Books

Name Withheld (A J. P. Beaumont Mystery)
Sanctuary (Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus Novels (Paperback))
Dismissed with Prejudice
Payment in Kind
Without Due Process: A J.P. Beaumont Mystery
Failure to Appear: A J.P. Beaumont Mystery (J. P. Beaumont Mysteries (Paperback))
Death Takes Passage: an Alaska Mystery
Blood Money: A Mystery
The Family Tree
Grandmother Spider: A Charlie Moon Mystery
Clandestine
The Devil Knows You're Dead: A Matthew Scudder Crime Novel (Matthew Scudder Mysteries (Paperback))
The Death of an Irish Lover: A Peter McGarr Mystery (Peter McGarr Mysteries (Paperback))
Cold Is the Grave: A Novel of Suspense
Silent as the Hunter (Inupiat Eskimo Mysteries)
Stalker (Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus Novels (Paperback))
Color of Justice
Grandmother Spider (Charlie Moon Mysteries)
Paradise Lost
The Death of an Irish Lover (Peter McGarr Mysteries (Hardcover))
The Death of an Irish Sinner (Peter McGarr Mysteries (Hardcover))
Cold is the Grave
Aftermath
Fugitive Nights
Lovely Mover

Average customer rating:

A Quickly Read Novel
Beau in the Big City
Balances humanity and logic
Fair to Middling Mystery
Not worth the time.

Name Withheld: A J.P. Beaumont Mystery
J.A. Jance
Manufacturer: Avon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Lying in Wait: A J.P. Beaumont Mystery
Breach of Duty: A J.P. Beaumont Mystery
Failure to Appear
Without Due Process
Payment in Kind

ASIN: 0380718421

Amazon.com

Long before she started her hot new series about Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady, J. A. Jance was already one of the stalwarts of the police procedural genre because of her books about Seattle homicide detective J. P. Beaumont. Like the Brady novels, the Beaumont books are a perfect balance of the personal and the professional--placing the main characters in human contexts without making them seem cute or trite. The latest Beaumont, just out in paperback, is one of the best in the series: Beau wrestles at home with his own dying ex-wife and the vindictive former spouse of his best friend, while his office time is spent trying to discover who murdered a very nasty biotech executive. Previous Beaumont books in paperback include: Dismissed With Prejudice, Failure to Appear, Improbable Cause, Lying in Wait, Minor in Possession, Until Proven Guilty, Without Due Process.

Book Description

An explosive novel of betrayal and blood vengeance from the New York Times bestselling author of Long Time Gone.

There are those who don't deserve to live -- and the corpse floating in Elliot Bay may have been one of those people. Not surprisingly, many individuals -- too many, in fact -- are eager to take responsibility for the brutal slaying of the hated biotech executive whose alleged crimes ranged from the illegal trading of industrial secrets to rape. For Seattle Detective J.P. Beaumont -- who's drowning in his own life-shattering problems -- a case of seemingly justifiable homicide has sinister undertones, drawing the haunted policeman into a corporate nightmare of double deals, savage jealousies, and real blood spilled far too easily, as it leads him closer to a killer he's not sure he wants to find.

Customer Reviews:

A Quickly Read Novel.......2006-08-10

The first Beaumont mystery I've read & I enjoyed it. The author develops her characters & story line very directly. Ms. Jance doesn't throw a lot of useless fluff into her work. Her descriptions are not repetitious & the novel moves along at a good fast pace. It's well worth reading. Beaumont is a like-able lead character

Beau in the Big City.......2006-04-12

While I'm a big Joanna Brady fan, I haven't quite been able to feel the same way about her other favorite protagonist, JP Beaumont. Beau, though a likeable guy, just doesn't ring true as a man, like he doesn't quite fit in his skin. His reactions to things seem too passive to be male, or maybe it's the way he sees women. JP Beaumont has a lot of fans, though, so obviously not everyone agrees with me on that.

Beau, an independently wealthy, high-rise-dwelling, Porsche-driving Seattle homicide cop, draws a floater one day when he's babysitting for a friend. The corpse is quickly identified as biotech executive Don Wolf, a man whose demise no one seems to lament. When Beau visits Designer Genes International, Wolf's employer, to get a positive ID, the company's CEO surprises him by announcing he will be the prime suspect, as he and Wolf were bitter enemies. It seems, however, that at least one other suspect exists, lovely young Latty Gibson, who was caught on tape being raped by Don Wolf in his office. Beau gets stonewalled in his attempts to talk to the young woman by her great aunt, an old money paragon who rather unconvincingly confesses to the murder.

The investigation gets even more interesting when Don Wolf's wife Lizbeth and a private investigator who had been digging into his past both turn up dead. Beau pursues the Latty Gibson angle while his personal nemesis looks into the biotech company that employed Wolf. Meanwhile, a couple of California cops do a little digging of their own, adding a few more facets and suspects to the mystery.

Typical of Jance, a mishmash of clues are floating around out there, and they all start coming together when suddenly, in a flash, that one vital clue comes to light. The meandering, distracted pace suddenly gets focused and goes into overdrive into the climax. The ending is a trifle too sentimental for my taste, but some people might find it moving.

In all, this was a pretty decent mystery, though it took a little while to engage my interest, as the story seems more about Beau's personal issues than a murder investigation. That's another one of Jance's trademarks, though. I'm sure this book won't disappoint JP Beaumont fans, and it wouldn't be a bad vehicle for drawing in a few new ones, either.

Balances humanity and logic.......2005-10-31

This book is a small cut above the average mystery/thriller, but its characters express more human emotion than normal, without waxing dramatic. Like a 1980s Hollywood movie, the plot progresses by sandwiching the character between the dumbly destructive legal process and the intelligently destructive evil of a killer covering his tracks, but in the middle, J.P. Beaumont is trying to enjoy life by doing what he finds fulfilling, namely, tracking down killers. The plot isn't far from believable, and the text, while plain, is artfully restrained, but it is the human element that makes this book stand above its otherwise competitive contemporaries.

Fair to Middling Mystery.......2004-04-07

Buried in all of J.P. Beaumont's personal problems in this novel is a halfway decent mystery. Between problems with his family, a child-services investigation, the insufferable Paul Kramer, his superiors in the Seattle P.D. (who seem to have forgotten that Detective Beaumont is a top-notch investigator), rush hour traffic, and the siren song of a MacNaughton's bottle, J.A. Jance somehow manages to shoehorn a triple murder into Beau's life. What any of it has to do with the blood-dripping icicle on the cover is beyond me.

Other reviewers here at Amazon have commented on how overcrowded the book is with Beau's personal problems, and they're right. Either the family crisis or the child-services subplots could have been eliminated and the story would be stronger for it. Either would have sufficed to add depth to Beau's character, but the two of them together is overkill. With all the extra-vocational content in the book, we are left with quite a few loose ends; very little of Kramer & Arnold's side of the investigation makes it into the story, and Beau changes objectives suddenly without having time to go back and follow up on earlier leads.

It goes without saying that "detective" Paul Kramer is going to cause problems, but for Sergeant Watkins and Captain Powell to heap on the grief makes little sense (good natured ribbing about Beau's transsexual fan club would have been appropriate; they should have at least heard his side of the story before climbing down his throat); it would be one thing if Beau was an underperformer, but the unceasing gruff boss shtick made no sense.

One thing that Jance does do well in the book is convey a sense of how different police work is from what's shown on TV (how different it really is from the book's presentation is another question). From needing evidence ahead of getting an arrest warrant to ballistics and DMV registration checks, Beau does a good job of doing the routine business of police work. If he could learn to do periodic "saves" of his police reports on his laptop, his life would be significantly happier (okay, not in a week with as many problems as this story presents, but on a less-hectic week it'd help a lot). Beau manages to do a lot of sitting and listening in this book, which isn't very exciting - even with handguns falling out of purses. If that translates into "boring" for you, then this may not be among your favorite novels.

All in all, I liked this book. It had a little bit of everything, with a bit much of only a few things. Even with all the sitting and talking I found it a quick read. Your mileage may vary, but as far as the book's conclusion is concerned, getting there was half the fun.

Not worth the time........2002-08-14

I started reading this book on a camp trip, and only finished it because it was the only book I had. The author confuses the plot line by the introductions of too many characters, still adding them 2/3rds of the way through. Also, there are 2 plot lines of the detective's personel life which have nothing to do with the main story, with one of the plot lines being totally unbelievable. I don't recommend it.

Don Stevens

Average customer rating:

Name Withheld - A J. P. Beaumont Mystery
J. A. Jance
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IUSJXM

7 Titles By in J P Beaumont Series : Until Proven Guilty - Minor Posession - Payment in Kind - Lying in Wait- Name Withheld- Breach of Duty -Birds of Prey

Average customer rating:

7 Titles By in J P Beaumont Series : Until Proven Guilty - Minor Posession - Payment in Kind - Lying in Wait- Name Withheld- Breach of Duty -Birds of Prey
J. A. Jance
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Product Description

7 Titles By in J P Beaumont Series : Until Proven Guilty - Minor Posession - Payment in Kind - Lying in Wait- Name Withheld- Breach of Duty -Birds of Prey

Average customer rating:

Name Withheld: A J.P. Beaumont Mystery
J.A. Jance
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000OIZ1ES

Average customer rating:

XYZ
yz
Manufacturer: Avon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Product Description

4 Titles By J.A. Jance J P Beaumont Series : Lying in Wait Name Withheld Breach of Duty Birds Of Prey. Four mmpb books.

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