Books and Stuff

My book selection this week was “Sins of the Fathers” by J.A. Jance. She’s become one of my favorite authors with her series featuring J.P. Beaumont, Ali Reynolds and Joanna Brady.

This book was set in Seattle, Washington. We got to know the area while our daughter lived in Shoreline, just north of the city. So I can relate when J.P. Beaumont complains about the horrible traffic and nearly nonexistent parking.

After years as a Seattle Police Department homicide detective, Beau has retired, endured double knee replacement and is now a private detective. He and his wife, Mel Soames, have a home in Bellingham as well as the penthouse condo at Belltown Tower in downtown Seattle. While Mel works as Bellingham’s chief of police, Beau spends his days doing crosswords and caring for Lucy, the massive Irish Wolfhound they are fostering.

Then Alan Dale shows up asking a big favor. He needs Beau to find his drug-addicted daughter, Naomi.

A few weeks ago, Naomi gave birth to Athena Dale and promptly walked away, leaving the drug-addicted infant behind. Alan needs to find Naomi so she can sign off on her parental rights to Athena.

As soon as Beau sees Naomi’s picture, he flashes back to a time when he was a different man. Beau had helped solve a case that involved Alan Dale and a woman named Jasmine. Later, he had a drunken one-night stand with Jasmine. Soon after that, Alan and Jasmine left Seattle for Texas. Beau eventually sobered up and never gave Alan or Jasmine a thought.

Now he was staring a picture that could have been his daughter, Kelly. He is certain that Naomi is his daughter and Athena his granddaughter, but he decides to get DNA tests before telling Alan or his two grown children.

One of the basic tenants of AA is making amends to those you have wronged, so Beau, who inherited a fortune from his late wife, decides to do everything he can to find Naomi and make sure that Athena and Alan want for nothing.

It doesn’t take long to locate Naomi, and she readily agrees to sign off, but tells him that Peter “Petey” Mayfield, Athena’s father, came home and told Naomi that he was going to be getting a lot of money soon. She thought he was back on drugs, they fought and he walked out and hasn’t been seen since. This prompts Beau to look into Petey’s family.

It appears that Petey’s Aunt Lenora was trying to cheat him out of a substantial inheritance. She had put her mother in a nursing home where she died soon after, signing all property over to Lenora. Curiously, realtor Suzanne Nishikawa’s mother died at the same nursing home, and Nishikawa bought the property from Lenora. Sadly, Petey’s remains are found many miles away. He was shot and his body dumped.

Beau shares what he knows and then lets the police find a way to prove that Petey was killed. He discovered what Lenora and Suzanne were up to and that they colluded in Petey’s death.

While Beau untangles the layers of criminal relationships, Alan navigates the legal system to become Athena’s legal guardian, and Lucy decides her place is with Athena in Texas. Beau will miss her but knows that Lucy will guard the child with her life, because he’s seen her do it before.

This is just a thumbnail sketch of an excellent novel filled with interesting place, people and situations. I hope you’ll take the time to enjoy it as much as I did.

AT A GLANCE
BOOK: “Sins of the Fathers”
AUTHOR: J.A. Jance
PUBLISHER: Harper Collins Publishers
PUBLISHED: Sept. 24, 2019
PAGES: 384