Jess Walter

In Over Tumbled Graves, Jess Walter, National Book Award finalist and author of Citizen Vince and The Zero, confronts our fascination with pathology and murder. A thriller of extraordinary depth and dimension, Over Tumbled Graves follows Caroline Mabry, a Spokane police detective searching for a serial murderer.

A Novel

Over Tumbled Graves

Lindy

This was hyped up to me and I can appreciate why: the running commentary on crime as media phenomenon and serial killers as celebrities and the portrayal of the screwedupness of police, in general, is notable. The main character, Caroline, participates in two instances of police brutality, other major character (view spoiler)[ tampers with crime scenes (hide spoiler)], and of course (view spoiler)[the main serial killer is an ex-cop whose status initially protected him (hide spoiler)]. At the same time, Caroline's positioning as the only named female member of the police force situates her to see that all the men in the force do is measure their dicks, refuse accountability, harass women, and lie to protect their masculine egos. At the end of the day, it's not really accurate to say that serial killers are psychological aberrations when most men are misogynists. 

That being said, the subplots involving the cops' personal lives (such as the one about Caroline's mom) were often poorly integrated into the rest of the book and cheesy. The central romance was not enjoyable. The 1990s-style race blindness is extremely noticeable and has not aged well. Finally, I wish that Walter had recognized benevolent misogyny (?) as a form of misogyny as how it contributes to men's senses of masculinity and not left it uninterrogated when it is, in fact, an essential component to the plot.

Maria

It's so boring and predictable, I don't even know why I finished it. All characters are forgettable, the so-called love story is ridiculous, huge amount of scenes made no sense, and there were literally only one person except the cops who could have been a suspect. Arghhh.

Over Tumbled Graves A Novel

Reviews