Dig Two Graves by Kim Powers

Ethan “Hercules” Holt is a 39-year-old classics professor at a sub-Ivy college in Vermont, and he has a most impressive past. He was the gold medal winner in the decathlon at the Sydney Olympics, the best athlete in the world. He had his picture on a box of Wheaties. It was the end of his Olympics event that made him even more famous when a fellow competitor from the U.S., who had been disqualified in a doping scandal, attacked Holt at the end of the 8^th event. Holt was assaulted quite badly, but he still had enough determination left to do the last two events well enough to win the medal, brining him even greater worldwide adulation. He had been a true athlete-scholar, having attended his small college on an academic scholarship, the same college where he was now a professor. Since his victory in Sydney, he had chose mostly to stay out of the limelight, but life had not gone well, and in the course of this book, Holt’s life turned into a nightmare.

A few years before the start of the book, Holt’s wife was killed in a winter car accident, leaving Ethan as the solo parent for his daughter, Skip. She was a precocious kid and a loving daughter who had become everything to her father. Then his parents were killed when their house was burned to the ground with them in it. Powers did a good job developing the story about Ethan’s dysfunctional family which had helped give him the drive that ended in his Olympic victory. After necessary background, the intensity of the story increased when, at the age of 13, Skip was kidnapped. The kidnapper did not want money, but he decided to put Ethan through a series of challenges based on the trials of his namesake, Hercules, as written in classic literature.

This book grabbed me from the beginning. Powers’ character development was excellent and believable. The plot kept me invested in the story and I did not put it down until it was finished. There was one convention used by the author that I didn’t like because I thought it has been overused throughout fiction literature, but I cannot write more about that without giving away a critical element in the plot. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you get there. Despite my initial negative reaction to that single aspect of the story, once I realized what it was, Powers managed to pull it off and keep me engaged – I’m guessing you’ll have the same reaction. I loved the classical references and the use of the legend of Hercules to weave the plot. If you love who-done-its, then this is a book for you.