Retired Seattle PD detective J. P. Beaumont and former police reporter Maxwell Cole, once fraternity brothers, share a mutual dislike. Then the day after they run into each other, Cole dies in a fire at his house. His goddaughter and sole heir, a woman whose life Beaumont once saved in a murder case, asks him to look into whether Cole's death was accidental, as Cole himself advised her to do in an email shortly before he died. Beaumont, living in Bellingham with his police-chief wife, Melissa Soames, has been at loose ends since retiring. So with a directive from the grave, he uses his contacts and his wife's creds to untangle what turns out to be a string of murders touching illegal imports, an Asian gang, and a former high-ranking police official. In a subplot, Beaumont and Soames become foster owners of an Irish wolfhound who rapidly establishes a place in their home and hearts. It's been years since Jance has made Beaumont her main protagonist (Second Watch, 2013); having him back, with renewed zest, is a welcome development.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2017 Booklist

A retired cop honors a crime journalist's last request.J.P. Beaumont has earned the right to enjoy his leisure, sobriety, titanium knees, and new wife, Melissa Soames. But the 72-year-old who retired from Seattle Homicide doesn't quite know what to do with himself. Mel is busy with her new job as chief of police in Bellingham, and Beau's occasional work at a volunteer cold-case unit doesn't begin to fill the days. Nor does a chance encounter with Maxwell Cole, one of his least favorite people, help Beau's malaise. Max, a crime reporter and columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was a frat brother of Beau's at the University of Washington, where Beau stole away his girlfriend, and they later came to blows. Still, Beau is shaken when Max dies in a fire. A call from Max's goddaughter, Erin Kelsey Howard, whose life Beau once saved, brings him back into action. Erin is convinced her godfather's death wasn't an accident: he'd been working on a book about corruption on a high level, and he told Erin that if anything happened to him, she should go to Beau and not the police. Starting with Max's literary agent and an owner of a drag-queen comedy theater, and with off-the-books help from former colleagues, Beau discovers that the man who may have killed Max was killed himself in a hit-and-run. Erin's convoluted family history interspersed with not entirely relevant flashbacks and a subplot about an Irish wolfhound temporarily lodging with Beau and Mel slow the pace as Beau connects the dots between Max's murder and his murderer's murder and the death of a third party linked to a past earthquake and a present gang leader. Twenty-three cases into the franchise, the indefatigable Jance's (Man Overboard, 2017, etc.) formerly hard-drinking detective is showing signs of wear. Although newcomers may wax impatient with too much back story, loyalists who've followed her hero from the beginning will be glad he's still kicking. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In bestseller Jance's entertaining 24th J.P. Beaumont mystery (after 2015's Dance of the Bones), the 72-year-old retired Seattle homicide cop learns that reporter Maxwell Cole, a fraternity brother of his at the University of Washington, has died in a house fire. Maxwell, afraid that he might be murdered, told a family friend, Erin Howard, that he wanted Beau to investigate if he died, because he didn't trust the Seattle police to do the job. Beau's complex past history with Erin leads him to agree to take the case, and Beau's established contacts with computer whiz Todd Hatcher and medical examiner Rosemary Mellon pave the way as he gathers leads and discovers suspicious anomalies. Beau's wife, Mel Soames, the police chief of Bellingham, lends a hand, and both tread carefully when clues suggest that former Seattle police chief Lawrence Harden, still a powerful figure, might be involved in Maxwell's death. Complications in Beau's personal life, such as fostering Rambo, a 100-pound Irish wolfhound, add spice to this winning blend of humor, compassion, danger, and love. Agent: Alice Volpe, Northwest Literary. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.