Product Description

Top ten New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance brings us another exhilarating thriller featuring Seattle homicide detective J.P. Beaumont.

It looks like a classic crime of passion to Detective J.P. Beaumont: two corpses found lovingly entwined in a broom closet of the Seattle School District building. The prime suspect, Pete Kelsey, admits his slain spouse was no novice at adultery, yet he swears he had nothing to do with the brutal deaths of the errant school official and her clergyman-turned-security guard companion. Beau believes him, but there′s something the much sinned-upon widower′s not telling-and that spells serious trouble still to come. Because the secret that Pete′s protecting is even hotter than extra-marital sex.and it could prove more lethal than murder.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144704 in Books
• Published on: 1991-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In his ninth appearance, Detective J. P. Beaumont of the Seattle Police is swamped with problems: a pair of corpses at the public school district office, and the unwelcome assistance of self-promoting Detective Paul Kramer. Marcia Kelsey, a district employee, and Alvin Chambers, a security guard, are found partially naked, legs entwined, dead of gunshot wounds. A note found nearby says, "A, See you tonight at the usual time. M." When Pete Kelsey learns that his wife may have been having an affair with Chambers, he calmly observes that she had always had "outside interests." Kramer is itching to pin the murders on Kelsey, and when the husband's name and identity turn out to be fake, the overly ambitious detective is ready to press charges. But Beaumont learns how 20 years of mostly innocent deceit have finally come to bear deadly fruit. This entertaining work moves along at a sprightly pace, sprinkling delicious clues along the way, but readers may conclude that Jance ( Minor in Possession ) isn't playing quite fair--Beaumont misses a crucial identification that a peripheral character makes easily late in the book. Author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Seattle homicide detective J.P. Beaumont explores a puzzling double murder; the bodies are found in the school department's central office. Recovering alcoholic Beaumont is a low-key kind of guy; the suspects, from an overweight harridan to a frightened lesbian to a teenaged girl, are not. At first, Engene's narration seems choppy; then one realizes that his slow, ironic voice could be Beaumont's own. It captures the portrait of the middle-aged cop perfectly. The fully voiced narration renders each character distinctively, and the deep voice creates an overall tone of quiet rumination. There are eight additional titles in the series. D.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Ingram
Two corpses are found lovingly entwined in a Seattle School District building broom closet. It looks like a classic crime of passion, but the prime suspect claims he's not responsible for the brutal deaths of his adulterous wife and her clergyman-turned-security guard companion. Detective J.P. Beaumont believes the man, but there's something the much sinned-upon widower's not telling--a secret that could prove hotter than extra-marital sex and more lethal than murder.

Customer Reviews

Solid entertainment
First I must say in response to an earlier review, no the villian is not revealed early on! I don't know how she knew, but I didn't know until the very end! This was a good book and a fast pace read. I'm not usually a big mystery reader, but I really like Jance's style and most of all I like J.P. Beaumont. He is a great main character.

Any JP book is a good ...........
Any JP book is a good ...book.
Are you kidding get this and all the others, I love JP Beaumount!

A solid read, familiar territory
This novel was an airplane read for me--a solid three hour flight plus a few moments at the hotel the next morning to finish it up. The plotting and characterization were solid, but not particularly novel. The "extras" added to the plot are in the main eccentric and interesting, as good mystery cameo players should be. Ms. Jance's protagonist was somewhat disappointing--a suitable sleuth, but some of the backstory just didn't work for me in this one. I'd pick up another Jance if I were in the airport and needed a good read, but I wouldn't go out of my way to locate the rest of this series. What do you get when you cross a dash of Christie, a dash of Hammett, a trace of Paretsky, and a lot of those modern "suburbanesque" detectives....something readable, certainly, but not quite a top flight mystery. If you need a good read, it's here, but it's a flawed work, and the villain is obvious from way too early in.