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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780380716548
ISBN number: 0380716542
Label: Avon
Manufacturer: Avon
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: January 01, 2002
Publishing house: Avon
Release Date: January 08, 2002
Sale Popularity Level: 170851
Studio: Avon
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Product Description:
The Statfire Breeze steams its way north toward the Gulf of Alaska, buffeted by crisp sea winds blowing down from the Arctic. Those on board are seeking peace, relaxation, adventure, escape. But there is no escape here in this place of unspoiled natural majesty. Because terror strolls the decks even in the brilliant light of day... and death is a conspicuous, unwelcome passenger. And a former Seattle policeman -- a damaged Homicide Detective who has come to heal from fresh, stinging wounds -- will find that the grim ghosts pursuing him were not left behind ... as a pleasure cruise gone horribly wrong carries him inexorably into lethal, ever-darkening waters.
Amazon.com Review:
After 20 years in the Seattle Police Department, J.P. Beaumont has been put out to pasture. The hero of 14 J.A. Jance crime novels has called it quits after the murder of his partner. But if Beau is out to pasture, what is he doing out at sea? Beau is on the Starfire Breeze, an Alaskan cruise ship, 'for one reason and one reason only: to serve as my newlywed grandmother's chaperon.'
He's also getting mistaken for a gold-digging gigolo by a band of middle-aged divorcées, led by one Margaret Featherman, who carries an anything-but- featherlight grudge against her ex-husband, successful neurosurgeon Harrison Featherman. Is it just a coincidence (as both claim) that Margaret and Harrison are on the same cruise ship? Or that Margaret is doing her best to seduce one of her husband's patients, who in turn has a crush on the good doctor's daughter?
But the biggest potential coincidence of all is a horrific one, when Margaret is pushed overboard into the icy Alaskan waters. The only witness to the murder is an Alzheimer's victim. But when Beau starts poking around (after mistaken identity issue number two, in which the captain conveniently assumes he's an FBI agent), he discovers that Harrison was himself the target of a conservative medical ethics group with a deadly agenda. As the ship moves slowly amidst the icebergs, Beau finds out that there's a lot hidden under these particular waters.
When Jance concentrates on the mechanics of her story, this Beaumont novel is perfectly entertaining. But when she strives for sentiment (or humor), her style tends toward an aw-shucks ham-handedness. Here's Beau talking about his partner, killed by an abusive ex-husband: 'Her sons are orphans, and no amount of psychobabble from Dr. Majors is going to change that. No amount of talking it over and 'getting it out of my system' will alter the fact that Sue won't be there to see her boys graduate from high school or college. She'll never be the mother of the groom at a wedding or have the chance to cradle a newborn grandchild in her arms.' If Beau is thinking about coming out of retirement, one hopes he'll stick to the basics. --Kelly Flynn
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Rated by buyers 
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BIRDS OF PREY by J.A. Jance was my introduction to J.P. Beaumont. Mystery fiction can not contain more delightful characters than Lars and Beverly, who J.P. chaperons on their honeymoon to Alaska. Beau is retired and looking for peace and tranquility.
A death at sea and a video rob him of his desires, but the reader gains a new look into the heart of a favorite detective who just can't stay away from murder even on vacation.
Nash Black, HAINTS and WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESSHaintsWriting as a Small Business
Rated by buyers 
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This really wasn't my most favorite books by Jance.
JP Beaumont, retired detective, or so he thinks, is on an Alaskan cruise ship, The Starfire Breeze. He went also for the purpose of watching over his elder grandparents, Lars and Beverly Piedmont.
When Margaret Featherman is pushed overboard by an anonymous killer on the ship, the troubles begin. JP tries to unravel what has happened, and in the subsequent few days after another death occurs with an Alzheimer's patient, Mike Conyers. These two events are seemingly unrelated, as Lucy Conyers was tired of caring for her ailing husband, and JP suspects she pushed him off the train they were on to put her husband out of his misery as well as herself.
JP tries to solve the mystery, while calling in his two detective friends from the FBI to help. Margaret Featherman reappears again, but soon as she does, more danger is lurking around the corner when she is found not to have drowned at all, but is very much alive.
I find the climax, (a very weak one), disappointing in the end. It was boring at the beginning, got a bit better in the middle when Naomi, another suspect comes into the picture and whom JP falls in love with, actually, but then the plot just dies from there and is not exciting at all. I've read other books that were better.
Rated by buyers 
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Boring!! I was disappointed. In fact, I disliked it so much, I only finished about 3/4 of the book. That is very uncommon for me as I alway push through as I want to give the author a chance to turn it around. I just could not do it with this book.
Rated by buyers -
I've read this book a couple times and it really isn't Jance's best. Actually it doesn't even come close. Beaumont, the main character is still present but that's where the similarities to a lot of the other books really end. I do have to recognize the author's talent in capturing a cruise along the inside passage from Seattle to Alaska. Jance did a great job of portraying the sites and sounds of the cruise as well as some of the little cities along the trip. Overall though it was not enough to make up for the struggling storyline that this novel provides. As a long time fan of Beau and Jance I know I will probably read this book again, just probably not in the near future.
Rated by buyers -
If you are an avid Jance fan and have come to like and expect fast-paced action and lots of excitement from the "Beaumont" books, don't buy this one. I usually can't quit reading a Beaumont book. I've stayed up well past my bedtime on many, many, many occasions because I just couldn't put the book down. I will usually spend hours reading the whole book in one setting. But this book.....well, it just doesn't cut it. I've started and stopped it on several occasions to read something else and only came back to it when I needed "filler" reading. For one thing, several characters have undergone major personality changes. Beverly, who was previously sort of a mousy, quiet, obedient character has suddenly become fiesty and mouthy and full of independence. And I scarcely recognized Lars. And the plot is too contrived and the whole Kiksadi, Quicksady, Quixote thing is really stupid. If this is the very first Beaumont book you've read, please read some of the older books. You will enjoy them. But don't read this one.
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