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The Distant Dead
By Heather Young
William Morrow, 9780062690814, June 2020, 352pp.

The Short of It:

A really good story, but not at all what I expected going into it.

The Rest of It:

A math teacher is found dead. His body, burned beyond recognition. Young Sal, one of his students makes the grisly discovery. The police determine it’s a homicide but no one has a clue how a mild mannered school teacher could be killed in this manner. Adam Merkel was fairly new to the area. Having only been there for seven months, no one had really gotten to know the man, except maybe Sal, who spent his lunches in Merkel’s classroom as a way to escape the schoolyard bullies and his loneliness and sadness over his mother’s death a year earlier.

This is a sad, tragic story. Although Merkel’s murder is front and center, the loss of Sal’s mother and the tragedy that Merkel faced before his death ties these two characters together in a very special way. When I picked this book up, I thought it was a murder mystery, and although there is a murder to solve, there is a lot more going on in the story than you would imagine.

Sal is a complex kid. He’s mature and able to feel and see things that a child his age might not normally notice. To escape the foster care system after his mother’s death, he’s forced to live with his two wayward uncles. One has an anger problem and the other is a drug dealer. They don’t seem to pay him any mind, as evidenced by his clothing that is too small or the fact that he never has enough to eat. So when Merkel takes a liking to the boy and provides support and friendship that Sal so desperately needs, Sal finds that he will do anything for the man.

Just so you know, there is NO, absolutely NO child molestation in this story. It might seem like that is where this story is headed so I wanted to tell you not to fear, this is not that kind of story. Instead it’s a story about pain and loss and friendship and what it means to be a family.

I enjoyed this story quite a bit.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Hello, friends! Most of my mornings start off with coffee and a walk. Occasionally I have to wait until it warms up a bit. If it’s below 52 degrees then the pup doesn’t want to go. Lately, the mornings have been quite brisk so she has needed a little encouragement to get out the door. We always take a different path. Sometimes up a hill, sometimes around the school. Sometimes wherever her nose takes us. Today it was just around the neighborhood.

The Neighborhood

I never took advantage of morning walks before the pandemic. Sure, I was physically on-campus and not tooling around the neighborhood but my campus is a pretty pleasant place to get your steps in. I hope to continue my morning walks once we return to campus.

The weeks keep ticking on by, don’t they? I went to the mall for the first time in a year. I had to get my favorite candle and our new coffee maker melted so we had to get another one. I was in and out because I felt so closed-in and overwhelmed. It was right before Valentine’s Day so there were quite a few people shopping. They all looked so normal. Like they didn’t have a care in the world but so many of the shops have gone out of business so there was this dark cloud looming over the place. Every restaurant with outdoor dining was bustling. I am happy for them. I worry about spread but I also want them to stay open and for their employees to be able to make a living.

I got my Capri Blue candle though. Anything to make the day a little more pleasant.

I am currently reading The Midnight Library and then probably Joshilyn Jackson’s new one, Mother May I. My next two book club reads are books I’ve already read so that frees me up to read other books. Doing well with my review copies too. So many good reads coming out.

How are you all doing? There’s talk of schools opening back up again, at least at the K-5 level. I don’t see how that can happen until the teachers and staff are vaccinated but it’s a hot button topic here for sure. I would just like to know if ANY plans will be made for high school graduation. Even if it’s a drive by like last year. With a high school senior and the other one graduating from university, I need to know if there will be any conflicts.

Anyway, that’s it from me. Check in if you can.

Chatting with friends about books and life…