Long Time Gone: A Novel of Suspense

I get really annoyed with Jance's habit of interjecting all three of a person's names here and there throughout the book. It's understandable to do it once or twice for emphasis, but not over and over for what appears to be no particular reason.

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.

Special Homicide Detective J. P. Beaumont is asked as a favor by his high school friend Frederick Mackenzie to listen to Bonnie Jean's story. She went to high school with them, too. She recently remembered witnessing a homicide of her neighbor when she was five years old. Beau explains that he only handles cases that are assigned to him by Attorney General Connors. Before Beau knows what has happened, this case is assigned to him. He wonders who Freddy Mac knows. Bonnie Jean is now Sister Mary Katherine. She explains to him what she remembers about the homicide. Freddy Mac lets him watch the videos of his hypnotherapy sessions with her. Beau begins investigating the cold case. This doesn't win him friends in the Seattle Police Department, but that isn't anything new. Also, Beau's old partner Ron has troubles of his own and even though Beau is not supposed to be involved in the investigation, he can't turn his back on Ron and his family. Can Beau solve the cold case or is someone determined that it shouldn't be solved? Can Beau help Ron and his family without anyone getting hurt? Beau is a great character. I think I've read every book in this series. I can't wait for the next one. The fact that it's set in my old stomping grounds of Washington State helps, but that's not all. The characters are fabulous. You just want to keep picking up the book to find out what happens next. J. A. Jance is a terrific story teller and weaves all the parts together beautifully. I highly recommend this book! (...)

Long Time Gone is another J.P. Beaumont mystery by J.A. Jance. Set in Seattle (one of the series' draws for me), Beaumont has gone from police detective to part of the Special Homicide Investigation Team (with an unfortunate acronym which gets brought up quite often) for the state of Washington. For some reason, the Jance books I have read always seem to be the ones where Beaumont makes a monumental change in his life, and this one is no different. That's another draw for me, as I like it when characters change, circumstances are adjusted, and nobody remains static. Thus, Long Time Gone is another great entry in this series, and I greatly enjoyed it. Beaumont gets involved in two cases this time, one by assignment and one by friendship. A middle-aged nun unexpectedly recalls what happened fifty years ago that traumatized her to this day. She witnessed a neighbour's murder and she hasn't been able to remember anything about this until now. This wouldn't be that big of a deal, because most of the participants are almost dead (and some are dead already), but the coconspirators happen to be prominent members of the Seattle community, and they will go to any effort to cover up their crime, no matter how long ago it was. Secondly, Beaumont's former partner, Ron Peters, is the prime suspect in the murder of his ex-wife, and a lot of the evidence points against him. Beaumont cannot help getting involved, despite being ordered not to, because the ties of friendship are very tight. Beau has to tap dance very carefully in both of these cases, and if he makes one misstep, it may be his last. One of the things I loved about Long Time Gone is that, while the events of the two cases do end up intertwining, they are unrelated. In a lot of clichéd mysteries, Ron's wife would have ended up stumbling upon something to do with the murders the nun saw, and thus the two cases would end up being related. That isn't the case this time. Characters do become involved in both (the nun comes with Beau to Ron's house and helps deal with one of Ron's daughters, and the female detective that Beau starts falling for, who is investigating Ron, ends up helping with the nun's case), but they remain separate issues. I get so tired of that cliché, and I loved how Jance avoids that. Another thing I liked about the book, and the series in general, is the way that Jance draws the characters. Beau, being the hero, is the most three-dimensional. He's still coming to terms with his wife's death, even though it happened a long time ago. He finds his growing attraction to Melanie very hard to deal with, as he still feels the ties to his wife. The fact that they work very well together just makes it harder, and there are the typical bumps in the road in their growing relationship. The story is told in Beau's first person, but Melanie is still three-dimensional, with Jance giving us little touches like her addiction to talk radio. And given that addiction, it was nice to

J.A. Jance masterfully weaves two plot lines in this, her latest J.P. Beaumont book. The first plot has to do with a nun who is beginning to remember that she was the witness to a murder when she was a 5-year-old girl. Her memory is being encouraged by a hypnotherapist who comes to Beau for his help on the police aspects of the case. The second plot has to do with Beau's old friend and former partner Ron Peters, whose ex-wife has just been killed. Both Ron and his daughter Heather are implicated in the murder, and Beau is determined to find the real killer. Mercifully these two plots never intersect, but instead run as two separate stories which are skillfully told in one book. Many of Beau's friends and some of his enemies show up in the novel, along with a relatively new character whose presence promises some romance for the aging lawman. Jance fans will be pleased by this entry in the series.

Sometimes even the passage of half a century cannot bury the secrets of a horrific crime. That's what J.P. "Beau" Beaumont learns in this thriller from the estimable J.A. Jance. Readers will remember that Beau has put in 20 years with the Seattle Police Department. He's now with the Washington State Attorney's Special Homicide Investigation Team, and finds himself dubbed to track a cold case, a very cold case. A nun, Sister Mary Katherine, has undergone hypnotherapy during which she recalled a heinous crime, a murder, that she witnessed when she was a child. Evidently fear had kept this memory from surfacing, and fearful she should be because while the victim is long dead the complex plot behind the killing is not. As if that weren't enough to keep Beau busy the former wife of his best friend, Ron Peters, is killed and the Peters family seems to be emerging as prime subjects. Jance is at the peak of her powers with the seventeenth in this series, and Harry Chase is a sterling reader. His calm, distinct voice ranges easily from sincere to sinister holding listeners in his spell. - Gail Cooke