Lying in Wait by J A Jance

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
-Print: COPYRIGHT: 6/1/1994; PUBLISHER: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition; ISBN 978-0688114596; Unabridged (Amazon Hardcover)
-Digital: COPYRIGHT: (6/1/1994) July 2006; PUBLISHER: Harper-Collins e-books; ISBN 978-0061747168; PAGES 388; Unabridged (Libby, LAPL, Kindle edition)
*Audio: COPYRIGHT: (6/1/1994) 1/20/2005; ISBN: not included in library details this time; PUBLISHER: Books in Motion; DURATION: 11 hours (approx..); Unabridged (Libby, LA Public Library)
-Feature Film or tv: No

SERIES: J. P. Beaumont Series, Book 12

CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Jonas Piedmont Beaumont-J.P. Beaumont (Beau)—Seattle Washington Detective
Sue Danielson – Beau’s partner
Jared Danielson – Sue’s 12-year-old son
Ralph Ames – Beau’s friend and lawyer
Al Lindstrom (Big Al) – Beau’s partner (only mentioned once this time)
Sergeant Watkin (Watty) – Seattle Police Sergeant
Captain Lawrence Powell – Seattle Police Captain
Anne Corley – Beaus late wife
Ron Peters – Beau’s former partner
Amy Peters – Ron’s wife
Heather Peters – Ron Peterson’s daughter
Charley – (Afghan) Dog in residence of Beau’s Belltown Terrace building.
Gail – Charley’s owner
Else Didricksen Gebhardt – A cheerleader from Beau’s school days as a basketball player
Inge Didricksen – Else’s mother
Gunter Gebhardt – Else’s husband
Kari Gebhardt – Else’s daughter
Michael Morris – Kari’s boyfriend
Alan Torvoldsen (Champaign Al) – Beau’s former acquaintance from his high school days

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
-SELECTED: This was the next one in the series.
-ABOUT: A brutal murder discovered on a boat, and the victim’s wife turns out to be an old acquaintance of Beau’s.
OVERALL: I liked that the author brought in some history for this one.

AUTHOR: J. A. (Judith Ann) Jance -- (born October 27, 1944) "Jance was born in Watertown, South Dakota,[2] and raised in Bisbee, Arizona (the setting for her Joanna Brady series of novels). Before becoming an author, she worked as a school librarian on a Native American reservation (Tohono O'Odham), and as a teacher and insurance agent." -- Wikipedia

NARRATOR: Gene Engene -- "Gene Engene is an award-winning reader with an astounding catalog of audiobooks to his credit. He is best known as J.P. Beaumont in the J.A. Jance mystery series. Gene is a veteran stage actor, director, and is a retired Professor of Drama at Eastern Washington University." -- Books in Motion

GENRE:
Fiction; Mystery

SUBJECTS:
Washington’s Norwegian citizens; Jewish history; Nazi history

LOCATIONS:
Seattle, Washington

TIME FRAME:
Contemporary (1993)

DEDICATION:
“To Dirty Dick and the other displaced regulars. And to the good-sport charity auctioneers and attendees who make Seattle a great place to live and write. But most of all, to Thomas Blatt, a survivor and an inspiration.”

EXCERPT: From Chapter 1
" “Thank you, Jonas,” she said in a voice that was surprisingly quaver-free. “Thank you very much.”
Most of the time I go by the name of Beau or by my initials, J. P. Only two people in the world have ever called me Jonas—my mother, who has been dead for many years, and now my grandmother. It was only in the course of the last few months, after accidentally encountering my estranged grandparents’ name and address in the phone book, that my mother’s mother had emerged from the shadows of the long-buried past into the present. At eighty-six, Beverly Piedmont came into my life as both a puzzle and a blessing.
Now she was also a widow.
My grandfather and namesake, Jonas Logan Piedmont, was dead at age ninety-one.
I turned the key in the ignition, and the Porsche’s powerful engine roared to life. With headlights slicing through sheets of slanting raindrops, we headed for Newton’s Family Mortuary off Aurora Avenue, where Mr. Lloyd Newton, III, at age sixty or so, had been genuinely dismayed when my grandmother had told him in no uncertain terms that there would be no services for my grandfather.
“Absolutely not,” she had announced determinedly. “At our ages, there aren’t that many people still around that we know, and we only see them at weddings or funerals. These days there are a lot more funerals than weddings. Each time, someone else turns up missing. It’s too depressing.”
Her decree had brooked no argument. Mr. Newton had been forced to comply with reasonably good grace.
“Are you taking care of yourself?” I asked, glancing in her direction as I threaded through evening traffic made worse by the steady downpour. A rain-slicked layer of newly fallen leaves covered the gutters and blocked Seattle’s storm drains, leaving the streets awash. “Are you eating properly? Getting enough rest?”
“Mandy’s the one you should be worried about,” my grandmother returned with a shake of her head. “That crazy old dog won’t eat a thing.”
I remembered how Mandy used to sit for hours in mute companionship with my stroke-silenced, wheelchair-bound grandfather. She usually stuck close enough to his side that the slightest movement of his faltering hand would bring his flesh into contact with her patiently waiting head.
“Try bread and peanut butter,” I suggested. “That’s how Kelly and Jeremy get their dog, Sunshine, to take her arthritis medicine. Kelly claims there isn’t a dog in the world that doesn’t love bread and peanut butter.”
Six months earlier, it would have been inconceivable to me that my daughter—Kelly, the complete airhead, as I once disparagingly called her—would end up passing out dog-care advice to her great-grandmother, but Beverly Piedmont nodded as though granting Kelly’s suggestion serious consideration. “That sounds like a good idea,” she said. “I believe I’ll give it a try.”

RATING:
4 stars

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
7-7-2023 to 7-17-2023 ( )

Outlandish & rambling. I fell asleep three times during the process of listening to this book ( )

Outlandish & rambling. I fell asleep three times during the process of listening to this book ( )

Beau is called to investigate a rather gruesome murder. A man’s boat is set on fire, with him handcuffed to a table after being tortured, and he burns to death. Beau is surprised that the people connected to the victim are some old classmates he hasn’t seen in decades. Digging deeper, he discovers the current crime has its roots in Nazi Germany. It’s a well told mystery, gripping and intriguing. ( )

Nazis! ( )