Buying Time by Pamela Samuels Young

When life is going smoothly, it’s best to get ready for a rocky ride.

“Buying Time” is not your typical mystery thriller even though it offers readers plenty of suspense, murder and intrigue.

In this book author Pamela Samuels Young doesn’t focus on just one main character, but a number of characters that lead readers on a wild ride until the end.

Angela Evans is an Assistant U.S. Attorney engaged to Superior Court Judge Cornell L. Waters III. Theirs’ seems to be a perfect match. But all is not what it seems. Angela learns Cornell has a dark side. Things really start to fall apart when Dre comes into the picture. But Dre is hiding secrets of his own too.

Meanwhile, powerful lawyer Lawrence Erickson is being considered as a candidate for U.S. Attorney General. His stumbling block to the appointment is his wife, Claire, who’d dying of pancreatic cancer. She’s threatening to divorce him and expose a “dirty little secret” he has.

At the same time Waverly Sloan has hit bottom. He’s being disbarred, about to lose his house as well as his wife, who enjoys the good life. He’s offered a job that could solve all of his problems. In his new business, Waverly comes to the aid of people dying and in need of cash. He brokers deals between terminally ill clients and investors who buy their insurance policies for a portion of their value.

Before long the lives of these three groups begin to interact and the outcome is deadly. Waverly’s clients begin dying sooner than expected and die due to unusual circumstances.

Lawrence and a business partner determine Claire needs to be silenced quickly. Lawrence talks his wife into selling her insurance policy to Waverly. Within a matter of weeks, she’s dead.

Angela and her task force have begun investigating Waverly because his clients are dying too quickly. A member of the Buying Time Task Force goes under cover as a cancer patient. He sells his insurance policy to Waverly, collects his check and is killed later that day.

The love affair between Angela and Cornell is falling apart. Cornell becomes abusive and the outcome is tragic.

Soon all the characters come together and the plot becomes more complex and volatile.

The chapters are short and flow smoothly from one group of characters to the next and back again.The reader is keep guessing what can go wrong next and surprised when everything starts to fall apart. There are more twists and turns than one would expect. As the book comes to an end and the pieces start to fall in place, the story picks up steam and plows ahead with new revelations no one expected.

This is a intriguing mystery from beginning to end. Once you pick it up, you won’t be able to stop reading.

Pamela Samuels Young is a practicing attorney and bestselling author of three other legal thrillers.  She is also the fiction writing expert for BitzyMoms.com and is on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

Buying Time by Pamela Samuels Young, Goldman House Publishing, @2009, ISBN:9780981562711, paperback, 419 pages