Book Review: All That is Mine I Carry With Me

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Today, my book review is of William Landay’s All That is Mine I Carry With Me. Landay draws on his experience as a prosecutor to write crime fiction focusing on suspense and complex characters.

Book Summary:

One afternoon in November 1975, ten-year-old Miranda Larkin comes home from school to find her house eerily quiet. Her mother is missing. Nothing else is out of place. There is no sign of struggle. Her mom’s pocketbook remains in the front hall, in its usual spot.

So begins a mystery that will span a lifetime. What happened to Jane Larkin? Investigators suspect Jane’s husband. A criminal defense attorney, Dan Larkin, would surely be an expert in outfoxing the police.
 
But no evidence links him to a crime, and the case fades from the public’s memory, a simmering, unresolved riddle. Jane’s three children, Alex, Jeff, and Miranda, are left to be raised by the man who may have murdered their mother.
 
Two decades later, the remains of Jane Larkin are found. The investigation is awakened. The children, now grown, are forced to choose sides. With their father or against him? Guilty or innocent? And what happens if they are wrong?

All That is Mine I Carry With Me Meaning:

The title of William Landay’s novel, All That Is Mine I Carry With Me, is derived from the ancient Latin phrase “Omnia mea mecum porto“.

This phrase and its meaning, carrying one’s life, memories, and losses within oneself, are thematic. It often explores characters dealing with unresolved grief. This is particularly true from the perspectives of the children, Alex, Jeff, and Miranda, as they grow up.

The phrase means that one’s most valuable possessions are one’s character and wisdom. They are not material possessions.

The character Miranda Larkin has the Latin version of this quote, “Omnia mea mecum porto,” tattooed on her inner arm.

Their mother is a lingering presence in the house that their father chooses to continue raising them in. After a year, he brings his girlfriend and her daughter to live with them.

Signs of their mother are everywhere. They doubt their father’s innocence, as do the townspeople.

My Review:

I raced through this book because I absorb William Landay’s novels like I breathe air. I’ve read his book, Defending Jacob, twice now because I think it is such a good book.

The title reflects the emotional and psychological weight the Larkin children “carry” with them following their mother’s unsolved disappearance. 

I went back and forth on whether I thought their father, an attorney, killed Jane. But I was fairly certain it had to be him.

This engrossing novel will grab hold of you, and you won’t be able to put it down.

About William Landay:

A former district attorney, William Landay, is the bestselling author of the suspense breakout of 2012, Defending Jacob.

His previous works are The Strangler, a Los Angeles Times Favorite Crime Book of the Year, and Mission Flats. Mission Flats was the winner of the Creasey Memorial Dagger Award for Best First Crime Novel.

William Landay is an internationally bestselling author and attorney who holds degrees from Yale University and Boston College Law School.

He is highly regarded for his mastery of suspense. He’s a writer praised as much for his skill at plotting a story as for his well-crafted characters.

In his lectures, Landay attracts standing-room-only crowds for discussions of his work and the writing process.