In Death's Shadow

I like this novel better than number 3 in the series. Hannah Ives has formed a team for a fund-raising 5k race. She meets a former roommate from the hospital who is in remission and looking great. Great, that is, until her untimely death. Hannah becomes involved in a Web of insurance fraud involving the sale of beneficiary rights to insurance policies, along with policies sometimes fraudulently obtained. It is a crime story as much as a mystery, as guilty parties are often obvious well before the end of the novel. However, there is a surprise at the end. Her writer friend, Naddie Bromley becomes involved. It helps that some of the criminal element are not overly bright, often the case in real life. The action builds as you approach the end of the novel, and it will keep you up late finishing it. In regard to the fundraiser at the start of the novel, I was part of Christie's Team at the 2005 Relay for Life fundraiser in Vicksburg. Our's was a walk. The teams had booths. Christie's Team sold balloons, donuts, hot coffee and cocoa, bottled water, sno-cones, popcorn, and cotton candy. It was overnight from 7 PM to 7 AM. There was live entertainment, and competitive events between teams.

It was a very happy day for mystery lovers when Marcia Talley's Hannah Ives series was picked up by Avon. It's certainly wonderful to have Hannah back, even though Marcia has kept busy editing serial novels and writing award-winning short stories. When a friend, with whom Hannah shared the indignities and the other effects of chemo appears to be cured or, at least in remission , Hannah is very happy to see her again. Then, not long after doing a "race for a cure", Valerie is found dead in her bed by her small daughter. Hannah has her doubts about her friend's death. She was also curious how the family suddenly seemed to have so much money. Hannah then runs into an insurance scheme in which brokers buy insurance policies from the owners and then sell them to investors. Old people and cancer patients seem to be the prime target of one particularly aggressive broker. She then discovers that a number of old people in an assisted living/care facility have died not too long after selling their policies. Were the "investors" tired of waiting? So now I know about "viaticals" and the information was fascinating...as was the plotting and characters. I thoroughly enjoyed IN DEATH'S SHADOW, which is now available. It's well worth the paperback price. Heck, it would be worth a hardcover cost. Welcome back, Hannah.

This story involves a cancer survivor in a mystery of murder and insurance scams. Hannah Ives is a breast cancer survivor who lives an everyday life. She runs into an old friend, who is also a cancer survivor, and Hannah notices that her friend is living the good life after all the worries of not being able to pay medical bills. They once again pick up where they left off a couple of years before. They go on a relay for a charity to raise money for cancer research. After the race, Hannah is beside herself with curiosity and asks if they had won a settlement. Valerie Stone explains that they had sold her life insurance. A few days later, Valerie is dead and Hannah starts to ask questions of why. Her friend seemed so fit and the cause of death, heart attack, did not feel right to her. Hannah finds out about viaticals which, in layman's terms, means you can buy into an insurance policy and it may take six months to a year to mature. She also finds out that this is also a scam to take people's money and to scam bigger insurance companies. When more people begin to die, Hannah gets more involved. One of her friends, who lives in the community where a couple of the people had died, starts fearing for her life. She notices the same man loitering around where the people lived and died. Hannah finds out that every single person who has died is connected to the same person, who sold the insurance and the company. ***** This story is so awesome! I could not put this wonderful novel down. I loved how the author's use of imagery to paint a vivid picture in my mind. The characters could drew me in and I could sometimes feel the emotions. I also enjoyed that there was seldom any cursing in the whole book. Very good reading here. ***** Reviewed by D. Wilson.

"Chemo brain," indeed! Hannah Ives is back again, sharp as ever and with her usual wry take on life. When a fellow breast cancer survivor who had been in radiant good health suddenly dies under mysterious circumstances, Hannah's internal radar sends her nosing around to find out how and why. In the process, she discovers a ghoulish potential for mayhem in the complex arena of viatical insurance settlements---a timely subject for senior citizens and people with terminal illnesses who may wish to cash in their insurance policies while they can still use the proceeds. Who knew? Author Marcia Talley's lively powers of observation and knack for finding the `telling detail' make Hannah's trip into the murky morass of shady brokers and investors a lively and engaging process involving such now-familiar characters as author L.K. Bromley, and assorted family members who all contribute to the investigation. With each successive book, Talley's writing has grown more relaxed and confident. She has definitely hit full stride with In Death's Shadow.

Who knew that "viatical" insurance policies could serve up so much mystery entertainment value? Perhaps in lesser hands it wouldn't, but Marcia Talley and her protaganist - Hannah Ives - are in fine form as they investigate how an insurance policy that pays dividends to others may have hastened the death of her good friend. Those of you with the Hannah Ives series will know that Hannah is a breat cancer survivor. As if life weren't hard enough, those kind of challenges can create difficulties making ends meet. A viatical seemed like the perfect choice for her Hannah's friend, but greed may have shortened her friend's life more than the cancer. A thought-provoking great read!