She Treads Softly: Nothing to Lose

Monday, February 14, 2022

Nothing to Lose

Nothing to Lose by J. A. Jance
2/22/22; 368 pages
HarperCollins
J.P. Beaumont Novel #25

Nothing to Lose by J. A. Jance is a very highly recommended procedural featuring J. P. Beaumont.

J. P. Beaumont (Beau), currently a PI, formerly a homicide detective with the Seattle PD, always felt guilty over the murder of his partner, Sue Danielson by her ex-husband, who then killed himself. Her two sons went to live with her parents in Ohio. Beau is surprised when her older son, Jared, comes to see him and ask for help in finding his younger brother, Christopher. Apparently Chris ran away as a teen and went to Alaska, where his father's parent's live. He hasn't been heard from since and his grandmother in Ohio is in ill health and wants to see him again.

Beau takes on the case pro bono and heads to Alaska to find Chris. What he finds is a complicated case involving much more than a missing person. Beau uses his many law enforcement resources, contacts, and experience to untangle the secrets and find the answers needed.

Even though this is a long running series and character, new readers will be able to jump right in and read Nothing to Lose without needing any additional background. Beau is a fully realized character and Jance includes everything readers need to know about him to easily follow the plot. He is personable, intelligent and a devoted husband.

This is a well written story, a solid PI procedural, and I completely enjoyed it. There were no outlandish jumps in logic, all the twists or unexpected turns in the novel came logically out of the investigation. Beau carefully follows clues through interviews and additional information and follows it all to intelligent, plausible conclusions. Certainly clues indicate the suspect and the motive, so it is not a surprise when you guess the guilty party while reading. The pleasure is in following the clues and evidence, and gather enough proof for law enforcement to charge the person. It was really a comfortable pleasure to read Nothing to Lose.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.