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A Time Gone by: A Novel
The Honey Gatherers
Good Blood
Collsion Course
Choker
Deadly Rose of Texas
Cripplehead
Hindsight
Three May Keep a Secret
Harstairs House
L' Annee De L'eveil
Something's Down There
The Body in the Belfry
Simon Said
Vow of Evil
Evanly Choirs: Unabridged [AUDIOBOOK]
High Country Fall
Web of Discord
The Hide and Seek Corpse
The White Schooner
Christmas Pudding (Club Des Masques)
La Fete Du Potiron (Club Des Masques)
The Dark Water (Murder Rooms S.)
Bone Mountain
Le Crime Est Notre Affaire (Club Des Masques)

Long Time Gone: A Novel of Suspense (J. P. Beaumont Mysteries) (J. P. Beaumont Mysteries)

Average customer rating:

Found it boring..
A 30 year local review
At the top of her game
Good plot, written well & it all comes together
Last one first

Long Time Gone: A Novel of Suspense (J. P. Beaumont Mysteries) (J. P. Beaumont Mysteries)
J. A. Jance
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0688138241
Release Date: 2005-07-26

Product Description

When a middle-aged nun, unexpectedly, recalls the grisly details of an unsolved murder she witnessed as a child, Special Homicide Investigator J.P. Beaumont finds himself wrapped in a case wher a band of powerful co-conspirators who are willing to go to any length to keep their deadly secrets hidden. Meanwhile, Beau's former partner, Ron Peters, becomes the prime suspect after his ex-wife is killed. Barred from any official involvement in the case, Beau watches helplessly as his friend's family is slowly torn apart. Faced with personal conflicts and shocking suprises, Beau must struggle to solves one of his most baffling and dangerous cases yet. Read by Gene Engene 10 CD's 11.7 Hrs.

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After more than twenty years of distinguished service with the Seattle Police Department, Jonas Piedmont Beaumont is now working for the Washington State Attorney's Special Homicide Investigation Team or, as it's more commonly called, the SHIT squad. But the more things change, the more they stay the same.

An eyewitness to a fifty-year-old murder has just come forward, and Beau has been hand-picked to lead the investigation. While undergoing hypnotherapy, a middle-aged nun unexpectedly recalls the grisly details of a cold-blooded killing she witnessed when she was five years old. Though fear has kept these memories repressed for half a century, they've now risen to the surface to cast a harsh light on a deadly plot that spans two generations. And Beau's caught in the glare, facing a ruthless band of coconspirators willing to go to any lengths to keep their secrets hidden.

But there's more shaking up Beau's world. His former partner, Ron Peters -- caught in a bitter child-custody battle -- becomes the prime suspect in his ex-wife's vicious murder. A surrogate parent to Ron's three children, Beau must watch helplessly as his friend spirals through an emotional free fall, his life and family torn to pieces. Everywhere he turns, Beau keeps butting heads with an adversary from the Seattle PD with a personal vendetta. And his growing feelings for Melissa Soames—the squad's newest investigator and Beau's unlikely ally -- is a distraction that threatens to open painful old wounds and rouse his personal demons.

Filled with all of the Jance trademarks -- heart-stopping suspense, deeply drawn characters, local flavor, intelligence, and humanity -- Long Time Gone is a crowning achievement in this bestselling author's career.

Customer Reviews:

Found it boring.........2007-03-12

Sorry...this was the first time I have read any of her books and I thought it was terrible. I purchased based on the other reviews, but I did not find the characters very engaging, the story line dragged and overall I found it extremely difficult to read through to the end. Will not try her books again and will stick to Patterson, etc.

A 30 year local review.......2007-01-21

I have spent most of my adult life living in Seattle. J.A Jance is able to bring the smallest details about the city into her novels. Long Time Gone is no different. If your from Seattle and want to feel like your part of the story your will enjoy Long Time Gone.

At the top of her game.......2006-12-16

Many many years ago, I frequented a mystery bookstore in Long Beach. The owner and clerks used to recommend books to me, and at one point one of the clerks insisted I try these books by an author named J.A.Jance. At the time I think there were only three, and if I'm correct they were paperback originals--essentially pulps. If they did have hardbacked editions, those had very low print runs. She insisted that I read them, and in order, and so I did, and frankly I've never regretted the decision. The stories are at times a bit melodramatic, but the author does very well with character development, and (as with any good detective novel) the city J.P.Beaumont inhabits (Seattle) is a character, and you almost feel like you've visited every time you read one of the books. Believe me, it was a shock when the fourth or fifth book came out, with a picture of a *woman* in the back. Until then, since she'd used initials (and so did her main character, Beaumont) everyone had assumed she was male.

In the current entry, Beaumont has finally retired from the Seattle Police Department. The author's been toying with what to have him do next, but for the moment he works as an investigator for the State Attorney General, as part of the Special Homicide Investigation Team. I'll let you work out the acronym on your own. This is a family website. Needless to say the book is replete with jokes about this, and it's pretty fun. Two mysteries run through the plot, not exactly connecting but crossing one another in "Beau" Beaumont's mind. On the one hand there's the case he's supposed to be investigating, involving a middle-aged nun who thinks now that she saw, and suppressed the memory of, a murder fifty years ago. On the other hand, there's the case he's *not* supposed to be investigating, in which his friend, wheelchair-bound Ron Peters, is suspected of killing his ex-wife in a custody dispute involving their 15-year old daughter.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. Beau's getting another partner (hopefully this one will live for a while) and the plot has enough twists and turns to be interesting. "Mysteries" in the conventional sense have never been Jance's strong suit--she's not Michael Connelly--but her characters and dialog are very good, and as I said she makes Seattle shine. I would recommend this book.

Good plot, written well & it all comes together.......2006-11-19

I find myself preferring the JP Beaumont over the Joanna Brady series by Jance. This book is a perfect reason why. The character is much more developed, JP's attitudes are much more entertaining, the novels clearly better written. This is actually 2 murder mysteries under one cover. The book moves back & forth between the two and does it well. Each mystery comes together well at the end. JP finds himself with a new female partner & possibly a new interest? The last page leaves that thought entertainingly hanging

Last one first.......2006-11-14

I found this book on a supermarket book rack, read it and loved it. It was the first J.P. Beaumont book I'd read, and as a result I'm now devouring the others, beginning with 'Until Proven Guilty'. I'm now getting all of the background on Beau and Ron Peters and other characters. When I've read them all, I'll reread 'Long Time Gone'. This is a great series of stories and I look forward to more J.P. Beaumont.

Jance's style is fast paced and easy to read; I have no problem keeping the details straight.

Average customer rating:

Amazing
Journey Through the Past
SUNSHINE SUPERMAN

Long Time Gone : A Novel
Denis Hamill
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0743407105

Book Description

Danny Cassidy couldn't remember if he'd killed the cop. So begins one man's journey through his fifty-year-old history and conscience in Long Time Gone, Denis Hamill's gripping novel set in the back streets and alleyways of Brooklyn, U.S.A. It's the year 2001 when Danny, a divorced journalist, returns to his old neighborhood for his father's funeral. He's spent all of his adult life trying to leave Brooklyn behind him -- along with all the drugs, music, and other psychedelic memories from the sixties spent on Hippie Hill. But now that the box of rain has been opened there's no turning back, and Danny must face some painful truths about the woman he used to love -- and her father, a police officer, whom he may or may not have killed. By turns a thriller, a detective story, and a coming-of-age tale, Long Time Gone is a bittersweet love letter to a lost New York that no reader will soon forget.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing.......2006-09-14

I bought this book on a whim at an Ocean State Job Lot (closeout store)and couldn't put it down. This book can be quite explicit, so if you are easily offended by sex or drugs I don't recomend it. As I'm only 21 I can only assume that this is a good representation of the 60s, but the murder mystery aspect of it is top notch!

Journey Through the Past.......2005-09-26

Danny Cassidy's life is in a mess. He walked out on his wife for no good reason, his daughter doesn't want to know him, and his job is on the line due to the fact he's not getting any younger. On top of that, there's the crime he's been running from for thirty odd years, a burden grating at his skull, the root of ALL his problems.

Back in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of his youth, a corrupt cop was murdered, shot repeatedly in a local park. Evidence was lacking but clues pointed strongly to Danny - out of his head on LSD at the time, and suffering from a blackout of the night ever since. As the main suspect, he took off, hit the west coast, never came back. But the mystery of that night back in the drug-drenched dead end of the 60's has preyed on him ever since, not least by the sporadic phonecalls by 'Ankles', the old Brooklyn cop who refuses to 'let this one go', promising that one day he will be hauled back and forced to face his conscience and the truth of that deadly night.

The book opens with Danny receiving a random message from the unrelenting old cop, this time informing him of his estranged father's death. Danny knows his three-decade 'hideout' ends here: he has to return to the neighbourhood and bury him. And by doing so, square up to the demons of his past. It's here that Denis Hamill excells in describing a present-day Brooklyn still physically intact, yet changed beyond recognition. The dirty boulevards of Danny's youth cleaned-up, gentrified, inhabited by a different class. The neighbourhood resembles Manhattan and has lost its "film noir beauty to the bright high-gloss slickness of a Mercedes commercial". Hamill describes his part of the city with honesty and feeling.

The story develops into an explorative account of the past as Danny turns Private Eye to discover the truth of his supposed guilt. He revisits the old haunts, meets an array of old faces who turn up for his father's wake and funeral, and discovers a conspiratorial web of intrigue that unfurls a world of festering corruption, greed and evil. With Danny now rocking the boat, just staying alive becomes tricky business.

Hamill ensures his tale reads like an historical account of the Prospect Park area of Brooklyn - and the late 60's era in general - flashing from the past to the present, namechecking and fact-revealing along the way. The plot twists and turns - the less revealed the better, but DO expect surprises. The writing resonates with a Doors/Dylan soundtrack (never has Mr Tambourine Man sounded so haunting!). And the issue of 'Vietnam' is covered brilliantly: fathers and sons torn apart by the warring sides of patriotism and peace sloganeering, highlighting the boiling anger and violence of that contentious time.

Close renderings of family relationships, first love, nostalgia and failure - along with an expansive plot - make this book so much more than a simple story that you read and forget. Like a well-written piece of investigative journalism, this book is not only highly engaging but will also make you THINK. Hamill at his best.

SUNSHINE SUPERMAN.......2003-03-30

Even though I was born in 1964 this book made me feel, smell and taste the 60's. The main character's name is Danny Cassidy, which I kept reading as David Cassidy. Danny is now a journalist in his 50's haunted by the murder of a cop in 1969. Danny fears he may have committed this crime, however he was so strung out on drugs, he doesn't remember much of anything about the night of the murder. Basically he returns to his hometown of Brooklyn to find out the truth. The book is a real pageturner and an engrosing mystery, however some of the relationships between the male and female characters made no sense to me. For example even though Danny is aging, not in great shape and only semisuccesful, practically every female in the book seems to want nothing more than to hop into bed with him. No matter how young, attractive and successful the women were, Danny inexplicably seemed to be the man of their dreams. His relationship with his old girlfriend Erika is somewhat understandable as they were teenage sweethearts, however I don't think most of my fellow females would find Danny worth lusting after. (Myself not included-as I love all things from this era). Also the constant use of the word, "cherry," in reference to virginity became quite annoying.
All in all this book is a good mystery that most readers interested in the 60's and 70's will enjoy.

Gone With The Wind (Gone With The Wind The Epic Novel Of Our Time)

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Gone With The Wind (Gone With The Wind The Epic Novel Of Our Time)
Margaret Mitchell
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J0NRGA

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Political Judge Murdered: Wrong Man Goes To Electric Chair
Very well written

A Time Gone By : A Novel
William Heffernan
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Spanning the years from 1945 to 1975, A Time Gone By is rich in atmosphere and ripe with the kind of white-hot, hardboiled sexuality that distinguished the classic detective novels of authors like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, and the noir films to which they gave rise.

Jake Downing is a rookie detective on the New York City Police force when he is called in to investigate the murder of one of the city's most prominent judges. A man who relished his position of power, and who also loved the excitement of the city's thriving post-World War II café society, Judge Wallace Reed was the top contender to become New York's next governor. All that and more is brought to an untimely end when the judge is found bludgeoned to death in his elegant Upper East Side town house.

The eventual outcome of the police investigation is the arrest and conviction -- and ultimate execution -- of a man who fit all the requirements of a killer. The murder case, and his involvement in its resolution, launches Jake Downing's career, a meteoric rise to the position of Chief of Detectives. But what Downing can't ever escape is his knowledge that the wrong person was sent to the electric chair -- it is something that has haunted him for years, ultimately destroying his personal life by driving away everyone he had ever loved. Now, facing retirement, Downing decides to reopen the investigation, to get both the record and his conscience straight -- no matter what it costs, no matter whom it hurts.

What really happened on that rainy night in 1945? Who wanted the judge killed?

Certainly Cynthia Reed, his sultry young widow, had questionable reasons for ever marrying him. But did she also want him dead?

When Jake Downing was given the task of protecting the widow, he knew it was a mistake -- she was beautiful and vulnerable, but she was also trouble. It was an assignment that would change forever the life of this idealistic young detective.

Now, two decades later, as he struggles to find the real murderer of Judge Reed, Jake Downing is opening a door he will never be able to close, as memories embrace him and shards of truth threaten to penetrate his soul.

But is it truth that Downing really wants, or is it revenge?

Customer Reviews:

Political Judge Murdered: Wrong Man Goes To Electric Chair.......2006-12-26

Judge Wallace Reed was found murdered in his East 54th Street townhouse. The judge was being primed to run for governor of New York state against Tom Dewey. Two detectives, Jimmy Finn and 25 year old rookie Jake Downing are assigned to the case. Their investigation is interfered with by Democratic City boss Manny Troy who has his own agenda. The time frame of the case was from 1945 to 1975, when after 30 years Downing, now Chief of Detectives, suffers from a guilty conscience about his role in allowing the guilty murderer to escape while sending the hoodlum set up by Manny Troy to the electric chair. Along the way the reader is privy to the atmosphere at The Stork Club, a torrid affair between Downing and the beautiful 23 year old wife of the deceased at the same time his wife was about to give birth, as well as the mega real estate deal for the future site of The United Nations. The book moved along at a fairly good clip with flashbacks alternated with present. The final part of the investigation was quite exciting and somewhat unexpected.

Very well written.......2003-08-06

In 1945 Manhattan, homicide detectives Jimmy Finn and Jake Downing investigate the death of Judge Wallace Reed. The most likely murder weapon, a heavy gavel with blood on it, was found near the corpse. Meanwhile City Democratic boss Manny Troy orders Downing to guard the victim's wife Cynthia, who the cop badly desires.

In 1975, Downing watches his wife Mary interred in a Brooklyn cemetery. He guiltily thinks back thirty years to the affair with Cynthia while Mary gave birth alone to their daughter. Knowing he cannot make up for what he did to Mary, Downing feels he can somewhat rectify his other blunder of helping the state execute an innocent man for murder of the judge. He persuades Finn to join him in reinvestigating the case since improved technology will help, but the brass tells them as they were warned three decades ago to leave it alone or else.

This is a pure police procedural as William Heffernan provides two investigations into the same murder separated by only time. The story line with its two interrelated subplots is cleverly designed so that the audience sees the changes in people and even more the differences in how investigations are conducted. The depressing key cast members all emit negative vibes so that the audience never roots for anyone. Sub-genre fans will appreciate A TIME GONE BY as a powerful comparative duality that entertains the reader.

Harriet Klausner

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Long Time Gone Lp : A Novel Of Suspense
J. A. Jance
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEWDU2

Growing Up Western: Recollections of a Time Gone By

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Growing Up Western: Recollections of a Time Gone By
Clarus Backes
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Killing Time --Star Trek Novel (Enter 2nd History---and a Galaxy Gone Mad!) #24

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Killing Time --Star Trek Novel (Enter 2nd History---and a Galaxy Gone Mad!) #24
Della Van Hise
Manufacturer: Pocketbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Gone with the Wind (The epic novel of our time)

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Gone with the Wind (The epic novel of our time)
Margaret Mitchell
Manufacturer: Avon Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OA3882

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