Speak Ill of the Living

Praise for Speak Ill of the Living... 'Arsenault is a crackling good stylist with a knack for quirky characters.' -Kirkus Reviews Everybody thought a carjacking had led to the banker's murder. Then he turns up in a photograph taken by his kidnappers. If the banker is still alive, whose ashes are buried in his grave? Reporter Eddie Bourque is a real maverick, stubborn as a mule, smart and intuitive. And now he's got the tip of a lifetime. But it leads him to ask difficult questions and chase down unlikely leads-like his imprisoned brother, Henry Bourque. Does Henry have a real clue or is he conning Eddie, not just about the banker but about whether he committed the double murder that sent him away for life? Eddie's hunt for answers takes him across the neighborhoods of Lowell, Massachusetts, and deep into his own family's dark secrets. As Eddie and his new sister-in-law struggle to untangle the knots, they hear the echoes of a forgotten crime and find bodies blocking their path to truth. Someone is killing Eddie's new sources.... Mark Arsenault's first novel, Spiked, about a murder inside the Lowell, Massachusetts, heroin trade, was a finalist for the Shamus Award for Best First Mystery. His second, Speak Ill of the Living, was inspired by two years of jailhouse interviews inside Rhode Island's more notorious prison when he was a reporter for The Providence Journal. www.markarsenault.net