53 pages • 1 hour read
Allen EskensThe Life We Bury
Allen EskensFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 47-54Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 47 Summary
Lila puts Jeremy to bed at Joe’s while Joe goes to buy Jeremy a toothbrush. Joe comes home to find Jeremy is sleeping. Lila is gone. As he realizes this, Joe gets a call from Daniel. He’s kidnapped Lila, holding her as collateral so that he can get his bag of garbage—with his DNA—back.
Chapter 48 Summary
Daniel instructs Joe to drive to Douglas’ property. He will hand over Lila in exchange for the garbage. Daniel keeps Joe on the phone as he drives, ensuring that he can’t contact the police. However, Joe finds Jeremy’s phone—the one he’d bought him and instructed him to use if anyone ever hurt him—in the back seat of the car as he’s driving. Joe keeps speaking to Daniel on his phone while dialing Max’s number on Jeremy’s. He puts his conversation with Daniel on speakerphone so Max can hear it and makes sure to reiterate the fact that Daniel is DJ, not Douglas. Joe hopes that Max will figure out what’s going and send the police to rescue him and Lila.
Chapter 49 Summary
Joe continues to drive while talking to Daniel. Joe realizes that Daniel will kill him and Lila. Daniel confirms that this is his plan—and notes that since Joe’s and Lila’s bodies will be near Douglas’ barn, Douglas will be suspected of the crime. The police still think Douglas is the guilty person running from the law, not yet realizing that Daniel is the culprit (or that Daniel killed Douglas).
Chapter 50 Summary
Joe is still driving and talking to Daniel. He’s nearing his destination, Douglas’ farm. He checks Jeremy’s phone to see if Max has overheard the conversation with Daniel but there doesn’t seem to be anybody on the other end of the line. Joe pulls up to Douglas’ property, having lost hope that Max or the police will show up to help.
Chapter 51 Summary
Joe arrives to find Daniel holding a gun to Lila’s head. Before he got there, Joe dumped the garbage bag with the incriminating DNA in a nearby ditch. He figured that even if he and Lila were killed, maybe the police would find the garbage and test the DNA. Without the garbage to hand over, Joe plans to lure Daniel close enough so that he can physically attack him. He does so and manages to get in a hit—but Daniel shoots him in the leg.
Chapter 52 Summary
Daniel and Joe scuffle. Daniel overpowers but doesn’t kill Joe. He then tells Joe that he plans to rape Lila and make him watch, before killing them. He starts touching Lila. Joe is powerless to help. Then three shots ring out and Daniel falls dead. Max steps out from the shadows, along with a fleet of sheriff’s deputies. Joe’s plan to alert Max via Jeremy’s phone worked and they’ve been saved. Daniel is dead.
Chapter 53 Summary
Crystal’s case is reopened and Daniel’s DNA is found to match the DNA under Crystal’s fingernail from the crime scene. Daniel’s DNA also matches an unsolved case from Davenport, Iowa, in which another young girl was raped, killed, and burned. Carl’s conviction is formally vacated and he’s declared an innocent man. Joe, Lila, Jeremy, Virgil, Mary, and Janet are all there when Joe gives Carl the official document declaring his innocence. Carl dies that night, peacefully, in his sleep.
Chapter 54 Summary
Joe attends Carl’s funeral. Afterward, Virgil gives Joe Carl’s war medals, saying that Carl had wanted him to have them. Joe, Lila, and Jeremy meet with Max and Boady. It turns out there was a reward of $100,000 for solving of the murder of the Davenport girl. Daniel is also being looked at for two other unsolved murders of young girls; each case has a reward of $10,000. Lila, Joe, and Jeremy will split the money. This means Joe can continue studying while caring for Jeremy. As they leave the diner, snow begins to fall, reminding Joe of Carl, who loved snow.
Chapters 47-54 Analysis
The book’s momentum accelerates as the rapid pacing of the last chapters is driven by the final encounter between Joe and Daniel. The reader is left in suspense until the three gunshots ring out and the police appear. Only then is it possible to feel relieved. The rest of the narrative ties up various loose ends, ensuring Carl’s conviction is vacated and even solving the problem of Joe’s financial difficulties.
The fact that Eskens adds three other murders to Daniel’s list of crimes makes it clear that Daniel was a serial rapist and killer. His character is thus made unequivocally irredeemable. In the end, he is one of the few “monsters” in the book who is given a one-sided, simplistic portrayal. There is no good to be found in his character. Even Kathy is given some backstory to explain her behavior, such as the death of her parents and the facts of her mental illness and addiction.
The novel eventually ends on a hopeful note. Carl dies an innocent man. People like Mary who once saw him as a “monster” mourn his passing, again reminding the reader of how the truth is rarely a straightforward case of Occam’s Razor. To reveal the truth, Joe worked to exhume secrets surrounding Crystal’s murder. In the process, he learned the dangers that come with a buried life.
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