J.A. Jance, Long Time Gone

Long Time Gone

J.A. Jance

Morrow, Aug 2005, $24.95, 352 pp.

ISBN: 0688138241

In Western Washington, her parents warns five years old Bonnie Jean Dunleavy to stay inside the house until they return or else. Fearing punishment she listens, but looks out the kitchen window when a car pulls into the driveway of her neighbor Mimi. Two people step out of the vehicle and kill Mimi. Bonnie rushes outside to help Mimi, but is warned to leave and say nothing or else.

Several decades later in Seattle Frederick Mackenzie visits his high school friend Special Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont to ask a favor. A person who also attended their high school, Bonnie Jean recently remembered witnessing a homicide when she was a little girl. Beaumont tells Freddy Mac that he only handles cases assigned to him by Attorney General Connors. To his shock Beaumont is assigned the inquiry, which means someone has clout. He visits Bonnie Jean now Sister Mary Katherine to obtain her statement. He begins to follow up on a "cold case" murder that he has doubts actually occurred until people try to end his investigation. Beaumont knows something came down years ago and he plans to find out what.

LONG TIME GONE is a fabulous Beaumont investigative tale because of the hero's reaction to working a cold case that he believes never was more than the imagination of a five year old abused lonely girl even if the nun recalling the incident believes it occurred. The strong story line focuses on Beaumont changing his opinion as he finds evidence that substantiates the Sister's story, which is further affirmed by someone wanting Beaumont off the case, dead or alive. J.A. Jance is at her police procedural best with this intriguing Pacific Northwest mystery.

Harriet Klausner