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A review by brettt
Betrayal of Trust by J.A. Jance
1.0
"First novel syndrome" is a catch-all phrase that describes some of the rougher edges first-time novelists may display in their work. Even though a publisher thought the book worthy of purchase and edited the manuscript, there are still ways in which first-time novelists are finding their voices. They may also be prone to citing back-story on characters, especially in a potential series, using expository passages to flesh out the characters since readers as yet have no history with them.
J.A. Jance's Betrayal of Trust has a lot of those first-novel tendencies, but the problem is that it's her 45th novel, not her first. Trust has husband-and-wife Washington state homicide investigators J.P. Beaumont and Mel Soames dig into how the governor's grandson wound up with a video on his cell phone that may show a young woman being strangled. They have to navigate political minefields as well as the usual problems that may crop up in a police investigation. Beaumont also has to decide what he will do about connecting with his father's family, whom he does not know since his father died before his birth but who have recently contacted him.
I don't know if the Trust manuscript needed editing, a rewrite or a complete and total do-over. Beaumont and Soames get much of their info about the case on concurrent cell phone calls to their respective numbers and deal with not one but two unpleasant medical examiners in different situations for no reason that the novel makes clear. Trust is a loooooooooong string of cliches, both in terms of writing and storytelling set pieces, woven into a prissy sermon about evil rich kids that almost never chooses to show when it can tell instead.
Original available here.
J.A. Jance's Betrayal of Trust has a lot of those first-novel tendencies, but the problem is that it's her 45th novel, not her first. Trust has husband-and-wife Washington state homicide investigators J.P. Beaumont and Mel Soames dig into how the governor's grandson wound up with a video on his cell phone that may show a young woman being strangled. They have to navigate political minefields as well as the usual problems that may crop up in a police investigation. Beaumont also has to decide what he will do about connecting with his father's family, whom he does not know since his father died before his birth but who have recently contacted him.
I don't know if the Trust manuscript needed editing, a rewrite or a complete and total do-over. Beaumont and Soames get much of their info about the case on concurrent cell phone calls to their respective numbers and deal with not one but two unpleasant medical examiners in different situations for no reason that the novel makes clear. Trust is a loooooooooong string of cliches, both in terms of writing and storytelling set pieces, woven into a prissy sermon about evil rich kids that almost never chooses to show when it can tell instead.
Original available here.