Burial of the Dead

A Novel

Michael Hogan

Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books

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A powerful and thrilling literary mystery that plays out like a symphony of several movements

A wealthy woman is dead in Hartford, Connecticut, and the cause of death is anyone’s guess. Was it suicide? Murder? Natural causes? The cause will determine the payout of her estate, and there are as many possibilities as there are suspects. Motives abound---greed, envy, anger, lust, pride---but who really had the means to pull it off? Could it have been the woman’s estranged niece? Her driver? Or was it the young Matthew Wyman?
     Equally devoted to a racing plot and stunning craft, Burial of the Dead features the unfolding of the mind and world of the likable but troubled Matthew as he struggles for sanity and redemption in a world where falsehood and betrayal assault the innocence and curious workings of a challenged and gifted psyche.

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Chapter One

EMMA KOST O’NEAL

Dear Manny,

I have much to tell you and one favor to ask, so I have chosen this means of communication, not to make this more formal than it need be—an intimate conversation between a niece and her great-aunt—but because I’m now an elderly woman who is getting older all the time, and given the current state of my memory, particularly my short-term memory, I am no longer assured of my ability to tell you everything I need to tell you in the detail it deserves.

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Praise for Burial of the Dead

Advance Praise for Burial of the Dead
“An impressively vicious, disorienting fever-dream that lurches from lyrical to visceral and back again. It’ll keep you guessing---and most of your guesses will be wrong.” ---David Maine, author of The Preservationist, Fallen, and The Book of Samson
“There’s no excess in Michael Hogan’s writing, just muscle-and-bone prose revealing the frail and fragile in people as only the author can. Michael Hogan is a wonder, an example to his contemporaries.” ---Craig Clevenger, author of The Contortionist’s Handbook and Dermaphoria
“Michael Hogan’s Burial of the Dead is a very accomplished performance and a compelling mystery. Hogan is a masterful prose stylist with insight and depth of imagination.” ---James Howard Kunstler, bestselling author of World Made by Hand and The Long Emergency

And Praise for Man Out of Time
“Witty and irreverent, and at times darkly comedic and sad, Hogan’s first offering makes you hope he has more stories to tell.” ---Booklist
“Hogan has a gift for capturing the vulnerability of youth (‘We’re just kids, and they can pretty much do what they want with us’) and the terrifying swiftness with which things can go utterly wrong.” ---Publishers Weekly

Reviews from Goodreads

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Veralene  rated it  
May 15, 2009
This is truly a well written book - what I think is called a literary mystery. Many questions are asked, but not necessarily answered. In telling the mystery story, the author makes the reader ponder deeper questions about self, sanity, soul, happiness, etc. Get the picture? ...more
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Maddy  rated it  
Mar 15, 2010
SETTING: Connecticut
RATING: 3.0
WHY: An old woman dies the day before she is supposed to update her will. Suspicious, right, but it could be suicide, natural causes or murder. A whole slew of people have motivation to have killed her. Chapters are devoted to individual characters and i ...more
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About the Author

Michael Hogan

Michael Hogan’s debut novel, Man Out of Time, received critical acclaim and was optioned for film rights. After practicing law on and off for twenty-five years and writing screenplays (several optioned and sold, and one produced, starring Danny Aiello), Michael now lives in Cleveland, where he writes fiction and sells his artwork.

Michael Hogan

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Available Formats and Book Details

Burial of the Dead
A Novel
Michael Hogan

Hardcover

Hardcover
St. Martin's Press
Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books
August 2008
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780312367299
ISBN10: 0312367295
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 432 pages
$26.95

e-Book Agency

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e-Book Agency
St. Martin's Press
Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books
August 2008
e-Book Agency
ISBN: 9781429996952
ISBN10: 1429996951
432 pages
$6.99
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