Age gave way to the Great Depression, desperation spread like a fast-moving cancer. Desperate people must do desperate things to survive.

BURY ME DEEP is not just a fine mystery. It is an American novel, filled with humanity and a thirst for justice. We are going to be enjoying the work of Megan Abbott for decades to come.