Toby's Reviews > Bury Me Deep

I think my feelings towards the work of Megan Abbott have been made pretty clear in the past, but in filling this gap in my reading I feel exhausted and disappointed. Generally I can't praise her or her noir writing skills enough but today I don't have a huge amount of pleasant things on my mind.

This is the reimagining of a true story, 1931's Trunk Murderess case, it seems perfect for an Abbott noir and she does so much right with it. The tale of Mrs Seeley, abandoned by her drug-addicted doctor husband whilst he takes work in Mexico, adopted by a pair of high spirited women out for a good time, seduced to her ruin by a smooth talking lothario, is a sad and depressing one.

With her debut novel Die a Little things moved quite slowly as the scene was set but once this was achieved the novel became an addictive page turner, but in this instance that same slow paced writing style is used but with the handbrake on. This book just didn't want to be going anywhere, focussing on the slow fall from grace and the disintegration of Mrs Seeley before rushing through the inevitable crime and cover up.

As always the research shines through, Abbott provides a real sense of time and place with her many descriptions and asides, casually dropping in song lyrics and consumables but this time that was not backed up with a tale of an interesting character, just a portrait of a naive woman led astray by weak men.