James Scott Bell Try Dying

Try Dying

James Scott Bell

Center Street, Oct 2007, $21.99

ISBN: 9781599956848

Los Angeles attorney Ty Buchanan prepares for a defamation of character defense in which he claims the plaintiff has NO LEGAL GROUNDS to sue his client. However, as he prepares for the case, he suddenly is hammered with a tragedy, the death of his fianc e Jacqueline Dwyer. What makes her demise even more difficult to cope with is the randomness of the event that killed her. Spousal killer Ernesto Bonilla committed suicide on an overpass and plunged off it landing on Jacqueline's passing vehicle, killing her.

At her funeral an unkempt out of place male demands Ty give him money in exchange for the truth behind Dwyer's death; the stranger insists she lived after the Bonilla dive. Perhaps looking for a different explanation, Ty needs to know the truth; but when he tells the cops, they assume he is a grieving person who has been conned. Although he understands he could harm his rising career, Ty investigates finding a conspiracy of the powerful concealing something, but what and how it ties to Jacqueline remains elusive.

Though there is a solid legal thriller subplot, TRY DYING is more an investigative tale as Ty works Los Angeles seeking whether his late fianc e was murdered by someone else after the Bonilla incident. The story line is action-packed, but in every sense of the word is owned by the mourning young lawyer who cannot understand how this could happen and recognizes he may be reaching for a less random incident even if it is homicide. Fans will appreciate Ty's efforts to learn the truth at the cost of his career.

Harriet Klausner