Death Benefit : A Gray Investigative Thriller (Gray Investigative Thrillers)

Rating:
Summary: Time to take a look at my insurance policy!
Review: In order for me to read a fiction book the book has to capture my attention within the first 15 to 30 pages. Death Benefit had me going from the very start and I found myself turning pages and finishing the book within three hours.

Philip Harper is a true talent in the fiction arena and this work is not short of spectacular. Harper blends a remarkable tale of murder and corruption with suspense and drama and gives the reader an opportunity to see how deadly insurance can really be.

The main character of the book is developed as the average man next door, but as the story unfolds you'll see how devious he really is. Follow along as a string of what would seem to be natural deaths turn into a complex and intriguing tale of how greed and power can leads a reporter to uncover the mystery.

Harper's work is some of the best fiction I have read and you can almost get a sense of reality within the writing. I see this becoming a blockbuster movie in the near future. Don't pass this one up it is well worth the time and money.

Rating:
Summary: Gritty Justice-Seeking Thriller with Journalistic Twists
Review: The basic plot of this book is that a life insurance agent has been stealing from his clients. Not satisfied with that, he begins killing some of them (making it look like an accident where a rich defendant was at fault) to make even more money through collecting fees from the lawyer who wins the cases of negligence. George Gray, a former reporter, learns about a refused life insurance claim on a dead woman, and is asked to investigate. He uncovers Hartman's malfeasance, and then turns to his goal: Get the agent, Jim Hartman, to pay back those he has defrauded by blackmailing Hartman. The story mostly involves how Gray gets the goods on Hartman.

This book is a new genre for me, in using the investigative techniques of reporters to seek justice through blackmailing the bad guys. The mystery aspect isn't very much about who did it and why, but how the bad guys will be brought to justice and made to recompense the injured good guys. As such, I admired and enjoyed the book's novelty of form.

If you don't like books about twisted types, you should probably avoid this one. Everyone in sight seems to be either psychologically very abnormal, seriously over greedy, or strangely compulsive. I found much of this to be gratuitous, and unimportant to writing a good story only slightly different than this one. There's a very dark backdrop here for some very dark characters in this book that should appeal to virtually all fans of livres noirs.

I rated this work down one star because the book's main premise was patently implausible: That life insurance agents can not send in payments received to the life insurance company on policies and pocket the difference, rewrite policies to increase their commissions, and persuade people to take nothing as a death benefit without tipping anyone off that there is a problem. I may be mistaken (it has happened before), but the life insurance companies I do business with are very thorough about sending notices to the policy's owner and beneficiary whenever a policy is changed or a payment is late. It makes sense that they would, because the life insurance company makes more money if the current policy stays in force unless a new policy is taken out for more coverage. Of course, you may have had a different experience. If you don't mind this implausible (to me) lead, then you should upgrade my rating to five stars.

The plot itself is filled with many violent scenes that will probably appeal to those who are interested in martial arts and the details of murder. And the action keeps coming, right to the end, which virtually makes the book a page turner by the middle.

I found some enjoyment also in the plot complications that tied George Gray (the good guy vigilante) to the family of one of the victim's (through a former girl friend).

If you are tired of predictable mysteries, give this one a try. It will probably surprise you in a number of ways.

You can use this book also to learn more about being a good consumer of life insurance. The benefits from that may be worth more than the price of the book (buy term insurance rather than whole life, even if it has a fancier title than that).

Overcome your misconception stalls about who benefits from life insurance (and be sure not to become a murder victim in the process of having too much insurance)!

Rating:
Summary: Fiction That Makes You Want To Check Your Insurance Policy !
Review: This new 232 page novel is really quite interesting. It is written by two veteran investigators under a pseudonym. I found it to be a real thriller, as a crime fighter battles insurance industry corruption. The insurance agent thinks that he has found the perfect crime and goes to any length (including murders made to look like accidents) to get his share of the insurance loot. "Death Benefit" is written in an easy to read narrative style that lets you examine the minds of both the cat and the mouse. Not only is this work of fiction interesting, but it can encourage you to look at your own real life insurance policies and your dealing with insurance agents. Well worth the reading.