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Dance of the Bones by J.A. Jance
J.P. Beaumont series Book #22 (not really)
2.5 stars
From The Book:
Years ago, Amos Warren, a prospector, was gunned down out in the desert and Sheriff Brandon Walker made the arrest in the case. Now, the retired Walker is called in when the alleged killer, John Lassiter, refuses to accept a plea deal that would release him from prison with time served. Lassiter wants Brandon and The Last Chance to find Amos's "real" killer and clear his name.
Sixteen hundred miles to the north in Seattle, J.P. Beaumont is at loose ends after the Special Homicide Investigation Team, affectionately known as S.H.I.T., has been unexpectedly and completely disbanded. When Brandon discovers that there are links between Lassiter’s case and an unsolved case in Seattle, he comes to Beau for help.
Those two cases suddenly become hot when two young boys from the reservation, one of them with close ties to the Walker family, go missing. Can two seasoned cops, working together, decipher the missing pieces in time to keep them alive?
My Thoughts:
The J.P. Beaumont series was and remains one of my favorite series of all times...so when I saw this "new" series with a new set of characters was coming aboard but J.P was still a part of it...I said "why not?". Turns out there was several reasons "why not".
1. The book was half way over before J.P Beaumont even made an appearance. I gave the book 2.5 stars because it was only AFTER he made his appearance that the story even seemed that it had been written by the same author.
2. The new characters are all just flat. Brandon Walker could evolve into a good character if he just had an original thought in his head and would stop listening to the dopey woman.
3. The story skipped back and forth over several decades and when you threw in the Indian lore that pops up suddenly out of left field it was nearly impossible to keep the story line in any perspective.
Needless to say there won't be a book 2 for this reader.
