Rating: 
Summary: Almost For The Birds!
Review: I have read everyone J.P. Beaumont mystery and feel this is the most disappointing. "Beau" was his usual likable self but the surrounding characters were lacking. And the story was just too flat along with the conclusion. Because Ms Jance is one of my favorite authors, I still look forward to her next "J.P. Beaumont" mystery. If it comes close to "Breach of Duty", it should be a winner.
Rating: 
Summary: Impossible Situation ?
Review: I love Jance's books. But one particular detail in this one has me forgetting what else I liked about the book and obsessing on the detail. In the book, an Alzheimer's patient is pushed off the rear platform of a train when the train is in a tunnel. It is supposedly too dark to see who did the pushing. The Alzheimer's patient ends up dead, at the bottom of a canyon. How does one fall off a train in a dark tunnel and end up at the bottom of a canyon in broad daylight? If it weren't for this, I would definitely give this five stars!
Rating: 
Summary: Not one for the birds
Review: I was born, raised, and currently reside in the Pacific Northwest. I go out of my way to find and read fiction stories about the Pacific Northwest especially when J A Jance writes the story. I like to read about my house. J A Jance writes about my house, she lives there too. Actually she lives in a more expensive part of the house. Just the same I consider her to be my neighbor. (We both belong to the same writer's association so I really do see her around the house on occasion.) I will not review the plot of Birds of Prey. Everyone else has done that or will do that. I'm not going to say that J A Jance is a great writer or that she a wonderful storyteller. We already know this. What I am going to tell you is that when I read a book about my home I want it to be entertaining and I want it to be accurate. I know that J A Jance will never fail me in that regard and so I read her books. My advice to you; from an author, an avid reader, and a Seattleite (that's what they call us web-footed moss backed humans up here) is to put Birds of Prey on your "must read" list. It is excellent
Rating:
Summary: a little dissapointed.......
Review: I'm a die-hard J. P. fan but I was a little dissapointed in this
book.
Is it just me or has J.P. lost his edge?
I did enjoy the setting in this story line, but felt the author
spent way to much time explaining the main characters background
and not enough plotline.
I remember when I would get to the end of a J.P. Beaumont book with my heart racing and wondering how on earth it would end!
I knew who the killer was almost half way through this book.
Beau needs an infusion of energy, he is getting old.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Almost for the Birds !
Review: I'm an avid Jance fan, having read every book she's given us, including her two non-series thrillers, the 14 prior J.P. Beaumont stories and the 6 Joanna Brady tales. I salivated when I learned "Birds" was a return to Beaumont after (according to my notes) a 5-year absence since "Name Withheld". But a tasty meal did not follow. I suspect Jance wrote this book under some sort of pressure -- maybe a tough deadline or something. It's just not her: from too many tertiary characters (like the FBI "couple" that never made another appearance), too much dull setup work (about 300 of the 390 pages before things got going), and some pretty far-fetched ideas (nobody could survive a fall from deck to water on any cruise ship I've been on). In fact, one of the book's potential murders (the train thing) never was resolved -- huh? Obviously I was disappointed. Maybe Jance just can't figure out how to handle a retired JP. If so, I'd urge her to stick with Joanna Brady and let JP ride off into the "overprinted" bin where I fear this book is headed.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely Almost for the Birds !
Review: I'm an avid Jance fan, having read every book she's given us, including her two non-series thrillers, the 14 prior J.P. Beaumont stories and the 6 Joanna Brady tales. I salivated when I learned "Birds" was a return to Beaumont after (according to my notes) a 5-year absence since "Name Withheld". But a tasty meal did not follow. I suspect Jance wrote this book under some sort of pressure -- maybe a tough deadline or something. It's just not her: from too many tertiary characters (like the FBI "couple" that never made another appearance), too much dull setup work (about 300 of the 390 pages before things got going), and some pretty far-fetched ideas (nobody could survive a fall from deck to water on any cruise ship I've been on). In fact, one of the book's potential murders (the train thing) never was resolved -- huh? Obviously I was disappointed. Maybe Jance just can't figure out how to handle a retired JP. If so, I'd urge her to stick with Joanna Brady and let JP ride off into the "overprinted" bin where I fear this book is headed.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing to say the least!
Review: If you are an avid Jance fan and have come to like and expect fast-paced action and lots of excitement from the "Beaumont" books, don't buy this one. I usually can't quit reading a Beaumont book. I've stayed up well past my bedtime on many, many, many occasions because I just couldn't put the book down. I will usually spend hours reading the whole book in one setting. But this book.....well, it just doesn't cut it. I've started and stopped it on several occasions to read something else and only came back to it when I needed "filler" reading. For one thing, several characters have undergone major personality changes. Beverly, who was previously sort of a mousy, quiet, obedient character has suddenly become fiesty and mouthy and full of independence. And I scarcely recognized Lars. And the plot is too contrived and the whole Kiksadi, Quicksady, Quixote thing is really stupid. If this is the first Beaumont book you've read, please read some of the older books. You will enjoy them. But don't read this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Crushing Bore: Birds of Prey by J. A. Jance
Review: J. A Jance is a very talented author who created two signature characters. First, there was Jonas Piedmont Beaumont, a Seattle homicide detective. Known to his friends by his initials, J. P., or by the nickname "Beau" he was always in the thick of the action dealing with death in his home city. Then, a few years ago, J. A. Jance created the character of Joanna Brady. Joanna Brady became Sheriff in Desert Heat after the death of her husband. Written in a very different style than the Beaumont books, they allowed the author to try different things. Not only was the location and hero different, the writing style was completely different. After writing several Joanna Brady mysteries, she seems to have lost the ability to faithfully write Beaumont as he was. In the latest Beaumont novel, gone is the third person writing style that had always existed in the Beaumont books. She has switched to first person, which does not work for the character if you have read the earlier novels. Also changed are basic facts about J. P.'s life, which is rather disconcerting to long time fans. Unfortunately, what is left isn't much of a mystery either though the book does run close to 400 pages. As the novel opens, J. P. is on a forced cruise to the Gulf of Alaska aboard the ship the Starfire Breeze. He has agreed to chaperone his recently wed Grandmother Beverly Piedmont Jenssen. She married Lars Jenssen, a fellow member with J. P. of Alcoholics Anonymous. While he is now J. P.'s sponsor in the group, Lars used to be a commercial fisherman and he is very much looking forward to returning to his old stomping grounds in Alaska. J.P. does not have to stay with them, but he is supposed to be there if the elderly couple needs him. At random, he is assigned to a different dinner table and winds up seated with Margaret Featherman. She quickly makes an impression on one and all as a rather unpleasant person. The setup around her is too complicated to go into due to space limitations, but suffice it to say that she soon disappears from the ship. Apparently, she went overboard leaving behind a long list of enemies that had sufficient motivation to kill her. Soon, J. P. is asked to help out with finding out which one of the many people around her did the deed. Both he and the reader are taken on a methodical and tedious ride to the Gulf of Alaska in the search for the killer. Instead of action, old memories and earlier cases are dredged up and examined as well as the personal motivations of all the characters involved. The overall action is very limited with most of the time spent inside J. P.'s head as he ruminates on this situation and others. In short, this effort was a crushing bore for this reader. While it might have helped J. A. Jance take a cruise off of her taxes it should not have been inflicted on the rest of us. Either she needs to quit writing the Beaumont character and just focus on the Brady character, or she needs to go back and read the early stuff so that she can remember how it is done. Hopefully, the next one if there is another Beaumont book, will be better.
Rating:
Summary: Praying for More
Review: J.A. Jance has assembled a very formulaic, almost made-for-tv suspense story. If Jim Rockford had been willing to go on a cruise to Alaska, this thin story could have been filmed thirty years ago.
The characters are stereotypical and the whole plot revolves around clumsy situations of mistaken identity. The protanganist is Beau Beaumont, straight from central casting, a washed-out police detective, who lost his partner and two wives, but appears to be winning a battle with sobriety.
Unfortunately for the reader, but perhaps fortunately for Beau, he agrees to chaperone his ancient grandparents on a cruise. Of course, the trip includes stops in places where his grandfather had fished commercially 50 years ago, and old friends are found on every street corner. Next a murder occurs on the ship, but it is not really a murder, as another of Beau's new forty-something friends seems to have aquatic abilities, on a par with Mark Spitz, and finds her way to safety.
Of course this thing is full to the brim with tales of adultry, jealousy, new love, dementia, substance abuse, domestic abuse, right-wing conspiracy, and seasickness, much of which happened many years ago, or is totally irrelevant to the plot.
Birds of Prey might be suitable for very light beach reading, especially if you have a lot of kids to watch and find it difficult to concentrate, as this does not require much effort. By the middle of the book, you will have it figured out, and be wondering what is taking Beau and Jance so long to wrap it up.
Rating:
Summary: To Dream the Impossible Dream ...
Review: Jonas Piedmont Beaumont (Beau) has retired from the Seattle PD, homicide. Now he's on an Alaskan Honeymoon Cruise with his 86 year old grandmother and her blushing new 87 year old groom as a kind of Chaperone/EMT. He's hoping to have a good time and forget all the corpses in the closet of his former occupation. Such is not to pass. A group of socio-medico zealots calling themselves "Leave It To God," are homicidally opposed to Doctors, researchers and patients pursing modern medical advancements and heroic measures that save lives that prior to the advancements would have been left in God's hands. Are they stalking attendees of the medical conference on board? This is not the "Love Boat." People are dying and Beau is back on the case. This was my first reading of J.A. Jance and I enjoyed the cruise. Alaskan fun facts, history, and travelogue are included at no extra charge. The Quixotic quest is on!
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