Buying Time by Pamela Samuels Young

viatical - of or pertaining to a financial transaction in which a company buys life insurance policies from the terminally ill at less than their face value and may sell the policies to investors:viatical settlements.


Waverly Sloan has just been disbarred and doesn't know what he is going to do.  His wife expects a high standard of living, and he doesn't want to disappoint her with the fact that he can no longer practice law.  Waverly sets up an appointment with someone he met at a club who claims he can set Waverly up in a business that can solve all of his money problems. 


All he has to do is get the terminally ill to sell him their life insurance policies for a fraction of the policy.  In return, they get money up front, Waverly gets ten percent, and when they die, the "investor" is listed as the beneficiary.  It seems like a sweet deal to Waverly.  It will solve his money problems and he can help the hopeless.


Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Evans is leading a sting operation against the Tustin Group, a group of viatical's who they believe are pressuring elderly people to sell their insurance policies.  But it comes to light that another group in their own city may be operating under the same persona, but in a different light.  So far there are four people whose autopsies claim they died from natural causes of cancer or accidental, but it seems to coincidental to Angela and her team that they died so quickly after selling their policies.  They immediately undergo an investigation.


Lawrence Erickson, a high profiled lawyer who is valiently trying to become the next U.S. Attorney General has his own problems.  His wife, who is dying of cancer, is holding a secret above his head.  If that secret is revealed, it will ruin him.   He wants her to die sooner than later so that he can save his position of power and hopefully get a seat at the White House.  He convinces her to sell her policy to Waverly for an experimental surgery that could save her life.  But once she decides not to have the surgery, Lawrence is at his wit's end.  But then his wife ends up dead, and he doesn't know who did it, but is greatful.  But once the autopsy comes to light that she was murdered, he is the prime suspect.


Angela has her own problems.  The judge she is engaged to has turned violent, but she doesn't want to turn him in and ruin his career.  She tries to call off the wedding, especially after she meets Dre.  He really lights her fire.  But when it's disclosed he is a drug dealer, even her career is on the rocks.  When one of their own, who went undercover in the sting, winds up dead, the stakes are even higher.


If you enjoy thrilling mysteries with believable characters, then BUYING TIME is for you! The plot is a page-turner and the twists and turns will keep you up far into the night.  Ms. Young has meshed together a stunning weave of romance with an intricate and suspenseful whodunnit with the backdrop of the legal system.  Highly recommend!!


About the Author:


Corporate attorney Pamela Samuels Young has always abided by the philosophy that you create the change you want to see. Fed up with never seeing women or people of color depicted as savvy, hot shot attorneys in the legal thrillers she read, Pamela decided to create her own characters. Despite the demands of a busy legal career, Pamela accomplished her ambitious goal by rising at four in the morning to write before work, dedicating her weekends to writing and even spending her vacation time glued to her laptop for ten or more hours a day. The Essence magazine bestselling author now has four fast-paced legal thrillers to show for her efforts.


Pamela’s debut novel, Every Reasonable Doubt (February 2006), won the Black Expressions Book Club’s Fiction Writing Contest, received an honorable mention in the SEAK Legal Fiction Writing Competition and was a finalist for USA Book News’ Best Books of 2006 awards in the mystery, suspense and thriller category. Her second novel, In Firm Pursuit (January 2007) was honored by Romantic Times magazine as a finalist for Best African-American Novel of 2007. Murder on the Down Low (September 2008), Pamela’s third release, was an “Editor’s Pick” by Black Expressions magazine and a finalist for the 2009 African-American Literary Awards in the mystery category. Pamela then published her first stand-alone novel, Buying Time (November 2009). Her short story,Setup, was selected for the 2006 Sisters in Crime anthology,LAndmarked for Murder.