Any long-time reader of mysteries can determine the chronological setting of a book from the technology references that are slipped into the narrative. If anyone needing a telephone has to go to the post office to make a call, then the book is set in the early 20th century. If the police are checking fingerprints against a national database, the story takes place no earlier than the last decades of the 20th century. A PI driving around looking for a phone booth is almost certainly doing it in the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s. I think the technology marker for crime fiction published in the 2020s will be the ubiquity of DNA analysis.
Nothing to Lose by J. A. Jance (William Morrow, 2022) is the third book I read in July in which DNA analysis plays a prominent part. This 25th book about J. P. Beaumont finds the former Seattle homicide detective retired and a bit at loose ends. Jared Danielson, the son of his long-ago partner from the SPD, who was killed on duty, appears at his door, asking for help in finding his younger brother Chris. Chris went to Alaska to stay with paternal relatives years ago after an argument with his mother’s family in Ohio and Jared thought that’s where he was. Relatives in Alaska report that he left Alaska to visit his Ohio kin and they believed he was in Ohio. Since everyone assumed he was safe somewhere else, he was never reported missing. Beau uses his contacts with the Seattle police to link up with the Alaska police and travels to Juneau to trace Chris from his last known location. He uncovers enough information to show that Chris had been killed. Beau’s inquiry becomes a cold case murder investigation.
Judy Jance is
a mainstay in crime fiction, creating four distinct series, starting with the
Beaumont books in 1985. She isn’t the only creator of an aging detective who
has had to find ways to involve the character in active investigations. Ian
Rankin has had the same difficulty with Rebus. Both have fallen back on cold
cases, where the characters’ knowledge of long-ago situations is essential to resolving
the present-day problem.
A series this old could reasonably begin to falter but I found no sign of it here. The characters are fresh and rounded, the premise intriguing, the forensic tools cutting edge. A subplot addressing elder abuse is all too realistic. A satisfying story. Recommended.
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Publisher: William Morrow
(February 22, 2022)
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Language: English
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Hardcover: 368 pages
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ISBN-10: 0063010062
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ISBN-13: 978-0063010062
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on
Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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