BEAU'S BACK IN THE GAME, WITH HIS HEART ON THE LINE

Life has shifted for J. P. Beaumont. After a tragic accident that devastated—and ultimately disbanded—his Special Homicide Investigation Team, he accepts that he has left homicide detection behind at this point, but he has a lot of unanticipated free time on his hands. He's keeping busy with renovations on the new house that he and his wife, Mel Soames, the newly appointed chief of police in Bellingham, Washington, have bought. But new fixtures and paint palettes can occupy only so much of Beau's daily life, and Mel is encouraging him to return to where he is needed: investigating crimes.

In the meantime, she is struggling to gain control of her new situation, cast into a department where some are welcoming—and some are not. It's been a few months, and the tension in the police department is rising, but Beau realizes Mel has to tackle things in her own way, so he refrains from advising. But when Beau shows up one afternoon to survey the construction at their new house and finds Mel's car there but no sign of her, his investigative instincts kick in. Suddenly he's back in the game—except this time, his heart is on the line as well as his professional dignity.

When I set out to write a combo Beaumont/Walker book, I was eager to catch up with both sets of characters and to find out what had been going on in their lives. The problem is, I soon learned that Beau does not play well with others. No matter what I wanted, he kept waltzing into the story and taking over. He did not want to share. At all.

In order to get J.P. back under control, I took a big part of his role in the book and put it in a separate novella, Stand Down. It’s an important part of Beau’s story because it marks a big change for him. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Special Homicide Investigation Team has been disbanded. After spending most of his adult life as a homicide cop, J.P. Beaumont is suddenly and unhappily at loose ends.

Stand Down is available both in original paperback and e-book formats and will also be printed in the paperback version of Dance of the Bones. Since this part of the story precedes the action in DOTB, chronological readers may want to read the novella first.

JAJ