Good story but the excessive description & fluff was offputting. ( )

JP Beaumont retired from the Special Homicide Investigation Team to become a homebody in Bellingham, WA., and Mel Soames, his wife and former SHIT team partner, became Bellingham Chief of Police. The books in the JP Beaumont series have been a disappointment since that development. Still, I continued with the series, hoping Jance (and Beaumont) would regain their footing. Nothing to Lose. is a decided improvement, holding out hope the long-time favorite series still has some life. While not yet at the level of the series’ earlier books, this story held my interest.

Beaumont left the Seattle Police Department when Sue Donaldson, his partner in the Seattle PD, was murdered by her husband. Beaumont saves her sons, Jared and Chris, by telling Jared to take Chris and run to the neighbors for help, but he continues to blame himself for failing to save Sue. Almost twenty years later, Jared arrives unannounced and asks Beaumont to help find Chris, who disappeared a decade ago. Beaumont’s lingering self-blame and discontent with his role as house husband leads him to agree, and he flies to Anchorage to begin a missing person investigation.

Within a day, Beaumont determines that Chris was most likely murdered and moves on to Homer, Alaska, where Chris had been living with his grandparents. This classic step-by-step police procedural is in the satisfying mold of former JP Beaumont mysteries. Fleshed out with colorful secondary characters, such as Harriet (Harry) Raines and Twinkle Winklebaum, the story moves briskly. Numerous fortuitous discoveries and the exceptional help provided by Todd Hatcher, a former colleague in the Seattle PD homicide division, stretch credibility a little. Still, they move the plot forward at a brisk pace because Beaumont is never at a stuck point. Beaumont’s lack of assertiveness, particularly when confronted with Twinkle’s unreasonable demands, is a little off-putting, but not so much as to lessen my reading enjoyment.

Nothing to Lose is a welcomed return to the interesting police procedural familiar to long-time fans of the J.P. Beaumont series and a reasonable introduction to those murder mystery fans unfamiliar with the series. ( )

The missing son of Beaumont’s murdered partner sends him on a cold case quest. Jared, the brother of the missing man, seeks Beau’s help to find his brother. The clues take Beau into the wilds of Alaska, where he meets a wily driver who actually helps him with the case. This quite well written suspense novel is a page turner. The setting is well described, and the colorful characters are well developed. I was so impressed with this mystery that I intend to read the series from the beginning. ( )

I have loved this series for decades but this was hard to get into mostly because I hate it when characters "age", but that's just my problem, not the author's. The book is a great read! ( )

I have followed Beaumont through his career, marriage, emotions ranging from joy and happiness to near despair, but it had still been so long since I had picked up another book and the series and revisited what was one of my favorite characters. No excuse. I was glad to see that J.P is still one of my favorite characters and the books are still interesting, and believable. JP has aged while I was away, and his career has changed. He is retired, but still takes an occasional case. This one was personal, and he couldn't have said "no" if he had been on his death bed. The story is about love, murder, family, evil, and the good and the bad of human nature. The youngest son of J.P.'s long ago, murdered partner, has gone missing, and the oldest son who J.P. hasn't seen for 20 years, asks for his help to find his brother. J.P. is determined that he owes it to Sue's memory and her son to find Christopher Danielson, before the boy's grandmother, passes away. The clues lead him to Alaska where J.P. meets some quirky characters, some homicidal characters, and characters that turn out to be helpful to his task. J.P is still holding it together and I promised him I wouldn't wait 5 years again to visit with him. ( )