Long Time Gone

by: J.A. Jance

Published by: Avon

Reviewed by Jeff Foster

In J.A. Jance's new novel, Long Time Gone, J.P. Beaumont returns as an investigator for the Washington State Attorney's Special Homicide Investigation Team. There is an acronym for this unit. I will endeavor you can figure this out for yourself.

When a woman claiming to have been a witness to the murder suddenly comes forward with her revelations, pried from her subconscious through hypnosis, Beaumont is handpicked to handle the cold case because of an old high school acquaintance, the woman's hypnotist.

Madeline "Mimi" Marchbank, the sister of one of Seattle's most influential men at the time, was murdered in her home more that fifty years age. This case in not merely cold, it is downright frigid. The witness, Bonnie Jean Donleavy, now a monastic nun going by the name of Sister Mary Katherine, was five years old at the time. As a result of terrible nightmares, she sought the services of Beaumont's friend to help her cope with her dreams and discover what is causing them. Over the course of her taped sessions, facts come forward that contradict the original case files.

As Beaumont investigates, it becomes readily evident that the case was corrupted from the start and there are indications of conspiratorial payoffs made to protect Seattle's powerful society families.

Parallel to this case is the brutal murder of Beaumont's former partner and close friend, Ron Peters' estranged ex-wife, Rosemary. As the mounting evidence points to his friend, Beaumont is torn between his duty to his friend--and his job. The close family begins to fall apart as first Ron, then his youngest daughter, are the focus of the Special Homicide Investigation Team, forcing Beaumont to make arduous decisions as to how much he can support his friends.

The novel is as suspenseful as any in the Beaumont series, written in the first person of Beaumont, proving once again the female J.A. Jance writes a male character better than most male authors do.

Armchair Interviews says: There are a few twists and some sharp turns, many of which even the best crime novel readers won't see coming.