cover image Safely Buried

Safely Buried

John Pesta. CreateSpace (www.create space.com), $15.95 trade paper (388p) ISBN 978-1-4563-4447-4

Smalltown newspaper editor Phil Larrison picks up a hitchhiker and agrees to drive to her friends%E2%80%99 house, where they soon find a pair of corpses rotting in a bathroom. This discovery leads Phil to launch an investigation that reveals a larger mystery with higher stakes and far-reaching implications. Pesta moves his plot forward adeptly, if slowly, and the book%E2%80%99s final revelation is a surprise. However, the author%E2%80%99s characters%E2%80%94particularly Larrison%E2%80%94are unconvincing and hampered by unbelievable dialogue and incongruous actions. But what truly sinks this mystery is Pesta%E2%80%99s prose, e.g., %E2%80%9CMy stomach, intestines, pancreas and gall bladder felt squashed from sitting at the desk%E2%80%9D; %E2%80%9CMy eyes felt stiff, like dried-out meringue.%E2%80%9D Perhaps Pesta was aiming to create a hard-boiled hero, but, as with the rest of his endeavor, he was not successful.