Try Dying

August 6, 2007
Former trial lawyer Bell (No Legal Grounds
) starts this engaging whodunit series kickoff by plunging successful young L.A. attorney Ty Buchanan into deep mourning for his fiancée, Jacqueline Dwyer. Apparently, wife-murderer Ernesto Bonilla shot himself on a highway overpass and his body landed on Dwyer's car, killing her. Buchanan, in the grip of intense grief, is further burdened when a scruffy man accosts him at the funeral and demands money in exchange for “the truth”: that Dwyer survived Bonilla's fall, only to be murdered. When the police dismiss this explanation, Buchanan risks his career and his life to get to the bottom of the mystery, crossing paths with a variety of powerful movers and shakers and ending up a murder suspect himself. Readers will enjoy Bell's talent for description and character development, even if the overall setup of a white-collar worker scouring the mean streets is familiar terrain.

September 1, 2007
Attorney Ty Buchanan is prepping a potentially career-making case involving repressed memories (hes defending a doctor who, after publicly criticizing a repressed-memory expert, is now being sued for defamation). When his fianc'e is killed in what appears to be a freakish coincidence, Ty is shattered. And when he learns that Jacqueline might have been murdered, he risks his career and his life to find the truth. Bell, an attorney turned prolific novelist, has created in Buchanan an appealing and series-worthy protagonist (hes already working on the second Buchanan novel), and the tale equally balances action and drama, motion and emotion. Readers who pride themselves on figuring out the answers before an author reveals them are in for a surprise, too: Bell is very good at keeping secrets. Fans of thrillers with lawyers as their central charactersLescroart andMargolin, especiallywill welcome this new addition to their must-read lists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)