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Death Benefit
- An Elliot Lerner Novel
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
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Death Benefit
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Summary
Suppose it were legal to gamble on the time someone else is going to die. It is, if you invest in a life insurance product called a viatical.
When the sister of a law firm client dies in her sleep of carbon monoxide poisoning because of an apparently malfunctioning hot water heater, third year law student Elliot Lerner is asked to determine whether anyone could be held responsible in a wrongful death lawsuit. As he looks into the circumstances surrounding the death, he learns about viatical settlements -- investment products designed to provide terminally ill patients with immediate cash in exchange for the right to their life insurance payouts when they die. The amount investors are willing to pay for a patient's death benefit depends on how much longer the patient is expected to live, because the investor must take over payment of the insurance premiums.
If it looks like the investor's gamble is not going to pay off as planned because the patient is living too long, and the cost of premium payments is exceeding expectations, there's only one way to eliminate that expense.
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What listeners say about Death Benefit
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Norma Miles
- 25-02-18
Who are you, Bonnie Hill?
Elliott Lerner is a conscientious law student working as a Summer associate for a small, friendly law firm and hoping they might keep him on part time once college recommences. The sister of one of the firm's clients dies intestate and the car dealer brother asks if the firm can sort out the estate: As the brother is the sole beneficiary, it should not be too difficult, especially as it didn't l
seem that she could leave too much for him to inherit, anyway. A nice little job for the student.
But as Elliott looks into the accidental death by carbon dioxide poisoning from a faulty heater, it becomes increasingly obvious that the divorced waitress was not all that she seemed and that the accident might possibly have been deliberate, even part of something much bigger...
Well written, in the first person, the character of Elliott himself is nicely developed and grows as the story unfolds. From the earliest pages, the story proceeds in an inviting 'get to know him' fashion, talking to the readers and including them in Elliott's thinking whether this be about his ongoing long distance romance with his mostly absent girlfriend or his new friends and attraction to the people he meets, as well as the guilt he feels if anything goes wrong. The mystery, is intriguing at first, also, although, for this reader, it was flawed by the author's attempt at over-complication towards the latter part of the book.
Key to the audiobook is, of course, the narrator and Kyle Tait is superb. His very warm easy reading glides through the text with good pace and pleasant timbre, becoming that of the student, Elliott Lerner himself. Every character is also given a distinctive and individual voice, and even the English accented protagonists are usually reasonably attempted. This narration certainly raised the enjoyment of the novel by several points for this particular reader.
I have to thank the rights holder of Death Benefit for freely gifting me with a complimentary copy, at my request, via Audiobook Boom. It was clearly presented, easy on the ear, an enjoyable mystery with a lead protagonist of whom I hope we will hear more. An enjoyable listen.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Hi Ho Silver
- 11-08-22
Cul-de-Sac
Narrated in the commanding voice of a Star Ship Captain, this strange, long, souless, expose of viatical policies with dead ends dawdles it's way into a cul-de-sac. Gave up with 4 hrs to go. DAWDLING
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