Betrayal of Trust

May 23, 2011
In Jance's solid if a tad sentimental 20th J.P. Beamont novel (after Fire and Ice), the creaky-kneed Seattle detective and his third wife, Mel, both working for the Washington attorney general's unfortunately acronymed Special Homicide Investigation Team, have to probe a potentially explosive scandal: shortly after the governor's stepgrandson's cellphone was found to contain a snuff film, the troubled teen hanged himself in the governor's mansion. As Beau and Mel carry on their finely tuned good copâbad cop routines and employ the conveniently accessible talents of techie associates, Beau counterpoints his dogged pursuit of "arrogant jerks," whose well-heeled parents extricate them from all scrapes, with his gradual bittersweet discovery of the father who died before his birth. Jance's denunciation of adolescent bullying and adult hypocrisy rings true, a testimony to the fundamental decency of cops like Beau and Mel who walk the mean streets the rest of their society would rather not explore except in fiction. 8-city author tour.