Place of Exile

Beecham does an excellant job of bringing an everyday topic to a new front. She uses all the characters to their fullest to solve a mystery and mingles lesbian relations around and about and throughout. An excellant job in the second of the three part trilogy.

Jennifer Fulton, writing as Rose Beecham, has produced another in the Jude Devine mystery series. Unlike some series that become trite over time and show no character growth, Beecham's Devine books are getting stronger. The Four Corners of the US Southwest is a perfect setting for these books. The area seems to be a magnet for cults, paramilitary organizations, White supremacist groups and every other loose cannon in American society. In Place of Exile Jude Devine, who is an undercover FBI agent working as a sheriff's deputy, finds herself dealing simultaneously with the murder of an arms dealer, fighting between rival supremacist organizations, a terror threat on the Telluride Film Festival and a rogue military veteran who is on a self-appointed assassination mission against Vice President Cheney. Jude has to do a delicate dance in trying to resolve these cases, changing her role to suit each situation, and trying not to have her cover blown. She doesn't mind taking on extra assignments however because they help to distract her from her tangled personal life. The woman she loves has "married" a famous actress, but she won't leave Jude alone and Jude finds that, no matter how hard she tries, she can't purge Dr. Mercy Westmoreland from her blood. And she does try, especially when Special Agent in Charge Aidan Hill arrives to coordinate the antiterrorism activities and strikes sparks with Jude. The important thing to note about this series is that it isn't static. Jude isn't solving the same situation book after book and she's not always dealing with the same people. New characters drift in and out and new information is revealed that keeps adding to the character of Jude herself. This is the book that explains why Jude has sentenced herself to this place of exile and the personal torment from early in her life that drives what she does today. It's the perfect set up for the next book.

Rose Beecham's Jude Devine series is getting curioser and curioser. Jude's an undercover FBI operative working on a domestic terrorism unit out in the Four Corners part of the U.S. Lots of interesting characters hang out there, including her ex, Dr. Mercy Westmoreland. Beecham has a sly sense of humor with her acronyms for domestic terrorist groups (Aryan Sunrise Stormtroopers, and the Christian Republic of Aryan Patriots). She puts an interesting spin on recent events in the U.S., including the war in Iraq. This book is not for the faint Republican of heart. ;-) Lots of plots going on in this book: a murdered gay man, an attack on the Telluride Film Festival, and Sandy, the former soldier who plans on assassinating a major government figure. A VERY major government figure. Beecham's able to bring all the plots together for a pretty good conclusion. It is left open for a sequel, and I hope more will be revealed about Ben. Ben's situation has been discussed, but not yet resolved, and I hope Beecham will resolve it the way she thinks is best.