Until Proven Guilty

This book was supposed to help me decide my direction with this writer. Sadly, it did establish my opinion.

The gruff, blunt, frugal detective. The new partner (not a rookie, but might as well be). The murder investigation that rattles at least one of the two. The whole set up feels so cliché it's not even funny.

I can see partners growing as the book progresses. I'm okay with that. Also, for an older novel, things are flying through the time line, since the entire book took a little over a week. There were whole chapters that could have been reduced, just because it gave too much details to things that didn't advance the plot much.

Oh, way to open a series, blame it on a cult. And one who all changed their names to join. Even better, show more have a character reveal a conflict of interest...

The publisher's chosen narrator may have added to my dislike of the character. He makes the main character sound so disgruntled. That may be coloring my opinion of the book.

You know, when we first met the Lady in Red (also a cliché), I suspected. Now the writer confirms, at least partially. I'm just waiting for the suicide. And sadly, I called it. Death by cop.

So much of this book felt cliché, overdone, and just difficult to suspend disbelief for, I'm not sure I want to read the rest of the series. show less

Oh man, this is so bad as to be hilarious. Picked it up as part of a scavenger hunt, figured I'd actually read it. The cliches are rampant and glaring. The characters are uninteresting in their backstories and their motives.The plot is thin, and hinges on bad character judgement. Dames, man. Never trust a dame, am I right? Those sultry, red-wearing, mysteriously rich, vague-about-their-dark-past dames.

I really suspected as much from the tagline. "And he is about to find that he himself is the target of a twisted passion... and a love that can kill." I clearly got what I deserved from this book.

J. P. Beaumont is a police detective, divorced with kids. He gets assigned to investigate the murder of a young child, which leads him to a cult where the child’s mother lives. At the child’s funeral, he meets an usual and intriguing woman. They both want justice for the dead child, and over dinner, discover they have even more in common. The mystery is a good one, but the romance is really far fetched. It’s hard to believe that a seasoned detective would be so gullible to fall so fast for a stranger, especially one who keeps secrets. Still, it’s not bad for the first book in a series. Beau - and his new partner - are interesting, and since this is the first of 25 books and counting, the series must be a winner.

An interesting little book, but not so much in a good way. I have read enough J.A. Jance novels to now see that all her main characters are the same, they are essentially cut from the same cloth. This book illustrates that best. J.P. Beaumont is a creation of a whole series of improbably events; one improbable event followed by another improbable event and another and another and so on. Also, all of the main characters lives have been formed by other characters that randomly appear through said improbable events.

Since I rarely read books in order I knew a lot of background on Beaumont, but I was shocked to find the first book in the series laid it all out in one fell swoop. I think the improbabilities of the character development show more stacked up on the negative end of the spectrum. Other writers might introduce and then develop a character over several books. Nope, in this one we get a fully developed Beaumont in one whole shebang.

That's all I can say about this book. The story itself was entirely forgettable, I literally cannot tell you what the crime and / or mystery is / was a day after finishing it. Only the Beaumont bits I remember. show less

My overall impression of this book is that I didn't like it. I've decided I really don't like the 'hero' J.P. Beaumont. He's not a very good detective and he shows he's much too passive here. He was too easily seduced by the woman in red and I never really quite believed her character at all. Unfortunately, she turned out to be even more key to the story than I was led to believe.

That being said, the writing is not too bad. The Seattle settings are vivid. The supporting characters and plot are interesting. And the overall plot was imaginative and surprising. I just won't be spending any more time with detective Beaumont right now.

J. P. Beaumont, known as Beau to his friends, has been a homicide detective for fifteen years and has seen it all, but the murder of a child still upsets him. When five year old Angela Barstogi, daughter of one of the members of the Faith Tabernacle, is found murdered with evidence of previous child abuse, the group's leader, Pastor Michael Brodie, will not allow his followers to speak to the detectives. It isn't until Beau and his partner, Ron Peters, threaten to arrest Brodie does Angela's mother, Suzanne and the other members agree to answer some questions.

When Beau attends little Angela's funeral he's intrigued by a mysterious woman in red who places a red rose on the child's coffin. Beau has never seen this beautiful woman before show more but he knows she isn't a member of Faith Tabernacle and no one at the funeral seems to know who she is. He feels compelled to speak to her, and so into his life walks Anne Corley.

Although this first book is not the best in the series, it's still an interesting book for a couple of reasons. First, the murder story is skillfully woven. The reader is given lots of possible suspects and we see how Beau and his new partner learn to depend on each other. Second, the reader learns where Beau got all his money and it's one of the building blocks of Beau's character in future stories. Don't give up on J. P. Beaumont, the rest of the books are far better and well worth reading. show less

I have really enjoyed Jance's Joana Brady mysteries set in Arizona but I wasn't as fond of the Seattle based J.P. Beaumont stories. However I decided to give those another try starting at the beginning. I have decided that the Beaumont series while not great is not so bad. Perhaps I like the Joana Brady stories better because I have lived in and know Southern Arizona so well. Seattle is a city I have been to and liked but I can't say I really know it. The events of this book, which I will not spoil by revealing, are retold in one of the Arizona books. Until Proven Guilty might have been more surprising if I had not read the retelling first. I will probably read a few more of the Beaumont books before I decide if I would to read the show more whole series. show less