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Proof of life / J.A. Jance.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Jance, Judith A. J. P. Beaumont mysteries ; 23.Publisher: New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]Copyright date: ©2017Edition: First editionDescription: 352 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780062657541
  • 0062657542
  • 0062699571
  • 9780062699572
Subject(s): Genre/Form: LOC classification:
  • PS3560.A44 P76 2017
Online resources: Summary: "Before he retired, J.P. Beaumont had looked forward to having his days all to himself. But too much free time doesn't suit a man used to brushing close to danger. When his longtime nemesis, retired Seattle crime reporter Maxwell Cole, dies in whats officially deemed to be an accidental fire, Beau is astonished to be dragged into the investigation at the request of none other than the deceased victim himself. In the process Beau learns that just because a long-ago case was solved doesn't mean it's over. Caught up in a situation where old actions and grudges can hold dangerous consequences in the present, Beau is forced to operate outside the familiar world of law enforcement. While seeking justice for his frenemy and healing for a long fractured family, he comes face to face with an implacable enemy who has spent decades hiding in plain sight."--Publisher's description.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Fiction Davis (Central) Library Fiction Collection Fiction Collection JANC Checked out 18/04/2024 T00621070
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

J. P. Beaumont's latest investigation strikes too close to home in this riveting mystery from New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance.

Be careful what you wish for . . .

Before he retired, J. P. Beaumont had looked forward to having his days all to himself. But too much free time doesn't suit a man used to brushing close to danger. When his longtime nemesis, retired Seattle crime reporter Maxwell Cole, dies in what's officially deemed to be an accidental fire, Beau is astonished to be dragged into the investigation at the request of none other than the deceased victim himself. In the process Beau learns that just because a long-ago case was solved doesn't mean it's over.

Caught up in a situation where old actions and grudges can hold dangerous consequences in the present, Beau is forced to operate outside the familiar world of law enforcement. While seeking justice for his frenemy and healing for a long fractured family, he comes face to face with an implacable enemy who has spent decades hiding in plain sight.

"Before he retired, J.P. Beaumont had looked forward to having his days all to himself. But too much free time doesn't suit a man used to brushing close to danger. When his longtime nemesis, retired Seattle crime reporter Maxwell Cole, dies in whats officially deemed to be an accidental fire, Beau is astonished to be dragged into the investigation at the request of none other than the deceased victim himself. In the process Beau learns that just because a long-ago case was solved doesn't mean it's over. Caught up in a situation where old actions and grudges can hold dangerous consequences in the present, Beau is forced to operate outside the familiar world of law enforcement. While seeking justice for his frenemy and healing for a long fractured family, he comes face to face with an implacable enemy who has spent decades hiding in plain sight."--Publisher's description.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In bestseller Jance's entertaining 24th J.P. Beaumont mystery (after 2015's Dance of the Bones), the 72-year-old retired Seattle homicide cop learns that reporter Maxwell Cole, a fraternity brother of his at the University of Washington, has died in a house fire. Maxwell, afraid that he might be murdered, told a family friend, Erin Howard, that he wanted Beau to investigate if he died, because he didn't trust the Seattle police to do the job. Beau's complex past history with Erin leads him to agree to take the case, and Beau's established contacts with computer whiz Todd Hatcher and medical examiner Rosemary Mellon pave the way as he gathers leads and discovers suspicious anomalies. Beau's wife, Mel Soames, the police chief of Bellingham, lends a hand, and both tread carefully when clues suggest that former Seattle police chief Lawrence Harden, still a powerful figure, might be involved in Maxwell's death. Complications in Beau's personal life, such as fostering Rambo, a 100-pound Irish wolfhound, add spice to this winning blend of humor, compassion, danger, and love. Agent: Alice Volpe, Northwest Literary. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Retired Seattle PD detective J. P. Beaumont and former police reporter Maxwell Cole, once fraternity brothers, share a mutual dislike. Then the day after they run into each other, Cole dies in a fire at his house. His goddaughter and sole heir, a woman whose life Beaumont once saved in a murder case, asks him to look into whether Cole's death was accidental, as Cole himself advised her to do in an email shortly before he died. Beaumont, living in Bellingham with his police-chief wife, Melissa Soames, has been at loose ends since retiring. So with a directive from the grave, he uses his contacts and his wife's creds to untangle what turns out to be a string of murders touching illegal imports, an Asian gang, and a former high-ranking police official. In a subplot, Beaumont and Soames become foster owners of an Irish wolfhound who rapidly establishes a place in their home and hearts. It's been years since Jance has made Beaumont her main protagonist (Second Watch, 2013); having him back, with renewed zest, is a welcome development.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2017 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A retired cop honors a crime journalist's last request.J.P. Beaumont has earned the right to enjoy his leisure, sobriety, titanium knees, and new wife, Melissa Soames. But the 72-year-old who retired from Seattle Homicide doesn't quite know what to do with himself. Mel is busy with her new job as chief of police in Bellingham, and Beau's occasional work at a volunteer cold-case unit doesn't begin to fill the days. Nor does a chance encounter with Maxwell Cole, one of his least favorite people, help Beau's malaise. Max, a crime reporter and columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was a frat brother of Beau's at the University of Washington, where Beau stole away his girlfriend, and they later came to blows. Still, Beau is shaken when Max dies in a fire. A call from Max's goddaughter, Erin Kelsey Howard, whose life Beau once saved, brings him back into action. Erin is convinced her godfather's death wasn't an accident: he'd been working on a book about corruption on a high level, and he told Erin that if anything happened to him, she should go to Beau and not the police. Starting with Max's literary agent and an owner of a drag-queen comedy theater, and with off-the-books help from former colleagues, Beau discovers that the man who may have killed Max was killed himself in a hit-and-run. Erin's convoluted family history interspersed with not entirely relevant flashbacks and a subplot about an Irish wolfhound temporarily lodging with Beau and Mel slow the pace as Beau connects the dots between Max's murder and his murderer's murder and the death of a third party linked to a past earthquake and a present gang leader. Twenty-three cases into the franchise, the indefatigable Jance's (Man Overboard, 2017, etc.) formerly hard-drinking detective is showing signs of wear. Although newcomers may wax impatient with too much back story, loyalists who've followed her hero from the beginning will be glad he's still kicking. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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