Legally Dead [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Edna Buchanan (Author), Mark Deakins (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2008

10 hours 42 minutes / 9 CDs - unabridged

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Books On Tape; Library Edition edition (2008)
• ISBN-10: 1415956014
• ISBN-13: 978-1415956014
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,759,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A big disappointment, September 28, 2008

By 

Taiyo (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legally Dead: A Novel (Hardcover)

I really liked this book . . . up to a point. It was well-written, the characters were likable, and the plot was different. But when it came to winding up the story line, I found the bad guy's motive simply unbelievable and his tactics far fetched at best. And -- not to give anything away -- the abrupt ending was startling, it was as though Buchanan was either tired of writing or didn't know where to take the story so she just quit writing. I hate to invest time and money into a book, only to be forced to use my imagination to give it a proper ending.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "It takes a superhuman effort to . . . become somebody else.", October 5, 2008

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Legally Dead: A Novel (Hardcover)

In Edna Buchanan's "Legally Dead," United States Marshall Michael Venturi has helped place a number of individuals in the Witness Protection Program. Venturi discovers that a mobster, a star witness whose testimony is considered crucial in an upcoming union corruption case, may be committing heinous acts in the New Hampshire town where he was relocated by the feds. When Michael insists that he and his colleagues have a moral obligation to keep this predator from harming innocent victims, his boss orders him to back off. Conscience-stricken, Venturi takes matters into his own hands. When Michael is fired, he is not as dispirited as someone else might be under similar circumstances. Being a U. S. Marshall had lost its allure; the job had become "disappointing, boring, and often absurd." Mike is financially well off, thanks to the huge sum of money he received in a wrongful-death settlement after a tragic accident took the life of his wife and their unborn child. He decides to relocate to Florida and, along with his old Marine buddy, Danny, starts a new project--helping people in trouble assume new identities after faking their deaths. Michael's resourceful mother-in-law, Vicki, whom he adores, assists their clients in acquiring the skills that they will need to reinvent themselves.

"Legally Dead" might have worked better had the author stuck to her central theme. She throws in unnecessary characters and extraneous subplots, such as those dealing with Vicki's wayward and self-destructive son, Sidney, and Danny's roving eye (he is the married father of three with another child on the way). The main story line is preposterous. Buchanan would have us believe that one after another, people are coming out of the woodwork who are so desperate that they are willing to throw away their old lives and start anew in a foreign country. None of Michael's clients are particularly well-drawn. The dialogue, for the most part, is cutesy and artificial. Worse yet, the author brings her book to an absurd conclusion with a series of murders that are mysteriously connected to Michael's venture. Trite writing such as "her tawny skin was luminous, her perfect teeth flashed white" do not help matters. For those readers who like plenty of action, no matter how far-fetched, this novel may provide passable entertainment. Those who prefer that even a thriller should have a semblance of realism would be better off skipping this one.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not That Good, September 5, 2008

By 

Watson McFestus "Watson McFestus" (Irving Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legally Dead: A Novel (Hardcover)

The plot and the story are mildly compelling. The ex-military hero was less realistic and more self-satisfied by far than is usual in such novels. The bureaucratic underpinnings of the various law enforcement agencies involved in the story were moronically written. I'm an Edna Buchanan fan and in my opinion this is the weakest book by far that she has written, the Corpse Had a Familiar Face being the best. It's a cheap Lee Child-Jack Reacher knockoff. Avoid