Fire And Ice

J.P. Beaumont #19

by J.A. Jance

“In the gripping Fire and Ice , Jance showcases both Beaumont and Brady….The prolific Jance…is in fine form.”— Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel New York Times bestseller J.A. Jance reunites two of her most popular series characters—Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady and Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont—in Fire and Ice, as the separate investigations into grisly homicides in two different states shockingly intertwine. As Jance proved in her previous Beau/Brady pairing, Partner in Crime , when these two join forces, fireworks happen. Fire and Ice is not to be missed.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Audiobook, Thriller

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 21, 2009

About the author

Judith 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

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book the law enforcement officials in J.A. Jance's two mystery series, Arizona Sheriff Joanna Brady.....



…...and Seattle homicide investigator J.P. Beaumont (Beau), work together (via phone) to solve some baffling crimes.


The book (J.P. Beaumont #19/Joanna Brady #14) can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.

*****

As the story opens six dead women have been found in the Seattle area. Each body is wrapped in a tarp and burned up, and all but one has no teeth and no identification.



Dental records identify the last body as Marina Aquirre, a woman who was reported missing by her fiancé several months before. However Marina was using a false name and is really Marcella Andramade, a woman who has connections to Arizona.

So Beau calls Joanna to ask for assistance. This is a bit awkward because when Beau and Joanna met on a previous case sparks flew event though this was inappropriate. However both Joanna and Beau quickly moved past this and each is now happily married - so no real problem there.

In addition to assisting with the Seattle homicide investigation Joanna and her deputies also have two local cases: the brutal murder of an employee at an ATV park and a criminally neglectful nursing home for Alzheimer's patients.



While working these cases Joanna is also "best man" at her former deputy's wedding - which involves partying, dressing up, and attending the nuptials.



These activities - along with Joanna's home life with her husband, teenage daughter, and new toddler - helps round out her character.

Beau, who inherited wealth, is contentedly working with his new wife (who is also his detective partner), driving expensive cars, and living well.



So not much angst involving either Beau or Joanna in this story.

The ATV park murder in Arizona and the Seattle homicides kind of braid together and even come to involve the family of Joanna's deputy, Jaime Carbajal. Eventually, there's a rather dramatic resolution to some of the homicide cases and steps are taken to deal with the owners of the feckless nursing home. The problem is that the reasons/outcomes for some of the criminal activity is murky (to me, at least) and I was unsatisfied at the end of the book.



Though it's pleasant to visit with familiar, well-liked characters like Joanna and Beau this is a mystery novel and on that score it falls short. Just an okay book.

You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/

[RM(Alwaysdaddygirl) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is beyond terrible. Fire and Ice is the fourteenth book in J.A. Jance's J.P. Beaumont series. This book is a crossover and features Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady from Jance's Joanna Brady series. Normally this would be the time for me to give a short synopsis of the story. However, there is no point in explaining this book because of its ending. It ends with a huge cliffhanger. In the case of one major crime, readers are told that the FBI will handle the sentencing. Regardless, there are still a few questions about this one crime. There are also other events that never get resolved. Who reads a mystery/suspense novel without wanting to know how the crime happened and precisely why? This is why I give this book 1 out of 5 stars.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of the Joanna Brady series for many years. I lived in AZ for 11 years so that may contribute to my enjoyment. I am not familiar with J P Beaumont for some reason. I liked how the two stories eventually came together and brought these two together again. One of the things I like about the series is that it shows law enforcement having personal lives and their struggle to be there for family and friends when duty so often calls them away. And boy howdy (I have now heard that expression in 3 separate audio books by different authors and it always makes me smile) did I dislike their new ME!! He is despicable.

[judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

J.A.Jance is one of my all-time favorite mystery writers. I'd be hard pressed to choose between her two great series--J.P. Beaumont(Seattle) and Sheriff Joanna Brady (Cochise County, AZ). I love them both. Sadly, this novel proves that I don't love them together--at least the way Jance has chosen to do it. The action jumps from Joanna in AZ to Beau in WA every few paragraphs. Beau, who suddenly seems old and creaky (boo), still tells his tale first person. Mix that with Joanna(who,thankfully,is still in her prime)and schizophrenia is the result. The switches in geography, personnel and style distracted me so much that I couldn't really appreciate the bifurcated plot. For whatever reason, Joanna's side of the story felt real but Beau's seemed to be forced. If I were Jance and had two equally successful series with lead characters I adore, I probably would do exactly what she did--put them together. I hope this book was a one off but if she does it again, I urge her to put the two of them together in the same place so it works at one cohesive story.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

JP is working on a case of 6 murdered women, at the same time Sheriff Joanna Brady is looking into a lost elderly woman, a horrible nursing home and a caregiver who was ran over and left for the dead. Even though the cases were a thousand miles apart some of them overlap and JP and Joanna find themselves working together. Jp’s relationship with Mel is ongoing. A long ago attraction betweenJP and Joanna makes them uncomfortable.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Fire and Ice” by Jance was not my favorite mystery or detective story. The issue of elder abuse and the lack of oversight in nursing facilities, particularly those who care for Alzheimer's and dementia patients being one central theme was a good start and the idea of identification by dental record being used is a common practice. However, in this book, J.P. Beaumont’s investigation of the ongoing murders revolving around the Mexican Cervantes Cartel did not ring true and did not hold together for me. There were to many loose ends and the story was a bit jumbled to follow the story lines. The cross over of jurisdictional lines between local police and the FBI is a situation often described in mysteries but there was not complete development or clarification of this conflict. It may be that there were too many stories within the story and non completely developed. “Fire and Ice” was an enjoyable book and at places well done, but overall it was an average read.

[Elizabeth Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a lot going on in this book since it was a mash-up of the J.P. Beaumont series and the Joanna Brady series. With perspective changing often, you have to pay attention.
I have enjoyed both of these series, but the thing that has bothered me in this book and the previous mash-up book, Partner in Crime, was the attraction between Beau and Joanna. At the time it was mentioned in Partner in Crime, Joanna was newly and happily married. For such a strong female character, to have and admit to an attraction to another person at that point in her life made me lose a bit of respect for her and I didn't see why the author felt the need to add that in. To make matters worse it was brought up again in this book and dismissed by both characters, but I didn't think it added anything to the story but discomfort.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This entry in the Joanna Brady series felt like filler, comfy filler but filler all the same. It is the second crossover book with J.A. Jance's J.P. Beaumont series which I haven't read. There were no steps forward in the Joanna Brady series, I would suspect it's the same for the Beaumont series. The mysteries were interesting but open-ended with little resolution. The book was a fine way to pass some time on a wintry walk and will disappear from my memory bank fairly quickly.

[Dlora · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like J.A. Jance's novels, which are usually police procedurals--more good detective work than action and suspense--and complex family relationships. In this novel, she combines her two series. J.P. Beaumont is a detective in Seattle and, with his detective wife, is trying to solve a series of homicides of women wrapped in tarps, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. Sheriff Joanna Brady of Cochise County, Arizona, is working two cases: an elderly caretaker of an ATV park has been repeatedly run over and left to die and a patient of an Alzheimer's clinic has wandered off revealing the appalling care in the facility. As is only expected, our two heroes' investigations eventually connect. In the book, each chapter switches from one location to the other. It created some elements of suspense by leaving us hanging, but mostly it kind of annoyed me. I was also a bit annoyed that the women in the book--Sheriff Brady and J.P.'s wife--seemed driven and hard, particularly in contrast with their supportive and accommodating husbands. The women seemed a little too masculine and the men a little too feminine. But perhaps women in police work have to create a certain hardness. Despite these drawbacks, I tend to like Jance's complex characters and good people, so although this was not my favorite book in her two series, it was worth reading.

[Nancy Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another meeting of Joanna Brady and J.P. Beaumont. I really like the way she blended the stories in this one, with Joanna in AZ and Beau in WA, working on related cases but not aware of that for quite awhile. Instead of breaking the story into separate chapters, there were sections in each chapter devoted to each location, really making it all come together much better. And when they finally meet face to face near the end, their past comes between them for only a moment. A great story!

I also love the way she adopts different causes to emphasize in her books. In this one, she really brings home the horrors of "care" homes for Alzheimer patients, as well as one of her common themes of the dangers which threaten illegal immigrants. Great author!

[Deborah Schultz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a terrible book, nor is it fantastic. I did lose track of who was who a few times, but I doubt anyone who read the series would have. I think this functioned well as a stand alone novel. I was disappointed at the ending as not enough loose ends were tied up. I did not really get into the Beaumont character, with the rich cop flying private planes for vacation. I liked the Brady character better with the story of her being a second generation sheriff, and female. I doubt I'll read the series, but if I do, that will be the one.

#twobooksthatsharethesametitle2

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fire and Ice was a great read! It took me a bit with all the different parts, but in the end i enjoyed it..
This was my first book ive read by J.A. Jance, and i plan to read more!

[Josephine Briggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and interesting, never boring so five. Crime Chasers. I do enjoy reading J.A. Jance's mystery books. This book involves Detective Beaumont and Sheriff Amanda Brady. Set in the Washington State area and Bisbee, Arizona countryside. Both are solving crimes in their own areas, looking for criminals. This book is filled with quirky characters, good and bad, but different and interesting. The book goes into bad nursing homes, people dying from neglect, starvation, dirty, messy places that need to be closed down. Sheriff Brady is determined to make this happen. She is a feisty, little redhead, a mom with a teenage daughter and a year old son.

Detective Beaumont is a very wealthy man. His second wife was very wealthy. She was killed, only about a day from her marriage and left her money to Beaumont. Beaumont married his third wife, another detective. he drives a mercedes, lives in a beautiful apartment in Seattle. He keeps on being a cop, he won't quit.

this book is in chapters, both Beau and Amanda are in the same chapter, one protagonist breaking into the other space. Beau tells his story in first person, Amanda in third.

Beau is after who is killing prostitutes. Some young women are trying to get away from that lifestyle. Pimps won't allow them. There are those trying to help them. A detective is looking for his missing sister, a man looking for the woman he loves.

The book goes into the cartels and illegals. The book is a fun read but gets into serious subjects.

[Carlton Phelps · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say, I love to read Ms. Jance's books. And Fire and Ice is no different.
She weaves a mystery that stretches from AZ to Washington State.
Dead bodies of women are showing up around Beaumont's Washinton State area and a seemly unrelated murder in AZ, Sheriff Brady's town. As the story evolves it is soon linked together to make for one long ride.
As always the story is a fun ride trying to figure out, who done it.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of the Joanna Brady/J.P. Beaumont crossovers.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first exposure to JA Jance - and it introduced me to two of her characters. I found myself delighting in the tiny details and geographical accuracy of her Seattle-and-environs setting, and marveling at her ability to not only switch voice but the literal point of view she was writing in as she shifted between Beaumont and Brady's stories, and slowly brought them together.

Beaumont's of the Washington State Attorney General's Special Homicide Investigation Team (go ahead, figure out the acronym and then grin) has taken over a case spanning several counties: women are being killed, their teeth removed from their bodies, and the bodies rolled in tarps, dumped, and burned. But this latest body might be the break they need: the teeth haven't been removed. Will this be the lead Beaumont and his team need to track down the killers?

In Arizona, Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady has her own headaches. There's a homicide at an out-of-the-way ATV park, her new medical examiner is impossible to work with, a local nursing home might be neglecting their patients to death, and she's the best man in a wedding at the end of the week. The last thing she needs is to lose one of her deputies to a death in the family, leaving her shorthanded and attempting to placate her family, a surprise intervention by the feds, and her colleagues.


The book is by no means perfect - especially in Brady's half of the story, which raises more questions than it answers. (By no means do all of the problems introduced in Brady's life end up anywhere near resolved.) But even with this awkwardness and lack of revolution, the book was engaging and entertaining, which in the end is all I ask for from the mystery novels I read.

That said, would I read another Joanna Brady book? Maybe, maybe not. But I'll definitely look for more Beaumont novels - the combination of the setting and character prove irresistible!

[MaryCatherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say? Another J. P. Beaumont mystery--this time, including Joanna Brady, Jance's other detective in Arizona. Actually, this one was pretty good, going back and forth between Washington State and Arizona, with the usual complement of fascinating suspects and other characters. I listened to the audio book version. Apparently, the long-time narrator who has come to be the voice of J. P. Beaumont is no longer available, but the replacement for this one was just not up to the task. He has a light tenor voice that is great for the female voices and he has wonderful skills, but he actually says "rawther!" He doesn't even try to do an old Ballard Scandinavian lilt, so most of Beaumont's former partners sound like Yankees. I notice that he was replaced by a different narrator for future books. I'm hoping for better things. But I won't hold the narrator's deficiencies against the author, so I'll give this one four stars for another engaging story in this series.

[Jennifer Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Joanna Brady series but haven't read any of the J.P. Beaumont series (except the crossovers). I don't usually mind the crossovers, but this one took a long time for them to connect. There was so much going on that I got lost at one part. I did enjoy the way it was all figured out and didn't realize who the dead girl was going to end up being. Still a good story and I already have the next one waiting for me!!

[Darla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I missed this one earlier in the series. Still enjoyed catching it out of sequence. Having the case worked from Arizona and Washington simultaneously gave the reader the opportunity to make some connections that law enforcement had not made as they had not yet compared notes. Love Sheriff Joanna Brady and her team!

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stop

This was by far the worst of what was a great series of stories. The book was boring and difficult to follow. Mixing this series with another did not sell me at all to start reading your other books. Please stop and don't cross over again. Leave the two story lines separate. I hope that the rest of the Brady books get back to what they used to be.

[Russ · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the author's crossover books. It takes a while for the two stories to dovetail, but when they do, it makes for fascinating reading.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two-haiku review:

Washington bodies
Relate to Arizona
Beaumont and Brady

Crossover story
Two series go back and forth
Like two novellas

[Megargee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fire and Ice was more like Warm Embers and Slush. I have read all the Brady and Beau novels in order up to this crossover and was not greatly impressed by this effort. While I enjoyed revisiting the principal characters, the disparate plots were not all that well realized. Especially annoying was how Jance alternated story lines between Arizona (Brady) and Washington State (Beau) in order to create mini-cliffhangers at the end of each chapter as the venue and story line switched.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, and think I may have only read one book prior by J.A. Jance. However there were moments when I stumbled as the POVs alternated between Joanna Brady's investigation and team and that of Beaumont. By the middle if left like way too many characters to keep straight. And as is predictable from the sequence in these series, the mysteries of both Brady and Beaumont were connected ended with tied with a big red bow.

[Bonnie Dieffenbacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a blend of this author's 2 characters.....Sheriff Joanna Brady and JP Beaumont, As always, this author has written a great book.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story rapidly flips between Washington and Arizona in each chapter. I wish the author would have confined each chapter to just one locale.
I love both of Jance’s series (Beaumont and Brady) .. but this one didn’t work for me as well .. gave this reader whiplash and left me a bit scattered as to plot.
AND the end was a bit of a cliffhanger.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another adroit handling of connecting two separate series by the author.

[Mhd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading in sequence is not strictly important with these. This one is very good but it takes a while for the two stories to merge into one and I had a little trouble keeping the points of view straight. Perhaps not a real page-turner but certainly an eager-to-get-back-to-it!! Likeable protagonists; good people trying to do good things: nice quality for fiction in these times. I will read on in both series.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fire and Ice – 5 Paws
J. A. Jance
William Morrow, 2009, 338 Pages
ISBN No. 978-0-06-123822-9


Fans of J. A. Jance will be thrilled with this new book where J. P. Beaumont and Joanna Brady are once again thrown together. The individual cases are very far apart in both distance and the type of case.

Beaumont is at home in Seattle happy in his life with Melissa Soames, his wife and sometimes partner, in the Special Homicide Investigation Team a/k/a S.H.I.T. The department is working on a series of murders where young women have been wrapped in tarps, doused in gasoline and set on fire. The investigators believe that the women may have been prostitutes. The fact that the bodies have been burned and the teeth have been pulled makes it very difficult to identify the victims. The last body was disposed of in a hurry and this one still has her teeth. This is the first real lead in the crimes.

Sheriff Johanna Brady is working a different type of murder case in Cochise County, Arizona. The caretaker at an ATV park called Action Trail Adventures had been run over and left to die in the desert. Lester Attwood, the victim, had some problems in his past but his sister felt that he put his problems behind him since becoming caretaker at the ATV Park. Sheriff Brady has a lot on her plate right now with a budget that will not give an inch and a new Medical Examiner. Brady also has to deal with a nursing home scandal that is heartbreaking.

The story shifts back and forth between the murder investigation Beaumont is handling in Washington and Brady’s problems in Arizona. When Beaumont finds a connection between his latest victim and an officer in Brady’s Cochise County Sheriff’s department the story really heats up. Fire and Ice is a must read for J. A. Jance’s fans. It is not necessary to have read other Beaumont and Brady novels to enjoy this book.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fire And Ice: A Beaumont And Brady Novel by J.A. Jance

This is the second Beau and Brady novel and it went well, but I thought the two would get together sooner than they did in this book. Beau is on a case in the Seattle area that surrounds a missing woman from Bisbee, that has been found murdered in a dense forested area by Cle Elum. The one real break in the case, was that the murderer was afraid of pulling teeth, as the other 5 women were found without any teeth. Because this dead woman was from Bisbee, Joanna is brought in on the case, also because she was related to one of Joanna's homicide detectives. Since Joanna is working on a suscpicious hit and run accident in an out-of-the way ATV Recreation spot, she and her department are thinking the two cases are connected. Then, Joanna gets involved in a hotly contested abuse case at an Alzheimers Home that causes a patient to go missing and a mysterious death to occur. Joanna is certain a couple bodies will be needed to be exhumed to solve this case. I enjoy the humor and quirkiness of the townsfolk in Bisbee that I've come to think of as family, but Joanna's new ME I can sure do without as does the rest of the Sheriff's Department. This is the first book I've read, I believe, where the conversation switches from third person to first person, which can tend to get confusing, but on a whole, I would recommend reading Jance's highly entertaining suspense novels, esp Joanna's and Ali's.

Forever Friends Rating 4 Stars by Teri
Until Next Time, See You Around The Book Nook.

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date: July 2009
ISBN-13: 9780061239229
352pp
Series: Joanna Brady Series, #14
Available in eBook$9.99

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