Book Review: Fatal Dead Lines

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Fatal Dead Lines     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
John Luciew
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Pocket, Nov 2003, $6.99, 336 pp.

Sixty-one years old Harrisburg Herald obit columnist Lenny Bascomb thinks back to his last meaningful assignment reporting the Three Mile Island incident over two decades ago. Though he reflects on his glory days, he knows that now he is a shell of what he was. While working on the obituary of a young girl, Lenny goes into a fugue trance. During this state, he types the hidden truth from the public person though he never met her or her family. The deceased killed herself because she could not cope with her sexual predator father. Though he hands in the glowing obit, Lenny gains revenge for the victim.

Everyone praises political powerhouse Herb Butcher for his behind the scenes, emperor making when he suddenly dies from a heart attack. However, Lenny goes into another trance. He soon realizes that the idol who got Governor Lowell elected and turned him into a possible contender for president, stole millions for personal use from the campaign funds of the Keystone State’s chief executive. Lenny and reporter Jacqueline Towers start to expose Herb as an embezzler and begin to shred Lowell’s ambitions too.

FATAL DEAD LINES is an offbeat paranormal investigative journalist political thriller that will remind readers of the Hopper film Witch Hunt. The story line grabs the audience as the tired Lenny suddenly regains his energy with his first satisfying efforts in over twenty years. Besides my bias of having lived in Harrisburg during the late March ’79 near meltdown this reviewer found John Luciew’s tale fun and gripping in a refreshing way. No obit for Lenny who deserves future truth finder tales.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner