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Author J.A. Jance booklist (click here)

Book Review By Billy Pashaie
Failure to Appear by J.A. Jance

This is the eleventh book in the J.P. Beaumont homicide detective series. Beau learns that his runaway 18-year-old daughter is living on what seems to be a commune in Ashland, Oregon, and that she's about to get married to an actor in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He promptly heads down to Ashland where after a short while an old unsavory acquaintance of his is found murdered. Next a child pornography tape shows up. The child in the tape happens to be Tanya, the festival's biggest star: the woman playing Juliet (as in Romeo and Juliet). Soon after another murder takes place, and all signs seem to point to Tanya. Beau and his attorney friend believe Tanya to be innocent, but discrepancies in her story begin to show up, making Beau change his mind. By the story's end we find that Tanya had only been a pawn and not the murderer, and that the murderer was a scorned ex-wife.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - very upbeat
How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story:
Misc. Murder Plotlets - local police w/ IQ of a houseplant
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 70%
Murder of certain profession?
Kind of investigator
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
descript. of violence and chases - 10 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 %
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 40's-50's
Ethnicity/Race

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status:
Eccentric: Yes
Motive of antagonist - revenge
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Pacific NW
City? Yes
Small town? Yes
Small town people: - nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Unusual forms of death - hanging - perforation--swords/knives - exploded into bits
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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