Payment in Kind

I don't believe I've read any books by J. A. Jance before but I have certainly heard of her. This book is the 9th in her J. P. Beaumont series and I quite enjoyed it. There are a few references to things that have taken place in the past which I would like to know more of so I may try to pick up some more of these books.

It was interesting that this book takes place during an unexpectedly cold snap in Seattle. Cold in Seattle is apparently +6 F. This morning in Winnipeg the temperature is -32 C (or -25.6 F) which is what I consider cold. J. P Beaumont, a homicide detective with the Seattle police, is summoned out into the cold to check out two dead bodies in the Seattle School District office. The bodies are of a male security guard and show more a female school district employee. It appears it might be a murder suicide at first but that is fairly quickly discounted. The woman's husband, Pete Kelsey, is the next logical suspect and there is certainly some evidence to point to him, like a gun in the dead woman's laundry drawer and the security guard's uniform in his garage. J. P.' s partner for this case is Paul Kramer, the homicide's squad golden boy but a devious player, and he believes Pete is the killer but J. P. is not so sure. The evidence as the case unfolds points to another person and the ending was quite a surprise to me.

Well-crafted and suspenseful. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good murder mystery. show less

Someone went to a lot of trouble to set up the scene to look like a crime of passion. Beau is never one to take the easy way out, and one discovery leads to another, and makes him believe it was not a murder-suicide. This rather involved and intricate mystery leads him into a web of lies and coverups. Quite interesting and entertaining, this gripping mystery is a page turner.

This is the second novel in a row in which I was surprised to encounter characters that are Mormons. This book also has lesbians and bigamists. The bigamist wasn't one of the Mormons.
A fine mystery and an ending that proves to be a very good thing for Beau.

I will put this on my home bookshelf - I want to reread it.

PLOT OR PREMISE:
Beaumont's case with a up-and-coming ambitious partner focuses on a woman working at the local school board office who winds up dead -- semi-clothed in a closet with a clergyman-turned-security guard and the hints of an affair.
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WHAT I LIKED:
The school board politics and the politics around the police station office are first-rate, and it is nice to see a positive side to the journalist character who constantly hounds J.P. A large cast of characters helps keep the story interesting.
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WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
The sub-plot is a bit obvious and while the cast of characters is good, it leaves a bit of a feel of happenstance rather than expert detecting.
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BOTTOM-LINE:
Solid but not quite awesome
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DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, show more not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow her on social media. show less

School administrator gets murdered; her husband isn't who everyone thinks he is. Nothing much in the overall character -- Beau is going to AA meetings.

Payment in Kind by J A Jance

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
Print: COPYRIGHT: (1991) 3/1/2004; PUBLISHER: Severn House Publishers; ISBN 978-0727860484; PAGES 384; Unabridged

Digital: Yes

*Audio: COPYRIGHT: 2/19/2008; ISBN: 1596072970; PUBLISHER: Books in Motion; DURATION: 09:34:14; PARTS: 8; File Size: 276937 KB; Unabridged

Feature Film or tv: No

SERIES: J. P. Beaumont Series, Book 9

CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Jonas Piedmont Beaumont-J.P. Beaumont (Beau)—Seattle Washington Detective
Paul Kramer- Seattle PD detective

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
How I picked it: I have decided to listen to all of Jance’s books and this was the next one in the series.
What’s it about? A couple of bodies are found in a janitorial closet in a school building and the show more assumption is murder/suicide, until J. P. Beaumont is on the case.
What did I think? Another good episode.

AUTHOR: J. A. (Judith Ann) Jance -- (born October 27, 1944) "Jance was born in Watertown, South Dakota,[2] and raised in Bisbee, Arizona (the setting for her Joanna Brady series of novels). Before becoming an author, she worked as a school librarian on a Native American reservation (Tohono O'Odham), and as a teacher and insurance agent." -- Wikipedia

NARRATOR: Gene Engene -- "Gene Engene is an award-winning reader with an astounding catalog of audiobooks to his credit. He is best known as J.P. Beaumont in the J.A. Jance mystery series. Gene is a veteran stage actor, director, and is a retired Professor of Drama at Eastern Washington University." -- Books in Motion

GENRE:
Fiction; Suspense; Thriller

LOCATIONS:
Washington


TIME FRAME:
Contemporary (1991)

SUBJECTS:
murder; LGBTQ; romance

DEDICATION:
“For Penny and in memory of Paul”

QUOTE (From Chapter 1 — please forgive absence of paragraph breaks.)
“ If my caller had been Ralph Ames, I would've had to tell him his suggestion had a lot of merit, but it wasn't Ames at all. Instead, the person on the phone was Sergeant Watkins, my immediate supervisor from Homicide at the Seattle Police Department. When Watty calls me at home, it usually means trouble, but surprisingly, he didn't launch into it right away. “How's it going?” he asked with uncharacteristic indirectness. “Colder 'an a witch's tit,” I answered tersely. “Our heat pumps went off overnight. I'm standing here dripping wet.” “Your heat pumps went off?” he echoed with a laugh. “What's the matter? Did one of you fat cats forget to pay the bill down at City Light?” Sergeant Watkins doesn't usually beat around the bush discussing the weather. “Cut the comedy, Watty,” I snapped. “I'm freezing my ass off while you're cracking jokes. Get to the point.” “I've got a case for you, Beau. Initial reports say we've got two stiffs on Lower Queen Anne Hill. We've got some people on the scene, but no detectives so far. You're it.” “Where?” “In the Seattle school district office. Know where that is?” I was already groping in my dresser drawer for socks and underwear. “Not exactly, but I can find it,” I returned. “The streets outside are a damned skating rink,” Watty continued. “It might be faster if you go there directly from home instead of coming into the office first.” During the call I had managed to blot myself dry with the towel. Now I held the phone away from my ear long enough to pull a T-shirt on over my head. I returned the phone to my ear just in time to hear Watty continue. “Do that. Detective Kramer'll meet you there as soon as he can. The guys in the garage are trying to find another set of chains. One broke just as he was starting up the ramp.” “Kramer?” I asked, hoping I had heard him wrong. “Did you say Detective Kramer? What about Big Al?” I can get along all right with most of the people in Seattle P.D., but Detective Paul Kramer is the one notable exception. When it comes to my list of least favorite people, Kramer is right up there at the top—just under Maxwell Cole, the lead crime columnist for our local news-rag, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “I thought someone would have let you know,” Watty returned. “He and Molly both came down with a bad case of food poisoning after a Daughters of Norway dinner Saturday night. They ended up in the Ballard Hospital emergency room along with fifteen or twenty other people. He's still in no shape to come back to work. And Kramer's partner called in sick as well.” “So we're stuck with each other?” “For the time being.” Having to work a case with Detective Kramer was a bad way to start a new week and an even worse way to start a new year. If I were superstitious, I might have seen it as an omen. “Swell,” I grumbled. With that, I hung up on Watty and dialed the concierge, making sure someone was working on the heat pump problem and asking her to call for a cab while I finished dressing. People in the Pacific Northwest are used to clouds and rain in winter. That kind of weather is expected and comes with the territory. Arctic cold isn't, and nobody here knows what to do when it comes. I put on an extra sweater over my shirt before adding the shoulder holster for my new 9-mm Beretta automatic. My old faithful .38 Smith & Wesson was still gathering dust in some evidence room in Prescott, Arizona.”

RATING:
4 stars

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
10-16-2022 to 10-22-2022 show less

I really loved this book. I want to read all of the J. P. Beaumont series......can't wait for the next one.