Product Description
A New York Times Bestselling Author J. P. Beaumont, one of the most enduring and endearing characters in fiction, is back in a riveting story about a shocking, long-buried case of murder . . . After more than twe… More >>
Long Time Gone: A Novel of Suspense
Written by admin on August 24th, 2010 in Mystery & Thrillers.
Tags: Gone, Long, Novel, Suspense, TIME
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
Rating: 5 / 5
I listened to the unabridged CD version and found the reader a bit distracting — strange accents on some of the characters (Peters, for some reason, sounded Irish, and Lars was over the top — like a caricature — Scandanavian). The voice he puts to J.P. is just too John Wayne for my taste — when I read the books in the series, I have in my head someone less gruff and more polished.
Oh yes, the book. I thought it was consistent with the quality I’ve come to expect from Jance. The story begins when special homicide investigator Beaumont is asked to speak to a woman who has a memory uncovered in hypnosis of a murder she observed as a child. Beaumont is at first skeptical until he watches the videotapes, and then he begins to believe she really did see something. Before you know it, he’s investigating this fifty year old murder. At the same time, Beaumont’s best friend/former partner is under investigation for murder — the man’s ex-wife — with whom he is having a custody fight — is murdered and the crime is linked to him in ways beyond the obvious motive. Beaumont’s special investigation division is investigating this murder because Peters, the former partner, is a police officer. Beaumont butts heads with various people in the course of both investigations. And oh yes, there’s a budding romance for Beaumont.
J.P. Beaumont fans will really like this book.
Rating: 4 / 5
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.
Rating: 5 / 5
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 see Jance avoid the stereotype of the typical “conservative.” Mel is actually quite a likable character, and I loved seeing the developing relationship between the two of them. They are mature individuals, who don’t hop in the sack at the first sign of attraction, and that was nice too.
The other characters are given as much depth as they deserve, with some (Ron’s family) getting a lot, and others, who are only in the book for a couple of scenes, getting just enough so they’re not cardboard. The various suspects and those involved in the cases are also well-done, giving us enough information that we can make our own conclusions about whether they would be capable of committing the murders. In fact, I don’t think there is a character misstep in the book at all. They’re all interesting in one way or another. The only minor annoyance was Beau’s old boss at the Seattle Police Department, who was just a bit over the top in his antagonism toward Beau (and everybody else). That is a long-standing character trait for him, so it’s fruitless to hope that it would change here, but he has always been my least favourite character.
The mysteries are both intriguing, and Jance hops between them with a lot of skill. It’s interesting how the fifty-year-old murder trail is pretty cold, but things start to heat up when it’s discovered that somebody is trying to open it again. When people start dying again, it positively burns. Jance does touch briefly on Beau reflecting on the fact that these people’s deaths are directly caused by his meddling in the case, as a long-dormant hornet’s nest is stirred once again. Meanwhile, Jance handles Ron’s case well too, showcasing the close relationship Beau has with Ron’s daughters, almost as a treasured uncle. What really happens in Ron’s case is very tragic, and shows the effects that family strife can have on young girls (or young people in general). The final revelation about the killer’s past is a little bit “yeah right,” but it’s not too bad. Once you know, you can see how Jance has laid the clues for it, so at least it doesn’t come out of the blue. Both are interesting, though, and I never wanted Jance to move back to the one when the other was “on screen.”
All in all, Long Time Gone was a great mystery with surprising depth of character. It holds your attention and doesn’t let go. It doesn’t deal with deep philosophical issues (do many mysteries?), but it does give the reader an interesting plot with intriguing characters to read about. It’s a nice way to spend your reading time. And if you’re from Seattle, or familiar with it, the location is just an added bonus.
David Roy
Rating: 5 / 5
Jance has given Beaumont two, distinct cases to be solved and it’s done cleanly and without confusion. Favorite characters from the past are there and I particularly like the way Jance handles the passage of time in their lives. The cases are interesting with good suspense and twists along the way. I would like the dialogue to have been a bit more crisp, but that’s a small complaint. I’ve missed J.P. and am glad to see him back. If you’ve not read the series, definitely start with the first. If, as I am, you’re a fan, you’ll definitely enjoy this new entry.
Rating: 4 / 5