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.
Beaumont is assigned to a case where a man is found dead by the B.N.S.F. tunnel in downtown Seattle from puncture wounds made with a spiked heel. Following up, they find he was an unliked roommate/over of a gay man who died of A.I.D.S. the same night on Capitol Hill. But two deaths that close together aren’t likely to be coincidence. Eventually the whole thing unravels to reveal drugs, jealousy and redemption at the Fifth Avenue Theatre and the I.A.T.S.E. local that staffs it.
Avon published the book in 1987, so Jance had to have written it in 1986 or possibly a bit earlier. Although the medical community knew A.I.D.S. wasn’t generally communicable at the time, not everyone in the general public knew or believed it. (And they still don’t.) So I have to applaud Jance for including the homosexual element in the story, giving her characters gay heebie-jeebies to match their old-fashioned upbringing, but also making it clear how much prejudice they carried. And at the time, outside of A.I.D.S. stories, the most prominent stories about gay men on the Seattle news were ZOMG! The Gays Are Having Secks In Volunteer Park!
Story-wise the plot is way over complicated. Everything makes sense without resorting to bad coincidence. But such complicated drug and murder plot wouldn’t survive very long in real life. And well, it doesn’t in the book either. But I’d have to wonder about any criminals that attempted such a thing in real life. They’d obviously not be good criminals.
And now on to other reading…
Title: Taking the Fifth
Author: J. A. Jance
Series: J. P. Beaumont; 4
Imprint / publisher: Avon / Hearst
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 218 p.
Publication date: June 1987
ISBN-10: 0-380-75139-9
