You Only Die Twice: A Novel - Hardcover

Buchanan, Edna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380976552 ISBN 13: 9780380976553

Publisher: William Morrow, 2001

Synopsis

The Los Angeles Daily News has dubbed Pulitzer Prize winner Edna Buchanan "the Queen of Crime." The number one New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell calls her "outrageous and unrivaled." Nearly every reader and reviewer who has gotten a good taste of her exceptional Florida noir agrees: No one captures the steamy, vibrant, and lethal intensity of Miami better than the unsurpassed Edna. And no fictional investigator has more life, depth, character, and savvy than her peerless creation, crime reporter Britt Montero.

The perfect, nude corpse of a beautiful woman washes up on a pristine Miami Beach -- her body tanned and shapely, her nails elegantly manicured. The problem is that the victim, Kaithlin Jordan, was murdered ten years ago. And her convicted killer -- her husband, R. J. Jordan, scion of a wealthy and powerful South Florida family -- sits on death row, just weeks away from his execution.

Newspaper reporter Britt Montero recalls the high-profile murder trial that heated up a volatile tropical city like the merciless August sun. Even without a body, the prosecution's case against Jordan seemed airtight and the jury enthusiastically bought into it. Now R.J. is preparing to walk -- benefiting from the murderous "largess" of whoever drowned his wife in the ocean off Miami Beach -- and Britt's boundlessly curious nature is energized once more by a slew of questions that suddenly need answers. Did Kaithlin frame her husband for murder -- or did she simply efficiently flee an abusive marriage? And why, after successfully reinventing herself, had she returned to South Florida, only to meet a very bad end in deep turquoise water?

Impulsive and explosive, with a turbulent love life and a unique, highly charged relationship with this singular metropolis erected between swamp and sea, Britt is only truly happy when she's involved in a juicy murder story. And this one has the right smell and feel...and threat. Because somewhere in the tangle of an enigmatic beauty's bizarre life and even stranger rebirth -- somewhere between the sparkling gold coast glamour and flashing neon sleaze -- are secret passions and buried solutions that could doom an overly inquisitive journalist with a tendency to leap before she looks. After all, this is Miami, where anything is possible...even dying twice.

About this title

Review:

In her seventh outing for Miami crime reporter Britt Montero, Edna Buchanan (herself an erstwhile journalist for The Miami Herald) serves up a nice twist on a standard plot. The body of a beautiful naked woman floats in on the tide practically at Britt's feet, and it turns out to be that of a woman supposedly murdered a decade before by her wealthy husband. Most of the action focuses on freeing R.J. Jordan, the convicted killer, from his cell on death row. R.J., a handsome but decidedly unpleasant guy who maintained his innocence all along, isn't the slightest bit interested in apprehending his wife's killer. He's just happy her body turned up before he died for her murder. But Britt wants to know where Lily Jordan's been for the last 10 years, and why she came back to Miami just days before her husband was due to die.

To Britt's surprise, her own mother has an important clue, although it's all Britt can do to pry it out of her. Not only did the elegant, socially well- connected Montero matriarch know the victim, she even mentored Lily as she rose through the executive ranks of the Jordan family business. The new explications of the complicated relationship between Britt and her mother is a plus for fans of this bestselling series, who appreciate Buchanan's deft characterizations as well as her love for the city she has called home all her (and Britt's) life. As an extra fillip, there's Britt's growing relationship with the investigator who helped put R.J. away 10 years ago, a nice counterpoint to this ingenious updating of Double Indemnity. Buchanan's pacing is dead-on, as she stays one step ahead of even the most discerning reader right up to the explosive conclusion. --Jane Adams

From the Publisher:

7 1.5-hour cassettes

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0380976552
• ISBN 13: 9780380976553
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304