J.P. BEAUMONT FINDS HIMSELF DRAWN INTO A CHILLING INVESTIGATION WHERE THE TRUTH IS MORE TERRIFYING THAN ANYONE IMAGINE

Despite her name, Twinkle Winkleman is as tough as nails. A skilled mechanic and certified spitfire, she has a nose for trouble. So when a young woman from Anchorage disappears after heading to Seattle for an internship that seems too good to be true, Twinkle is convinced that something dangerous is happening. But both the Anchorage and Seattle authorities dismiss her out of hand.

With nowhere else to turn, Twinkle calls on an old friend: private investigator and former homicide cop J. P. Beaumont. While Twinkle and Beau investigate the disappearances, they stumble upon a plot more nefarious—and widespread—than they could have imagined.

With the clock ticking and multiple lives at stake, Beau and Twinkle must go above and beyond to stop the killings—and then bring the girls home before it is too late.

A young college co-ed, Gina Holt, from Alaska heads to Seattle to participate in a much sought-after summer internship. Once her plane lands, she lets her grandmother/guardian know that she’s on the ground. After that she goes completely dark, and no police agencies are the least bit interested in her disappearance. Enter Twinkle Winkleman—an accidental character who showed up in Den of Iniquity. She’s a professional mechanic/shuttle driver from Anchorage who was supposed to be in the book for only one day. She refused to go away and ended up staying for the whole book. In this case, Gina’s grandfather is one of Twink’s long-time customers. When the cops aren’t interested in looking for Gina, Twink turns to her only acquaintance is Washington state—J. P. Beaumont.

Beau is busy celebrating his wife, Mel’s, retirement from being chief of police in Bellingham when Twink runs up the flag and asks for help. After a retirement party that clearly illustrates Beau’s somewhat dicey family situation, he, Twink, and Mel, set off on a cross-country chase of tracking down Gina’s abductor. In the process, they learn that Gina isn’t the only bright young co-ed who has been snatched away. The questions are, where have they been taken, why, and is it possible to save them from a fate that might, in many ways, be worse than death?

By the way. This happens to be Beaumont # 27. When I was writing Beaumont #1, Until Proven Guilty, in 1983, I thought I was writing a stand-alone, book. No one was more surprised than I was, when the book was purchased as the first book in a series. Over the years, several times I’ve mentioned that I could never be Sue Grafton because I’d never be able to write 26 books about the same character. It turns out I was wrong about that.

JAJ