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Stand Down (J.P. Beaumont, #21.5)
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March 2016: Mystery Thriller > Stand Down by J.A. Jance - 3 stars

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message 1: by annapi (last edited Mar 23, 2016 11:16AM) (new) - rated it 3 stars

annapi | 5517 comments Normally I don't mind reading things out of order, but in this case it was an annoyance to read this life-changing event in J.P. Beaumont's life before I'd read the 2 previous full-length novels that preceded this.

I wish Jance had turned this into a full-lengther too. It seems too dramatic and traumatic an episode in Beau's life to be relegated to a novella. I had always hated the corny S.H.I.T. acronym for their Special Homicide Investigation Team, knowing that a name like that would never fly in real life, and I had complained about it in reviews before, hoping it would get changed. Well, I never expected the change to be this drastic.

*****SPOILERS*****





To kill off Ross Connors and totally disband S.H.I.T? Wow.

Then to get Mel kidnapped by the man whose job she was taking over, that was just cheesy. As a motive it sucked. The drama with Beau coming to her rescue, wrapping things up so quickly in a neat little bow, more of the same cheesy sucky corn, but that I could grudgingly put up with.


*****END SPOILERS*****





So overall, though I liked the dramatic turn of events in Beau's life, I hated the cheesy excuse for a "mystery" and "thriller" that was thrown into this novella. Jance can do better, I don't know why she felt she had to rush to put out a novella when a full-length novel would have served this story so much better. I'll give this 3 stars.


message 2: by Anita (new)

Anita Pomerantz | 9417 comments Lol, okay well maybe my comment on your other Jance installment was written too soon. Despite the three star rating, it doesn't sound like you enjoyed this much. Cheesy is not a word I like to associate with my reading.


annapi | 5517 comments She usually writes better than this - and the writing itself was ok, the emotion in the trauma was done well, I just did not like the plot at all. Feels like it was thrown together under duress.


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