Partner in Crime

On the eve of her first show, artist Rochelle Baxter finds herself growing too close to her boyfriend, and decides to break it off. At her apartment, he sits with her and has a beer, and she has ice tea. Later that night she wakes up with a terrible pain, and dies before the paramedics arrive. Her death creates a series of questions for Sheriff Joanna Brady, first, whether it was an accident or murder? She decides to proceed as if it's a homicide, and soon discovers that the story of Baxter's past ends the second she stepped into Bisbee, Arizona. After that, no one can figure out who she was and where she came from. When J.P. Beaumont from the State Attorney General's Office in Washington comes to help with the investigation, he brings even more questions, namely whether Rochelle is a victim of an angry lover, or if someone wants her out of the way before she can testify. Rochelle, it turns out, was in the witness protection program.

What makes this book special is the well-rounded view we get. We get equal amounts of all of her life. For instance, her daughter's favorite dog has died and she has to try and deal with this event which, in the larger world view, is not hugely significant as the death of Baxter. Yet, she needs to treat it with the same amount of attention that she does the murder investigation. She has to wade through a mire of inter-office politics as men who covet her high position watch and wait for her to slip up...the worst of these being her major competitor in the next election, who has enlisted the help of the local gossip columnist. She has to help plan her new house, and fill out mounds of paper work while training a temporary secretary. When Beaumount shows up, he's very charming, despite the fact that she totally freezes him out, making him feel most unwelcome. But he perseveres, not only because this is his first case on his new! job but because he also is worried about the death of Rochelle Baxter and what it means to the Witness Protection Program. If it's an accident or a homicide committed by her boyfriend in anger, fine. If it's not...then who killed her, why, and does this mean that there's a leak in the program? This well-rounded view works well because all of her sub-characters are painstakingly drawn out, and you feel like you actually know them. They're not simply window dressing. They are people that fill the world of this book and make it more intricate and strong.

J.A. Jance has written many books starring J.P. Beaumont, and several others starring Joanna Brady, but never before have these two well loved characters stared together. For someone like me, who has never read this series before, it was a pleasant surprise getting to know these people, but I imagine for Jance's long time fans, this combination will be a wonderful read.

4 out of five trench coats
--Cindy Lynn Speer, GWN Book Reviewer