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Up-and-coming Los Angeles lawyer Ty Buchanan is devastated when his
fiancée, Jacqueline Dwyer, is killed after a man who’s committing suicide jumps from a bridge and falls onto her car. As if that isn’t bad enough, Ty is then approached by a stranger who, after demanding money, tells him that Jacqueline was alive after the body hit her car. He claims that she was killed after the fact by someone on the scene. Ty goes to the cops with this new information, but, unfortunately, the cops don’t believe him.
As you might predict, Ty sets out to find the truth behind Jacqueline’s death. All kinds of trouble ensue—the least of which is his getting beaten to a
pulp every time he sets foot outside. As you can image, the plot thickens,
and one murder leads to another…and then some.
Yeah, I know…. There are a lot of books out there like this one—and I’ve
read a bunch of them. While Try Dying may be predictable and the
outcome foreseeable, though, I found the protagonist, Ty Buchanan, very likeable and not without a dry sense of humor (despite his baggage). Other
well-developed characters cotribute to an enjoyable read. Also, unlike Lee Vance’s Restitution, Try Dying does a good job of keeping a complex story on track.
My only complaint (and, of course, there has to be one) is Bell’s fragmented style of writing. While I believe this is done for maximum impact, I found its overuse distracting. A properly-constructed sentence is always appreciated by this reader.
If you’re a fan of action-packed stories and shady characters—and you find
yourself always rooting for the underdog—chances are you’ll enjoy Try Dying.
