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J.P. Beaumont #1
Until Proven Guilty (J. P. Beaumont Novel) by J. A Jance
The little girl was only five, much too young to die — a lost treasure who should have been cherished, not murdered. She could have been J.P. Beaumont's kid, and the determined Seattle homicide detective won't rest until her killer pays dearly. But the hunt is leading Beaumont into a murky world of religious fanaticism, and toward a beautiful, perilous obsession all his own. And suddenly Beau himself is a target — because faith can be dangerous… and love can kill.
Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1985
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About the author
J.A. Jance
117 books4,193 followersJudith Ann Jance is the top 10 New York Times bestselling author of the Joanna Brady series; the J. P. Beaumont series; three interrelated thrillers featuring the Walker family; and Edge of Evil, the first in a series featuring Ali Reynolds. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona.
Series:
* J.P. Beaumont
* Joanna Brady
* Ali Reynolds
* Walker Family
Series:
* J.P. Beaumont
* Joanna Brady
* Ali Reynolds
* Walker Family
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,009 reviews
September 10, 2021
2.5 stars
This is the first book in J.A. Jance's long-running "J.P. Beaumont" mystery series.
Detective J.P. Beaumont (Beau) is a Seattle homicide cop who's recently acquired a new partner, Detective Peters. As the story opens Beaumont and Peters are assigned the case of a strangled five-year-old girl named Angela Barstogi.
The detectives learn that Angela and her mother belong to a secretive cult headed by Pastor Michael Brody - a fire-and-brimstone preacher who rules his flock with a whip (literally; he beats and whips his flock for perceived infractions).
As part of their inquiry the homicide detectives attend Angela's funeral - to see who shows up and how they behave. Beau closely watches the cult members until his eye is caught by a stunningly beautiful blonde woman who breezes over to the grave and throws in a red rose. It turns out the woman, named Anne Corley, is a wealthy widow who travels across the country to attend children's funerals because her sister died as a child. Beau is absolutely mesmerized by Anne and makes it his business to get better acquainted with her.
Beau thinks little Angela's murderer might be a cult member but he's frustrated by the apparent lack of evidence. Then Angela's father, drunk and belligerent, flies in from Chicago - loudly threatening Pastor Brody. The father is arrested and accused of killing his daughter....a charge that seems unlikely to stick. .
The mystery part of the book stalls at this point - about halfway into the book - and Beau's romance with Anne takes over.
In my opinion the story becomes discordant here - it turns from a mystery into a romance. Within a week of meeting, Beau and Anne become intimate, get engaged, shop for household accoutrements, buy wedding rings, and purchase wedding clothes. They then get married in a ceremony that occurs before 6 A.M.- with Anne's lawyer as witness. Afterwards Beau acquires new evidence that helps him solve the case - amid some whopping big surprises.
While investigating the crime Beau has to deal with Maxwell Cole, a columnist who's hated Beau since college and always disparages the detective in print. Cole tries to lurk around for scoops....but Anne has his number.
In my opinion this is a weak beginning to the J.P. Beaumont series, which improves in later books. Still, this first installment might be worth reading just to meet Anne Corley, who's a kind of presence throughout the series.
You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/
October 14, 2017
The mystery part of this was good, but it was derailed by an unlikely romance that was featured more than I would have liked. I am not a romance fan and I don't like it when the book goes off on a tangent!
Four stars for mystery and two stars for romance averages a three star read.
Four stars for mystery and two stars for romance averages a three star read.
March 27, 2014
Because I respect the opinion of two of my librarian friends who love J.A. Jance's J.P Beaumont Series, I decided it was time to give one a try. With 21 in the series I won't lack for reading if this proves a hit.
Just as Beaumont says of his new partner, Peters "There's so much to learn before you can function as a team., I'm getting to know this new character. He works homicide (Detective) in Seattle. He's tall, 6'3", downs MacNaughton's like it's water, and if it's healthy he's not eating it. He's divorced, doesn't cook, eating most meals out, but those that he doesn't, get proper treatment with real plates, silverware and napkins. He runs his dishwasher and washing machine once a week, even if not needed. When he divorced he got an apartment close to downtown, gave up his car and either walks, buses, or gets a car from the motor pool for transportation. He's named after both paternal and maternal grandfather's, Jonas Piedmont, grew up as "Beau" but prefers J.P.
When a sludge truck driver finds the body of a beautiful 5 year old girl, J.P and Peters are the detectives called to the scene. Angel, Angela Barstogi was dumped on the roadside, like a piece of garbage, still wearing her pink Hollie Hobby nightgown. We quickly learn she had been reported missing just a few hours ago. Forget the "if you find them in the first 24 hours". It's soon apparent that her mother is a brain-washed cult member and the search is on for the killer. Lots of possible suspects but the Pastor Michael Brody is at the top of the list. According to J. A. Jance she had a chance encounter in the 80's with a cult. She decided to use some of this to form her first book. The cult though, is just the beginning of what proves to be an interesting first venture in Beaumont's career.
Besides a well plotted mystery, characters that come alive on the page, the Seattle backdrop proves an interesting setting. Robin and Mary, I'm in!
Just as Beaumont says of his new partner, Peters "There's so much to learn before you can function as a team., I'm getting to know this new character. He works homicide (Detective) in Seattle. He's tall, 6'3", downs MacNaughton's like it's water, and if it's healthy he's not eating it. He's divorced, doesn't cook, eating most meals out, but those that he doesn't, get proper treatment with real plates, silverware and napkins. He runs his dishwasher and washing machine once a week, even if not needed. When he divorced he got an apartment close to downtown, gave up his car and either walks, buses, or gets a car from the motor pool for transportation. He's named after both paternal and maternal grandfather's, Jonas Piedmont, grew up as "Beau" but prefers J.P.
When a sludge truck driver finds the body of a beautiful 5 year old girl, J.P and Peters are the detectives called to the scene. Angel, Angela Barstogi was dumped on the roadside, like a piece of garbage, still wearing her pink Hollie Hobby nightgown. We quickly learn she had been reported missing just a few hours ago. Forget the "if you find them in the first 24 hours". It's soon apparent that her mother is a brain-washed cult member and the search is on for the killer. Lots of possible suspects but the Pastor Michael Brody is at the top of the list. According to J. A. Jance she had a chance encounter in the 80's with a cult. She decided to use some of this to form her first book. The cult though, is just the beginning of what proves to be an interesting first venture in Beaumont's career.
Besides a well plotted mystery, characters that come alive on the page, the Seattle backdrop proves an interesting setting. Robin and Mary, I'm in!
November 25, 2011
The audiobook version of this detective story kind of threw me because the same man narrates Michael Connelly's superior Harry Bosch detective novels so my brain wanted to make J.P. Beaumont into Harry Bosch.
Not going to happen.
Not a bad start for the detective series, though. I liked the setting (Seattle) a lot and I liked the simplicity of the character who didn't have a lot of emotional baggage as so many characters do these days, but I dislike it when a character is introduced at being good at his job (as J.P. is, he's got some cop years under his belt) but then is handed his ass by a lady in a red dress. I'm not kidding. She wore a red dress.
That's just...stupid. Love at first sight? I can go for that. Stupid decisions? Been there. But the dreaded "girl walks into your homicide case and you fall in love" scenario? Big thumbs down.
Add in some unbelievably cheesy dialogue and cliched sex scenes and it's a Lifetime Movie of the Week. But since this is the first in the series with J.P., I will look for the next one to see if he gets any smarter.
A bright note in the book is J.P.'s brand new partner, who has a very interesting backstory. Or maybe J.P. will be like Murphy Brown and get a new partner each book. That would be funny.
Not going to happen.
Not a bad start for the detective series, though. I liked the setting (Seattle) a lot and I liked the simplicity of the character who didn't have a lot of emotional baggage as so many characters do these days, but I dislike it when a character is introduced at being good at his job (as J.P. is, he's got some cop years under his belt) but then is handed his ass by a lady in a red dress. I'm not kidding. She wore a red dress.
That's just...stupid. Love at first sight? I can go for that. Stupid decisions? Been there. But the dreaded "girl walks into your homicide case and you fall in love" scenario? Big thumbs down.
Add in some unbelievably cheesy dialogue and cliched sex scenes and it's a Lifetime Movie of the Week. But since this is the first in the series with J.P., I will look for the next one to see if he gets any smarter.
A bright note in the book is J.P.'s brand new partner, who has a very interesting backstory. Or maybe J.P. will be like Murphy Brown and get a new partner each book. That would be funny.
July 27, 2010
It's more like a romance novel--strike that, Disney fairy tale with descriptions of sex and mentions and actions of murder and domestic abuse--and a sad ending, OF COURSE.
Somebody on Goodreads noticed that J.P. behaved and thought like a woman. I think that person was right, and that fact makes the narration . . . not work. I got tired of learning about why J.P. did weird things, like start his dishwasher once a week whether there were dishes or not. Boring details like that. I'm all for details, honestly, but the author does not wield them well in this book.
Somebody on Goodreads noticed that J.P. behaved and thought like a woman. I think that person was right, and that fact makes the narration . . . not work. I got tired of learning about why J.P. did weird things, like start his dishwasher once a week whether there were dishes or not. Boring details like that. I'm all for details, honestly, but the author does not wield them well in this book.
November 17, 2013
Damn! What a cloyingly, nauseatingly crap book! This is not a detective/mystery story, it's a gag-inducing, shut off your brain and shake your head at the stupidity, love at first sight crap story.
The detective instantly falls head over heels in love with a rich woman in a red dress and red car who magically appears at a funeral. First thing this hardened detective does? Well he tells her everything about the investigation! Then it gets better, after some really cheesy conversations, terribly cliche sex scenes, a marriage proposal is made! All of this in the span of 3 days! In between all these, he waxes on about this woman to his partner. Confirmation that this was some kind of teenage fantasy came in the sex scenes which read like the old romance books with sentences like "we came together and I was complete" WTF???
What rubbish, what utter total complete rubbish!
The detective instantly falls head over heels in love with a rich woman in a red dress and red car who magically appears at a funeral. First thing this hardened detective does? Well he tells her everything about the investigation! Then it gets better, after some really cheesy conversations, terribly cliche sex scenes, a marriage proposal is made! All of this in the span of 3 days! In between all these, he waxes on about this woman to his partner. Confirmation that this was some kind of teenage fantasy came in the sex scenes which read like the old romance books with sentences like "we came together and I was complete" WTF???
What rubbish, what utter total complete rubbish!
August 26, 2011
I have now read two mysteries by J. A. Vance, Hour of the Hunter and this one, Until Proven Guilty. While the former was different due to its setting in Arizona tribal lands and its use of tribal legends, Until Proven Guilty is a more straight-forward detective novel and high on the adrenaline meter. It has a interesting plot involving a religious cult and plenty of false trails that eventually lead to the surprising ending. I enjoyed the straight-forward style and Jance pulls off a nice thriller even if she tends to stretch my tolerance for coincidences a bit. I'm not totally convinced with her protagonist J. P. Beaumont. I wanted him to be a bit more decisive at time. In fact, I wasn't sure he was male until about a fifth of the way through the book when he gets the hots for a hot blonde. I prefer Jance's heroines to her heroes. Nonetheless, this is an above average thriller that encourages me to read the rest of the J. P. Beaumont novels. This book hovers between three and four star so I'll nudge it to four.
November 5, 2010
I'm not sure if I can try reading another of these books, even though so many seem to love them. At first I was really enjoying the tenor of the writing and then . . . . *groan* . . . in comes this very stupid love interest. I groaned every time they had a conversation or "more". Seems like the love interest was some kind of fantasy fulfillment for the author and I absolutely hate that in a book especially when it doesn't seem to enhance the narrative. Plus, I thought we were trying to solve a crime and I was hoping for some actual detective work, of which there was none.
April 14, 2024
3.5 Stars for Until Proven Guilty: J. P. Beaumont, Book 1 (audiobook) by J. A. Jance read by Gene Eugene.
The detective finally gets the girl but unfortunately he can’t hold on to her for very long.
The detective finally gets the girl but unfortunately he can’t hold on to her for very long.
August 13, 2019
As the first book in this author's J.P. Beaumont series, this one had the feel to me of a writer excited about her craft and her story, but in too much of a hurry to get it all into type. The premise of the crime was good, as was the reveal of whodunit, but along the way, there was just too much happening without allowing time for it to develop.
Still, I like the series' protagonist and will give this series another chance.
Still, I like the series' protagonist and will give this series another chance.
June 12, 2020
Is it possible I found my Parker replacement in Jance? Beaumont was great in this. Jance is another author I’ve heard of forever but am very late to the party on.
The story grabbed me right away. The mystery was an easy one to figure out but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. Beaumont had a serious blind spot for Anne, and she played him, but it was okay. You understood both Anne and Beaumont. This is going to be fun, and there’s a ton of books over I think three series to read. Looking forward to all of them.
The story grabbed me right away. The mystery was an easy one to figure out but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. Beaumont had a serious blind spot for Anne, and she played him, but it was okay. You understood both Anne and Beaumont. This is going to be fun, and there’s a ton of books over I think three series to read. Looking forward to all of them.
March 12, 2024
Very enjoyable. Will definitely read next book in series
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September 18, 2011Some names appear on the bestseller lists and every once in a while I decide to give a new author a shot hoping to discover somebody new and fresh. I have no illusions almost inevitably it falls into the guilty pleasure pile at best. But this book stunned me! I was able to finish the book because I was fascinated by the possibility that I might be reading the worst piece fiction ever created. I have no words for the juvenile level of word craft. It hurts to think back and to try and recapture the feeling I would have to recall to describe it. Lets just put one of those nuclear radiation warning symbols on it and steer clear. This thing is toxic. Don't leave it around where a child or a pet might come upon it and be scarred for life. There is no excuse for this book to exist. Anyone who had anything to do with this book should consider shock therapy. Not for treatment but for punishment.
April 10, 2015
This book is ridiculous. A supposedly smart detective marries a woman one week after meeting her despite the fact that there are practically BRIGHT NEON SIGNS pointing to her as the murderer he's looking for. I can hold my disbelief to a certain extent when the story is good but even I have my limits, and the story wasn't very good here. And my God, the sex scenes! I felt genuinely embarrassed for the author if that's what she thinks sex is.
May 8, 2021
Until proven cheesy -- a book you won't want to finish.
J.P Beaumont was a cop on the edge -- the edge of losing consciousness. Too many meals at the fast food place. Too many beers at the neighborhood bar. Too many stories about Seattle landmarks. J.P. never gets tired of talking about how great he is. This is the most boring detective in the history of crime fiction!
Anne was beautiful -- desirable -- at times almost too good to be true. But underneath the furs and the charm and the money, Anne had a secret side. An insane side. A side of mystery and evil and ominous secrets that caused her to careen from demure and sexy one moment to psychotic and belligerent the next. Just like women in real life!
Until proven cheesy -- a sandwich of stale characters and predictable twists.
J.P Beaumont was a cop on the edge -- the edge of losing consciousness. Too many meals at the fast food place. Too many beers at the neighborhood bar. Too many stories about Seattle landmarks. J.P. never gets tired of talking about how great he is. This is the most boring detective in the history of crime fiction!
Anne was beautiful -- desirable -- at times almost too good to be true. But underneath the furs and the charm and the money, Anne had a secret side. An insane side. A side of mystery and evil and ominous secrets that caused her to careen from demure and sexy one moment to psychotic and belligerent the next. Just like women in real life!
Until proven cheesy -- a sandwich of stale characters and predictable twists.
December 2, 2009
Although the narrator is a man, the book is obviously written by a woman, especially the sex scenes. I've read another one of her books that was much better. The book starts out well with the murder of a child and a religious cult but the appearance of the love interest ruins it, I think. The child's murderer appears out of nowhere with little or no preparation.
June 7, 2019
Not sure in what world this story would be believable, but that world is full of idiots.
I love books because they make the unbelievable believable. Wizards, faster than light space travel, dragons, people with a healthy understanding of their and other's feelings; all these and more become real when reading a good book.
But then there's the offenders who kill this illusion. Until Proven Guilty isn't the worst offender, but it doesn't make logical sense which took me out of the story too many times. I love lists, as you well know, so let's enumerate.
1. Articles in the daily newspaper are used to help drive the story, but the articles are very specific to the crime and the non-public figures involved. Way too specific. If you were to read them in a real paper you'd wonder if there wasn't a mistake and someone had just started publishing rumors they heard about their neighbors. The articles would be more at home on my grandmother's facebook page than a large city newspaper.
2. The main character, a police homicide detective, isn't good at his job. He even openly breaks the law to get evidence that can't be used.
3. The most beautiful woman in the world, who's also super rich BTWs, falls madly in love with the prematurely aging, pudgy, poor detective. And our main character detective doesn't find anything odd about this. Not even when she wants to get married one week after meeting. I get love is blind, but this is blind, deaf, and lacking any sense of smell or touch.
4. You know who did all the murdering. It's not a mystery. There's no red herring.
The story takes place in Seattle, so as a Seattle native it was fun to read all the descriptions of early 80's Seattle. Most surprising to me is that there has always been a McDonalds on 3rd Ave and it has always been seedy. It's good to know some things don't change.
Story: 1 star
Character Development: -1 star
Writing/Prose: 2 stars
I love books because they make the unbelievable believable. Wizards, faster than light space travel, dragons, people with a healthy understanding of their and other's feelings; all these and more become real when reading a good book.
But then there's the offenders who kill this illusion. Until Proven Guilty isn't the worst offender, but it doesn't make logical sense which took me out of the story too many times. I love lists, as you well know, so let's enumerate.
1. Articles in the daily newspaper are used to help drive the story, but the articles are very specific to the crime and the non-public figures involved. Way too specific. If you were to read them in a real paper you'd wonder if there wasn't a mistake and someone had just started publishing rumors they heard about their neighbors. The articles would be more at home on my grandmother's facebook page than a large city newspaper.
2. The main character, a police homicide detective, isn't good at his job. He even openly breaks the law to get evidence that can't be used.
3. The most beautiful woman in the world, who's also super rich BTWs, falls madly in love with the prematurely aging, pudgy, poor detective. And our main character detective doesn't find anything odd about this. Not even when she wants to get married one week after meeting. I get love is blind, but this is blind, deaf, and lacking any sense of smell or touch.
4. You know who did all the murdering. It's not a mystery. There's no red herring.
The story takes place in Seattle, so as a Seattle native it was fun to read all the descriptions of early 80's Seattle. Most surprising to me is that there has always been a McDonalds on 3rd Ave and it has always been seedy. It's good to know some things don't change.
Story: 1 star
Character Development: -1 star
Writing/Prose: 2 stars
June 24, 2017
I don't know about this series if this is the first book. Beaumont marries a lady only knowing her for a month while in the middle of a homicide of a child. That is as ridiculous as it sounds! As I was listening to the book, I was hoping for something that would make me overlook some of the romantic scenes in the book. But none prevailed even with the discovery of the the person who murdered the child was revealed and captured. This "mystery" book is heavily laced with romance and I'm not even sure if the "romance" is all that good. I mean, this character has a series of books written after this I wonder if they are better than this starter. The question I have to ask myself is am I willing to invest my precious reading time with another Beaumont book.
February 22, 2016
I've read and enjoyed many of J.A. Jance's series with Johanna Brady. These are located in southern Arizona, a place I'm familiar with as I have family that live in that area. This is my first of Jance's series featuring J.P. Beaumont, a police detective in the Seattle area. Beaumont is a more hard-boiled character, and the writing is much steamier. That's fine with me. I like Jance's ability to weave a good mystery.
July 16, 2022
Whoa. What was that?!?! So the mystery was solid but the romantic subplot read like a lonely 40yo man's dream relationship mixed with a psychological thriller...or something. The situation was so absurd and fantasy-like I double checked to see if the author was a woman or a man. I just can't...nothing about that worked for me.
June 22, 2019
New-to-me author, J.A. Jance, took me by delighted surprise in her book, UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. I didn't see the twist coming. It was an exceptional blind-siding experience. I highly recommend this book.
March 7, 2021
Two-haiku review:
Little girl is killed
Her mother is in a cult
Then there are more deaths
Far too much to say
In seventeen syllables
Great start to series
Little girl is killed
Her mother is in a cult
Then there are more deaths
Far too much to say
In seventeen syllables
Great start to series
May 10, 2021
This novel started as a strong an intriguing cop drama—who killed the little girl. Then a woman, not related to case shows up at the funeral and develops a relationship with the lead cop. Now I’ve always had an issue with relationships that move to fast and not just in fiction. But that aside. The story shifts after a few chapters to the romance a terrible written romance at that. For a smart cop when it comes to a woman, he sure loses his ability to be objective. The story near the end finally shifts back. It felt a bit contrived and too convenient. I kind of like the detective and might try the next one.
February 25, 2023
I had no clues. I stumbled upon an real find. I really enjoyed this book and will surely follow the exploits of J. P. Beaumont. The flow of the story had me hooked and the unveiling ambushed my senses. I was attached to the relationship that was forming in the book. I found all the characters important in their roles and their actions wove a great adventure for me. I look forward to reading more from J. A. Jance.
July 11, 2025
Hmm, the one-week marriage really cheapened this one.
It was definitely a series starter book with a bit of the rockiness that can come with that, but it was still a bit mediocre and messy in the flow of narration.
Still, the mystery itself was worth reading.
3 Stars
It was definitely a series starter book with a bit of the rockiness that can come with that, but it was still a bit mediocre and messy in the flow of narration.
Still, the mystery itself was worth reading.
3 Stars
October 9, 2024
This was written a long time ago so it definitely had a dated feel but it was still enjoyable. I liked the humor and I liked the start of the MC's journey. The wife was a nice distraction. I loved that. So 4 stars.
June 30, 2020
Ok, I'll try the next.
August 19, 2023
I probably won’t finish this book, but I wanted to be sure to give this crap a 1 star rating. Detective Beaumont would be better suited in the Deep South where he can be as racist and misogynistic as he pleases. This book tosses in an odd complaint about EEOC laws and a sharp disdain for journalists. If he were a real person, he would definitely vote for trump. No thank you.
July 9, 2025
First in the series, from the POV of homicide detective in Seattle, Washington.
Missing child from a radical religious community. This is the second book I have read by J.A. Janice as I discovered her through the Facebook Brenda Novak Book club.
Missing child from a radical religious community. This is the second book I have read by J.A. Janice as I discovered her through the Facebook Brenda Novak Book club.
March 29, 2023
I like the J A Jantz books but I gave this one a lesser rating because of the detail she thought necessary in the sex life of the main characters and the overuse of foul language! This wasn’t done in the other books I have already read and I feel that I may give up on the series if it continues. I think there is something to be said for leaving some things to the imagination! I enjoyed the story itself and was happy that there were not too many horrid details connected to the murder of a child.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,009 reviews