Book Review: Buying Time (Angela Evans Series No. 1)

Book Cover Images image of Buying Time (Angela Evans Series No. 1)

by Pamela Samuels Young

Publication Date: Nov 01, 2009
List Price: $16.99
Format: Paperback, 370 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780981562711
Imprint: Goldman House Publishing
Publisher: Goldman House Publishing
Parent Company: Goldman House Publishing

Read a Description of Buying Time (Angela Evans Series No. 1)


Book Reviewed by Idrissa Uqdah


For The Love of Money

Murder mysteries are fast becoming one of my favorite genres and author Pamela Samuels Young comes highly recommended. Her books have a pretty large following of readers who trust her to give them a great storyline with a very well paced plot and plenty of action.

Young's latest release; Buying Time lived up to her stellar reputation. I literally could not put this book down. The characters were varied. Waverly Sloan is a recently disbarred lawyer whose high-maintenance, spoiled wife Deidra spends his money faster than he can earn it. Waverly, a nice guy whose average looks normally puts a woman like Deidra out of his league, is so happy to have her that he has always allowed her mega spending. Deidra, on the other hand feels entitled. She married him expecting the good life.

Waverly is desperate with a capital "D" to find a way to keep his lovely wife living the life she expects of him. Right before his disbarment; he meets a guy at a legal conference who leads him to believe he can make a killing in the viatical business. Waverly is eager to sign on even though he has no idea what a viatical settlement is. After all, he's a desperate man with disbarment staring him down. He figures he has nothing more to lose. He never imagined how wrong he could be.

The viactical industry is a relatively new form of insurance investing. In his new career, Waverly is a broker who "helps" terminally ill clients in need of immediate cash. These poor souls sign over rights to their life insurance policies for a percentage of the face value. "Investors" then advance them the cash in exchange for being made the sole beneficiary of their life insurance policies upon their death. Waverly gets a large broker's fee for brokering the deals and soon is making more money than he ever made as an attorney. He's on easy street! He tells himself that he is giving hope to the terminally ill to appease his conscience. After all, Waverly is a nice guy who only wants to hold on to his beautiful wife.

When Waverly's clients begin to die much sooner than expected, the company he works for garners the attention of the U.S Attorney's Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney, Angela Evans is assigned to head up a special task force to investigate the company, Live Now,Inc. They plan to stage a sting operation to catch these ruthless businessmen, aptly named Operation Buying Time. The plan is to have one of them go undercover as a terminally ill patient in need of immediate cash.

The novel has very well constructed characterization. Angela Evans is more than interesting as a competent attorney with a reputation for being tough but fair and serious about sending criminals to jail. Engaged to marry a Superior Court Judge, ten years her senior, this thirty-something career woman is looking forward to settling down in suburbia to experience the joys of motherhood before it's too late. Her biological clock is ticking very loudly. Yet; she finds herself second-guessing her upcoming wedding.

The author, an attorney by day uses her knowledge of the legal profession to her advantage in writing her legal thrillers. Young crossed every "T" and dotted every "I" in developing this story line. The story had layers to the plot that kept me guessing from page one. This "who-dun-it" keeps the reader engrossed from one chapter to the next adding secondary characters who made the story pop and providing action, action and more action as the story takes shape. There was nothing about this book that I did not like.

I don't want to give away too much of the story in this review so I will just encourage readers to take a ride on the wild side and read this engrossing tale of greed, blackmail and murder written in a style that will hold your attention from page to page. At the end, she ties every loose end together with a finale that I never expected.

There is also a bit of politics, romance, domestic violence and family drama. What more can a fan of mystery ask for? Pamela Samuels Young is an author that I won't soon forget.

Read Goldman House Publishing’s description of Buying Time (Angela Evans Series No. 1).

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