BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
(Available in Print: (1986), 12/29/2009; PUBLISHER: Harper; ISBN: 978-0061958526; PAGES: 368; Unabridged.)
(Available as Digital)
*This edition-Audio: COPYRIGHT: 2/19/2008; PUBLISHER: Books in Motion; ISBN: 1596072989; DURATION: 08:57:22; PARTS: 7; Unabridged; FILE SIZE: 258282 KB
Feature Film or tv?: No

SERIES:
J.P. Beaumont Book 2

MAJOR CHARACTERS:
(I was listening rather than reading, so may not have spelled names correctly)
Jonas Piedmont Beaumont-J.P. Beaumont (Beau)—Seattle Washington Detective
Karen – former wife of Beau
Ron Peters—New partner of Beau
Ginger Watkins– Beau’s love interest
Ralph Ames -- Anne's lawyer
Sig Larson -- Victim



SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:

At least if you have to solve murders for a living, it’s nice to encounter a beautiful woman now and then, and it seems Detective J. P. Beaumont encounters his fair share. A woman can be heard screaming on the beach. Detective Beaumont races to find out why and discovers a woman hauling someone out of the ocean. Upon close inspection Detective Beaumont confirms the woman’s worse fears, the man is dead.

We (husband and I) liked the first book in this series, so thought we might try this next one. We liked it too.

AUTHOR:
J. A. (Judith Ann) Jance -- (born October 27, 1944) "Jance was born in Watertown, South Dakota,[2] and raised in Bisbee, Arizona (the setting for her Joanna Brady series of novels). Before becoming an author, she worked as a school librarian on a Native American reservation (Tohono O'Odham), and as a teacher and insurance agent." – Wikipedia
“J.A. Jance is the New York Times Bestselling author of more than sixty books. Born in South Dakota and raised in Bisbee, Arizona, she and her husband live in the Seattle area with their two longhaired dachshunds, Mary and Jojo.” ---Amazon

NARRATOR:
Gene Engene -- "Gene Engene is an award-winning reader with an astounding catalog of audiobooks to his credit. He is best known as J.P. Beaumont in the J.A. Jance mystery series. Gene is a veteran stage actor, director, and is a retired Professor of Drama at Eastern Washington University." -- Books in Motion

GENRE:
Mystery; Fiction, Police Procedurals; Suspense Thrillers

LOCATIONS:
Washington State

TIME FRAME:
Contemporary (1986)

SUBJECTS:
Murder; Political figures

DEDICATION:
"To Norman and Evie, from their “only” child"

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1

"There’s nothing like a woman’s scream to bring a man bolt upright in bed. I had been taking a late-afternoon nap in my room when the sound cut through the stormy autumn twilight like a knife.
I threw open the door of my cabin. The woman screamed again, the sound keening up from the narrow patch of beach below the terrace at Rosario Resort. A steep path dropped from my cabin to the beach. I scrambled down it to the water’s edge. There I spotted a woman struggling to drag a man’s inert form out of the lapping sea.
She wasn’t screaming now. Her face was grimly set as she wrestled the dead weight of the man’s body. I hurried to help her, grasping him under the arms and pulling him ashore. Dropping to his side, I felt for a pulse. There was none.
He was a man in his mid to late fifties wearing expensive cowboy boots and a checkered cowboy shirt. His buckle bore the initials LSL. A deep gash split his forehead.
The woman knelt beside me anxiously, hopefully. When I looked at her and shook my head, her face contorted with grief. She sank to the wet sand beside me. “Can’t you do something?” she sobbed.
Again I shook my head. I’ve worked homicide too many years not to know when it’s too late. Footsteps pounded down the steps behind us as people in the bar and dining room hurried to see what had happened. Barney, the bartender, was the first person to reach us. ‘Dead?’ he asked.
I nodded. ‘Get those people out of here, every last one of them. And call the sheriff.
With unquestioning obedience Barney bounded up the steps and herded the onlookers back to the terrace some twenty-five feet above us. Beside me the woman’s sobs continued unabated. It was a chilly autumn evening to begin with, and we were both soaked to the skin. Gently I took her arm, lifting her away from the lifeless body."

RATING:
4 stars.

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
4-8-2022 to 4-15-2022 ( )

This plot was much like the first in the series. Beau seems to be an unhappy man, searching for some meaning in life. Yes, he is a homicide detective, but he finds little fulfillment in that career. He drinks too much, evidently to take his mind off his divorced ex-wife and their kids whom he sees too little of. He also manages to (he thinks) fall in love with beautiful women, though it doesn’t end well for them. I find his partner to be a more interesting character, with his recently rescued kids from the cult his ex-wife had taken them to. This mystery is about politics and murder, a likely combination. Beau, of course, figures it out rather quickly, but finding the evidence takes longer. This may not be a great story, but it is entertaining. ( )

He keeps hooking up with the first female character in the story who then gets killed. ( )

#2 in JP Beaumont ( )

Couldn't put the book down. I would have given this a five star but some scenes were just too unbelievable. But enjoyed the book none-the-less. ( )