Legally Dead: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Edna Buchanan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this explosive first in a new suspense series from Edgar-finalist Buchanan, Michael Venturi, a deputy U.S. marshal involved in running the Federal Witness Protection Program, realizes a mobster he's in charge of, Gino Salvi, has been sexually assaulting and killing young girls in Flemington, N.H., where Salvi is hiding out. Fired by the Feds after Salvi takes part in an armored car robbery, Venturi and an old dog he's adopted head for Florida, where he and some trusted allies set upa private agency for staging fake deaths and fashioning new identities. While some of Venturi's clients appear to need a good lawyer rather than a faked death and new identity, Buchanan constructs some ingeniously clever scenarios for rendering these people legally dead. An expert at ratcheting up suspense and creating believable, flawed characters, Buchanan (Love Kills andeight other Britt Montero novels) gets thisnew series off to a powerhouse start. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Michael Venturi is a U.S. Marshall working in the Witness Protection Program. When his superiors decide a particularly valuable mobster—who also happens to be a pedophile— should be relocated to a small midwestern town, Venturi vociferously objects. He is overruled, and when the mobster kills two young girls, Venturi becomes the fall guy. On his own, he starts a new business: helping people escape their existing lives, from a rock star sick of the spotlight to an old woman whose would-be heirs want to have her declared incompetent. As carefully as Venturi hides his clients, they start to turn up dead. Who has tapped into his secret program? The Mob? A former colleague? Buchanan, a Pulitzer winner for her work as a crime reporter and the author of the long-running Britt Montero series (Love Kills, 2007), is a bit off her game here. Although some suspension of disbelief is always required in thrillers, Buchanan asks for too much: too many coincidences, too many convenient plot twists. Still, Buchanan has a devoted following, and her fans are likely to overlook one bump in the road. --Wes Lukowsky

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743294777
• ISBN-13: 978-0743294775
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #494,590 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 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 (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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 A big disappointment, September 28, 2008

By	Taiyo (Oregon) - See all my reviews

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Writness Protection Gone Wrong, November 15, 2008

By	Nash Black "Troubadour" (Jamestown, KY) - See all my reviews

Edna Buchanan creates a new character in Michael Venturi, former Marine. Michael opens the sage working as a U.S. Marshall, but his sense of right and wrong conflicts with the powers who are using low grade mobsters to convict their crime bosses. Michael cannot let a child molester go unpunished and walks into an armoured car robbery and out of his job.
He heads for Florida and the only man he can trust, Danny Trado. Danny has two jobs, running a funeral home and working for the CIA.
Together they try to right some wrongs and aid people whose lives have been destroyed for one reason or another by giving them new lives. But Michael's past is haunting them when one of their new clients is brutally murdered.
LEGALLY DEAD is a fast paced thriller from a skilled writer that will keep you reading into the night.
HaintsWriting as a Small Business