Another re-read, this time the fifth book in Jance’s J. P. Beaumont series. Again, not a lot to say about it except it is nice light reading.
In a couple of the Beaumont books, our intrepid detective gets a little too personal with people who turn out to be suspects in murders he’s investigating. This time Jance has him at arms length from everyone. A dentist has been murdered. Beat up pretty severely and then stabbed with a dental pick in the neck. No less than five viable suspects in the mystery, though some of them may be working together. Suspects 1 & 2 are the estranged wife of the dentist and her new boyfriend. Suspect 3 is the husband of the dentist’s lover. And suspects 4 & 5 are the little old ladies who are the dentist’s aunts. Well, they might not really be suspects, but they vamoose rather than talk to Beaumont and his partner Lindstrom.
What’s nice in this case is that the investigators get it wrong. They search out dead end clues and suspects. They make mistakes. And not because the real bad guy leads them down a trail. No, it’s just complicated, particularly when multiple people don’t really like the victim.
Jance’s cause in this book (she always seems to have a cause in the background of each of her books) is battered women. The dentist beat his wife, and eventually she left him and went to live in a shelter. This puts Beaumont and Lindstrom in the position of having to work through the protectiveness and secrecy surrounding battered womens’ shelters. No clue if the portrayal is correct or not, though knowing Jance she’s done some research on it.
Title: Improbable Cause
Author: J. A. Jance
Series: J. P. Beaumont; 5
Imprint / publisher: Avon / Hearst
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 214 p.
Publication date: February 1988
ISBN-10: 0-380-75412-6
Subject: Beaumont, J. P. (Fictitious character) — Fiction
Subject: Police — Washington (State) — Seattle — Fiction
Subject: Dentists — Crimes against — Fiction
Subject: Seattle (Wash.) — Fiction
