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Deputy U.S. Marshal, Michael Venturi is disgusted with his job and his fellow workers in the Federal Witness Protection Agency. Everyone there is so concerned with clearing their cases that they don't care what the killers and child molesters they have relocated do thereafter. As long as their original case against their mobsters continues to be viable they do nothing to make sure these people behave. After one such man whom Michael himself had relocated into a small community goes on a killing spree, Michael refuses to listen to his superiors who order him to leave the man alone. Going completely undercover, Michael makes sure that the man is caught by the local police. When the media pick up the whole nasty story, his superiors at the FWPA blame everything on Michael and fire him even though they have no evidence against him Because Michael had been awarded a large amount of money for his wife and their unborn baby's wrongful death in the famous ferry disaster in New York City, Michael has plenty of money to start his life over in any way that he wants. He goes to Florida to see his oldest and best friend Danny Trado, a man he worked and trained with in the U.S. Marines. Before long Michael has a secluded house on the Everglades and he is living a quiet life, but when he meets a man whose life had been ruined through no fault of his own, Michael decides to use his training to open his own relocation agency and fake the deaths of innocent people whose lives have been ruined in order to relocate them in a new life and to give them a chance at happiness in another place. He gathers around him a few trusted and well trained friends and they start to help. Soon many innocent people are reported to be legally dead and they are off to live new lives. After Michael's home is broken into and his files are stolen, he hears that some of his clients have been murdered. He realizes that he is being targeted and that if he doesn't discover who is after him, that his life and the lives of his friends and his clients are all in dire jeopardy. LEGALLY DEAD is fine entertaining read. Ms Buchanan knows how to write fast-paced, clearly written books where the readers easily become intimate with the main characters, all of whom are interesting but flawed people. Readers can't help but admire and at the same time feel sad for her characters. I did have a bit of trouble accepting that Michael had inherited millions of dollars from the deaths of his wife and unborn child in the terrible New York City ferry accident. Though it happened five years ago, people still think of it with raw emotions. Using it as an easy writing ploy to make Michael rich struck me as callous. I wish that Ms Buchanan had used another way to make her character wealthy. But on the whole, LEGALLY DEAD was an easy and entertaining read. Billed as the first book in a new series, the surprise ending points the way forward to further instalments.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, September 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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