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Title: Dead Lucky: Lord Lucan-The Final Truth by Duncan Maclaughlin, William Hall ISBN: 1-84454-010-3 Publisher: John Blake Pub. Date: September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Mystery Solved
Comment: I'd like to start this review by stating I spent a fair amount of my time in Goa in the 80's and knew Barry Halpin well. He was a bearded drop out, who had turned to booze in a big way. He retained his Lancashire accent, but from memory, I never once saw him play backgammon. However, he wasn't the only long haired, long bearded Englishman who had 'escaped' to Goa. I can think of one or two others who settled there and who now that the suggestion has been put in my mind, could have been Lord 'Lucky' Lucan.

Like Winch, I recall an articulate and clearly well read Englishman who received "out of place" visitors from the UK. He did play backgammon and from memory was very reserved. The man depicted in the top photo opposite page 48, is in my opinion, Halpin. The man featured on the front cover and elsewhere in the book, is not. He is the articulate, quiet, backgammon playing Englishman I describe.

When all is said and done, this book has rekindled the saga and will leave the reader scratching their head, asking, "Is it, or isn't it him?" I knew both men. The mystery has in my opinion been solved.

Rating: 5
Summary: Tantalizing Read!
Comment: The news that Lord Lucan's disappearance had been solved reached the States. I arrived in London the day after the story broke, determined to buy the book and read for myself the fate of Lucan. I was first assaulted with Fleet Street headlines, boldly claiming that the story wasn't true. Being a critical thinker, I wondered why "The Guardian" was claiming that Barry Halpin was a banjo player from St. Helens, but as the author of the book was quoted in the article, "Where is the photographic proof?" "The Guardian" used the author's photos for their story disclaiming the author's story. The only Fleet Street paper that had photographs that day was, "The Sun," and any critically thinking person could tell those pictures were computer generated! All these counter-claims did nothing to dissuade me from purchasing the book that day. I wanted to decide for myself if the discovery made by this former, decorated Scotland Yard detective was a plausible explanation for the whereabouts of Lord Lucan after that fateful night in November 1974.

MacLaughlin gives us much detail concerning the life of Lucan, his foibles and dark nature developing with his love of gambling. His marriage to social climber Veronica Duncan began well enough, but the erratic behaviour of Lady Lucan coupled with the spiral of Lord Lucan's fortunes at the gaming tables brought misfortune to their home as well. The final days brought a bitter custody dispute over their three children. Lord Lucan was initially granted temporary custody, but subsequently lost it when he overstepped the authority of the courts and took the children himself. He was left with a large legal bill, one he could not afford. And this is when it is believed he started making his plans.

Lord Lucan was well placed aristocracy, which was to the detriment of the murdered nanny, Sandra Rivet. Something that is obvious in this book is the concern the author has for the victim, and her son who was left motherless. Scotland Yard treated Lord Lucan with kid gloves in the hours and days after the murder. This enabled Lucan to make his getaway, using his network of close-mouthed, arrogant (by reason of wealth and class) friends to aid in his escape from the law. Lord Lucan's friends surrounded and protected him in his trouble, and helped him not only leave England, but brought him money and shared their friendship with him while Lucan was hiding in Goa, India.

MacLaughlin provides us compelling evidence that Lord Lucan made his way down to Goa, India, to live out his life in a drunken stupor. His witness list includes Indians who worked and lived on the shores of this once renegade spot on the map. Lord Lucan as Barry Halpin had many similarities, including backgammon gambling, alcohol, and a love for music.

After death by cirrhosis, the end of Lucan came in a pyrotechnic display. His body was doused in his favourite drink, feni, and burned on a pyre. The ashes were spread at the bottom of a waterfall, and it was his fait accompli. He had completely disappeared, and escaped the long arm of the law. But I wonder, with the life Lucan lived in Goa, if some hand of justice wasn't dealt him after all.

Rating: 3
Summary: Well writtten, but
Comment: The book is very well written, looks very professional and puts forward a convincing argument for the hypothesis that Lord Lucan adopted the name Barry Halpin in Goa. Unfortunately the whole theory fell apart shortly before the book was published when it was discovered that Barry Halpin really was Barry Halpin, a hippy banjo player from Yorkshire who travelled around the world and settled in India. Enough friends and relatives came forward to identify the man in the photograph as Halpin. But I can understand the author; if I had spent years writing a book and then I discovered that it was fundamentally flawed just before publication, I would be reluctant to accept the truth.