The Corpse Had a Familiar Face

The Corpse Had a Familiar Face

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

For eighteen years, Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Buchanan had one of the most exciting, frightening, and heartbreaking jobs a newspaperwoman could have — working the police beat for the Miami Herald. Having covered more crimes than most cops, Buchanan garnered a reputation as a savvy, gritty writer with a unique point of view and inimitable style. Now, back in print after many years, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face is her classic collection of true stories, as witnessed and reported by Buchanan herself. From cold-blooded murder, to violence in the heat of passion, to the everyday insanity of the city streets, Edna Buchanan reveals it all in her own trademark blend of compassionate reporting, hard-nosed investigation, and wry humor that has made her a legend in the world of journalism.
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The Corpse Had a Familiar Face: Covering Miami, America's Hottest Beat

The Corpse Had a Familiar Face: Covering Miami, America's Hottest Beat

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

For eighteen years, Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Buchanan had one of the most exciting, frightening, and heartbreaking jobs a newspaperwoman could have -- working the police beat for the Miami Herald. Having covered more crimes than most cops, Buchanan garnered a reputation as a savvy, gritty writer with a unique point of view and inimitable style. Now, back in print after many years, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face is her classic collection of true stories, as witnessed and reported by Buchanan herself. From cold-blooded murder, to violence in the heat of passion, to the everyday insanity of the city streets, Edna Buchanan reveals it all in her own trademark blend of compassionate reporting, hard-nosed investigation, and wry humor that has made her a legend in the world of journalism.From Publishers WeeklyBuchanan, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986, has been the police reporter for the Miami Herald for 16 years and has covered some 5000 murder cases. Born and raised in New Jersey (which she hated), she got to Miami (which she loves) by accident and almost as casually got into the newspaper business. She tends to be hard-nosed about crime and criminals: her stories here range from a case which set off three days of rioting in Miami's black community, to a father who shot his comatose daughter in a hospital. Buchanan writes in pure journalese, with short sentences and short paragraphs,and she does it superbly. Literary Guild alternate. Author tour. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalFor 15 years, this Pulitzer Prize-winning police reporter for the Miami Herald has covered murder and rape, drug deals and robbery, Miami and vice, and she tells her story here. Her prose is spare but somehow crammed with detail and description. "If a man is shot for playing the same song on the jukebox too many times, I've got to name that tune," she says. She is outspoken, matter-of-fact, funny, frequently tough. Her best day "is the one where I can write a lead that will cause a reader at his breakfast table to spit up his coffee, clutch at his heart, and shout, `My God, Martha, did you read this?' " Her book will make you do just that. Jo Cates, Poynter Inst. for Media Studies Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Cold Case Squad

Cold Case Squad

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

"Like all things good and bad in the world, it began with a woman..."And so begins the first chapter of Edna Buchanan's Cold Case Squad, a new suspense novel that features a special homicide unit that breathes new life into old cases.A man and a woman are shot dead at a strip club in Miami Beach. A few hours later, an explosion in a garage rocks a child's birthday party and burns a father of three to death. The murders go unsolved and the fire is chalked up to an accident.But was it an accident? Twelve years later, a blonde walks in to the Miami Police Department's Cold Case Squad -- which Buchanan fans will remember from The Ice Maiden -- and complains that she's been seeing her husband everywhere she goes. Trouble is, he's been dead for twelve years. In Buchanan's characteristic voice, "Some guys just don't know when to let go."As the Cold Case Squad unearths the details of the strip club deaths and the dead or missing father -- as well as the u...
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You Only Die Twice

You Only Die Twice

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

What was the nude, recently slain body of Kaithlin Jordan doing spoiling the pristine turquoise waters of Miami Beach -- especially when the dead socialite's convicted killer husband is sitting on Death Row for having murdered her...ten years ago! Reporter Britt Montero lives for this kind of story. But she may die for this one as well. Because each question raises many others -- and every hard-won answer reveals secret passions and explosive truths that could doom an overly inquisitive journalist with a tendency to leap before she looks.
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Love Kills

Love Kills

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

"Where the hell is Britt Montero?"So says Sgt. Craig Burch of Miami's Cold Case Squad at the end of the first chapter of Edna Buchanan's new novel, Love Kills. So have readers been wondering since reporter Britt Montero vanished after her lover, homicide cop Kendall McDonald, was killed three books ago in Buchanan's The Ice Maiden.When a bulldozer in the Everglades unearths the skull of an infamous kidnapper, the Cold Case Squad is brought in to investigate. Britt was the last person to see him alive, and the detectives have questions only she can answer. On a remote desert island where she has sought solace, Montero finds a camera on an isolated beach. The film inside yields photos of a happy young couple on their honeymoon. Soon after, Britt is shocked to learn the newlyweds were lost at sea.When only the groom is rescued, the connection between the reporter and the new widower astonishes her -- and Britt is even more astonished when ...
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Suitable for Framing

Suitable for Framing

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan returns with another tale of violence and murder on the streets of Miami.A mother and child are the recent victims of a fatal hit-and-run. Miami crime reporter Britt Montero witnesses the tragedy and relentlessly pursues the story. At the same time, trouble lurks in the newsroom. A new, ambitious reporter covets Britt's job. Britt begins to suspect that her rival's "breaking news" stories may not be what they seem. As she investigates, Britt herself becomes the prime suspect in a shocking murder. Faced with losing more than just her job, Britt is left fighting the most desperate deadline of her life.
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Margin of Error

Margin of Error

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Buchanan's heroine Britt Montero once again delves into Miami's dark side of obsession and murder.Crime reporter Britt Montero's dreams have been haunting her. She had to shoot a man to save her own life, and the memory of it is torturing her. Meanwhile, a major Hollywood actor strides into the newsroom—and Britt's life—hoping to do research for the character he portrays: a secret agent undercover as a Miami crime reporter. An obsessed madwoman stalks the star, and mysterious mishaps, accidents, and deaths push Britt and the star closer together. Both are menaced by the stalker. Or is it someone else who is determined to sabotage the film and kill the star?
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A Dark and Lonely Place

A Dark and Lonely Place

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

"We belong together," he said. "Yes," she whispered fervently in his ear. "We do." From Pulitzer Prize winner Edna Buchanan, the novel she has always wanted to write: the gripping saga of star-crossed lovers across generations. A century ago, when Indians and alligators roamed frontier Miami, the legendary John Ashley was accused of murder and sentenced to hang. He insisted he was innocent and went on the run with his sweetheart, Laura. Their crime spree lasted years longer and became far more deadly than the exploits of Bonnie and Clyde a decade later. John Ashley and Laura Upthegrove became the most notorious, colorful, and compelling figures in Florida's violent outlaw history. This is their true story of prison breaks, bootlegging, bank robberies, and piracy on the high seas. Their sensual and dreamy saga of love, passion, and violence is juxtaposed with the taut and suspenseful story of their fictional descendants who share the same love and dangers a...
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Miami, It's Murder

Miami, It's Murder

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan weaves a tale about the murderous streets of Miami, and how the predator can quickly become the prey.Miami crime reporter Britt Montero has a lot on her hands. She's investigating a series of bizarre deaths involving sex, electrocution, and freshly poured concrete. As if that isn't enough, there's the long unsolved murder of a young girl that may implicate the front-runner in the governor's race.Pursuing a lead, Britt follows the trail of a serial rapist. Enraged by her stories, the rapist is soon the one trailing her. Tensions mount as Britt fights to uncover the truth with all the odds stacked against her.
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The Ice Maiden

The Ice Maiden

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

A chance encounter with a stranger changes the life of reporter Britt Montero forever. The encounter is at Miami's morgue, where the unidentified stranger lies dead. His unusual old scars capture her curiosity-the dead man clearly had a tale to tell. This thief, who was accidentally electrocuted, may be the key that unlocks the long-sought secrets of a sensational cold murder mystery unsolved for more than fourteen years.Sunny and Ricky, teenagers on a Christmas Eve first date, were abducted, a shocking crime that was never solved despite a gigantic manhunt, a huge reward, and an outraged community. Frustrated police called the lack of leads eerie. Unnatural. Against all the laws of homicide and human nature. Now Britt wants the story, and she isn't the only one seeking answers.Sunny survived, the lone witness to that terrible night so long ago. But the reclusive Ice Maiden, now an artist and sculptor estranged from her wealthy family, is not talking and...
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Act of Betrayal

Act of Betrayal

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

The Britt Montero series continues with this thrilling installment from Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Buchanan.When Miami crime reporter Britt Montero reports a missing teenager, she discovers that the case may be related to a string of ­­­­unsolved disappearances. As Britt delves into the baffling case, an old mystery opens new wounds: she unexpectedly meets two men who knew her deceased father. Through them, Britt learns that he left a diary identifying the man who betrayed him. But the diary isn't easily possessed; anyone who finds it seems to be marked for murder. At the height of a terrifying category five hurricane, Britt needs to face the man who betrayed her father in order to uncover more than one truth, but will her hunger for justice turn her into the next victim?
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Garden of Evil

Garden of Evil

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

While attempting an arrest, a sheriff is slain by an enigmatic young woman who promptly vanishes into the northern Florida landscape. As the story comes over the wire, reporter Britt Montero is intrigued. Few copkillers escape so easily.The murders continue. Men are lured into sex by the same woman, their lifeless bodies dumped half-naked in ditches, woodlands and along the road, their cars, cash, and valuables gone. The murderer, who leaves lipstick traces on the bullets she uses-slugs that blossom into flower-shaped blades designed to maim-is swiftly dubbed the Kiss Me Killer.Tracking the killer's path, Britt senses it will lead to Miami, sweltering through the hottest summer on record. When a top politician tastes the killer's kiss of death, leading to a media frenzy, the story belongs to Britt and quick reader reaction comes-from the killer. They open a chilling dialogue, and the body count mounts as the bad and beautiful serial murderer decimates the hard partying...
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Legally Dead

Legally Dead

Edna Buchanan

Edna Buchanan

U.S. Marshal Michael Venturi of the Witness Protection Program relocates a mobster, now a government witness, to a small rural town after creating a new identity for him. The man proves to be a monster unleashed on an unsuspecting community. The results are tragic. To make amends Venturi leaves the Marshals Service and assembles a team of close confidants to secretly create new identities for innocent men and women whose lives have been ruined through no fault of their own -- people who really deserve fresh starts in new lives. But before they are relocated and reborn, each must change a lifetime of habits and actually become someone else, with new traits, tastes, and personalities.And before being declared "legally dead" -- they have to die. The result is a combination of Extreme Makeover, Mission Impossible, and CSI -- the last in reverse. In these "deaths," some of them spectacular, phony forensics must be created to fit the "facts" and fool the experts...
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