Pulse [Hardcover]

Edna Buchanan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1998

With the perfect wife, two beautiful daughters and a successful business, Frank Douglas had everything to live for. But someone else had to die first.

If Daniel Alexander had not committed suicide, Frank Douglas would never have lived to see his forty-fifth birthday. Alexander's heart now beats strong and sure in Douglas's chest. The donated organ has given the successful Miami businessman a second chance but it gives him no peace.

Disturbed by nagging feelings of guilt and uncertainty, Frank sets out to discover all he can about the benefactor whose death gave him life. His search leads him to Rory Alexander--Daniel's beautiful, enigmatic wife-and to troubling questions and shocking revelations about the late man's affairs. Why, for example, have the profits from Alexander's seemingly successful business ventures mysteriously vanished? And why is Rory so unshakably certain that her husband was murdered?

A numbers man, Frank Douglas needs to have the figures add up--and that need is drawing him and a seductive, distraught widow across the length of a nation, and deep into something corrupt and twisted and deadly. And suddenly the new life he was granted is in serious peril, threatened by secrets, lies, human savagery and greed. . .and by the true dark nature of the heart that is now pumping the lifeblood through his body.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Frank Douglas likes making deals, accumulating wealth, and consolidating power. He drives himself until his heart fails, and he must undergo a transplant. He has a new chance at life and vows it will be different--he will spend more time with Kathleen and the girls. Then Frank finds out that his donor had committed suicide, and he sets out to help the donor's family; however, the widow, Rory, is convinced her husband, Daniel, was murdered. Frank teams with Rory to find out what really happened to Daniel. Buchanan, the Pulitzer Prize^-winning Miami journalist and author of the very popular Britt Montero mystery series, knows crime, criminals, and their victims very well. In addition, what she is exhibiting here (as well as in the last two Montero novels) is a deep understanding of human motivation. Frank Douglas is awestruck by his second chance at life and desperately wants to reinvent himself as the all-American family man. He's also confused and frustrated by his inability to change. He's as driven as ever; all he can hope to do is to understand himself. It's a difficult internal journey, and it takes a writer with Buchanan's skill to portray it accurately and empathetically. Wes Lukowsky

From Kirkus Reviews

A transplant patient finds that he's bought into a lot more than another man's heart, in this greased-lightning thriller from the Pulitzer-winning crime reporter best known for her Britt Montero mysteries (Margin of Error, 1997, etc.). Overwhelmed with gratitude at the donor whose heart saved his life, Frank Douglas isn't satisfied with all the rules about confidentiality; despite his private eye's warning that the man who gave him a second chance at life probably wasn't a model citizen--now that traffic fatalities are down, most organ donors are shooting victims--he wants to locate the donor's family and thank them. And the donor he finds, suicidal businessman Daniel Alexander, turns out to be too good to be true: a man who piled up a substantial estate and left behind a tender note for his wife Rory before he blew his brains out. But just as Frank's disturbing dreams and flashbacks (as if his new heart were remembering its old life) are starting to get to him, and his family's behaviorhis own wife Kathleen doesn't like the time he's spending with Rory; his teenaged daughter Shandi is defying her grounding and seeing a much older man--Frank starts to find holes in the official story of Daniel's death. In the weeks before he died, it turns out, he carefully cleaned out all the nest eggs he'd left for Rory; his body was cremated as soon as its vital organs had been harvested; and his closemouthed ex-partner Ron Harrington is killed minutes before his meeting with Frank. Could Daniel have been murdered, despite all the forensic evidence--or could he still be alive, leaving Frank with a stranger's heart? There's no leisure to worry about the subtleties of these questions, because Frank's growing intimacy with Rory has Kathleen putting pressure on him back home--pressure that'll chase him from Florida all the way to the Pacific one step ahead of the police. Buchanan rides her irresistible premise hell-for-leather all the way to the fairy-tale ending. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 321 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380973316
• ISBN-13: 978-0380973316
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,498,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the Brit Montero series., May 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Pulse (Hardcover)

Heart transplant recipients lately seem to be prime subjects for mystery novels. In this one, a rich man from Miami Beach who has received a new heart searches, against all advice, for the family of the donor. Convinced that the donor was murdered and not a victim of suicide, he begins a search for the truth. Character development is mediocre, and the plot is somewhat tiresome. The spark and humor found Buchanan's other novels is nearly absent in this one. I have read all of her books and this is the one I like the least.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice premise, annoying characters, May 24, 1999

By 

Melanie Whynott - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pulse (Mass Market Paperback)

I liked PULSE, but I didn't love it. The novel moved at a quick enough pace, and the plot was both original and engaging. Frank Douglas is a main character who intrigues the reader with his various emotions - paranoia, suspicion, lust, anger, concern, and more. The more minor characters in PULSE, however, are a different story.

Frank's wife, Kathleen (who Buchanan intends to portray as the suffering wife), is in reality manipulative, annoying, and whiny. Rory, Frank's heart donor's widow, comes off as being nothing more than a fliratious, helpless ditz who is constantly is need of a male provider. Even Detective Lucca, who shows so much promise in the beginning of PULSE, is nothing more than a shallow character who has a minute role in the story itself. He seems more a character of convenience than anything else.

Don't get me wrong - PULSE was a compelling, satisfying read. But there is much to be desired, and Buchanan definitely leaves room for improvement.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent faced paced mystery!, April 21, 2007

By 

Kelleigh Nelson "Kelleigh Nelson" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pulse (Mass Market Paperback)

Super story...another good read by Edna Buchanan. I really enjoy her books on tape, the reader is excellent. This book was quite entertaining, but left me angry at the wife and elder daughter of the main character. They didn't trust or believe in the man they'd known for years and nearly destroyed him in his quest for truth regarding the person who died and gave his heart so Frank could receive a transplant and live. I would have given the book a five star rating had there been more of a finish with his wife and eldest daughter because of their betrayal. Obviously, he just forgives them and goes on with the marriage, but I'd have been a bit more circumspect with the relationship at the end. Nevertheless, the book was really enjoyable. The wife and eldest child will really get your dander up and make you wonder what the heck is wrong with them not to trust the man who'd given them such a wonderful life.