Taking the Fifth

In J.A. Jance's 4th Beaumont mystery I was hoping that our favorite detective would grow some as a character. It still hasn't happened. Once again, Det. Beaumont beds a beautiful alleged murderer. The only difference is this one actually ends up innocent. I'm hoping by the 5th novel Jance will have come up with a more unique plot.

In this book our homophobic detective deals again deals with gays and HIV/AIDS. He does seem to be coming along though, once again attributed to his gay interior decorator reupholstering his man-chair. As a character, this quirk does make him feel 'real' even if I don't really like him much.

This book does give an interesting and somewhat ignorant view into the mindset of people "dealing with people with AIDS" in the late 80's as evidenced with this response from the coroner when Beaumont requests an autopsy for a man assumed to be recently deceased from AIDS
"You don't need an autopsy, you want one. There's a big difference. And who the hell do you think is going to do it? My people don't want to, I can tell you that much, and I don't blame them a bit." ( )

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Beaumont solves the murder of a drug user and an HIV patient, which involves a singer and her traveling show in Seattle. ( )

I’ve read Taking the Fifth before, several times I believe, but it’s been a long time. I’ve always liked J. A. Jance’s J. P. Beaumont mysteries. They aren’t great crime fiction, but they are consistently good. And Jance has been getting steadily better over the years. Taking the Fifth is the fourth in the series; one of the early ones. I figured it would be a good quick read, and I was right.

(Full review at my blog) ( )