The Corpse Had a Familiar Face [Paperback]

Edna Buchanan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 14, 2009

Now in trade paperback, Pulitzer Prize winner Edna Buchanan’s classic nonfiction masterpiece detailing events from her eighteen years writing for The Miami Herald.

Nobody covered love and lunacy, life and death on Miami’s mean streets better than legendary Miami Herald police reporter Edna Buchanan. Winner of a 1986 Pulitzer Prize, Edna has seen it all, including more than 5,000 corpses. Many of them had familiar faces.

Edna Buchanan doesn’t write about cops—she writes about people: the father who murdered his comatose toddler in her hospital crib; fifteen-year-old Charles Cobb—a lethal killer; Gary Robinson, who "died hungry"; the Haitian who was knitted to death in a Hialeah factory; and the naked man who threw his girlfriend’s severed head at a young cop who threw it back.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Buchanan, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986, has been the police reporter for the Miami Herald for 16 years and has covered some 5000 murder cases. Born and raised in New Jersey (which she hated), she got to Miami (which she loves) by accident and almost as casually got into the newspaper business. She tends to be hard-nosed about crime and criminals: her stories here range from a case which set off three days of rioting in Miami's black community, to a father who shot his comatose daughter in a hospital. Buchanan writes in pure journalese, with short sentences and short paragraphs,and she does it superbly. Literary Guild alternate. Author tour.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

For 15 years, this Pulitzer Prize-winning police reporter for the Miami Herald has covered murder and rape, drug deals and robbery, Miami and vice, and she tells her story here. Her prose is spare but somehow crammed with detail and description. "If a man is shot for playing the same song on the jukebox too many times, I've got to name that tune," she says. She is outspoken, matter-of-fact, funny, frequently tough. Her best day "is the one where I can write a lead that will cause a reader at his breakfast table to spit up his coffee, clutch at his heart, and shout, `My God, Martha, did you read this?' " Her book will make you do just that. Jo Cates, Poynter Inst. for Media Studies Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Gallery Books; Reprint edition (July 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439141142
• ISBN-13: 978-1439141144
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #624,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Introduction to an Exciting City, August 30, 2000

By 

Jeffrey D Purtee (Reno, NV USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (Paperback)

If you really want to get a feeling for Miami, read this true crime book along with a standard tour guide. Edna Buchanan is as good as anybody in this genre; her love of the city, warts and all, shines through everyone of these gripping pages.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hot, hot, hot, April 5, 2000

By 

Andrea Egger, author of Grave Accusations (Gallup, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (Paperback)

This was my second introduction to Edna Buchanan's great reporting skill and her method of explaining the journalism field in a way almost anyone could understand. As a journalist, I was already leaning toward police coverage, but Buchanan's books really made me hunger for more. I've always been fascinated about human evil and, as Buchanan puts it, how in humans, "the person most likely to kill you sits across the breakfast table from you." Domestic violence is such a killer, and too often ignored or seen as a small crime. But police officers, as Buchanan points out, often lose their lives the most at these calls. Excellent reporting and story-telling!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Best, March 14, 2002

By 

Jamie Floer "DOOL fan" (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (Paperback)

This is my all-time favorite book. It inspires and enthralls. I am glad to see that Amazon carries it. Edna Buchanan truly is a great talent of our time.