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The members of Faith Tabernacle are not allowed to talk to anyone who is not a member and not a true believer. Even when five year old Angela Barstogi, the daughter of one of the members, is found murdered with evidence of previous child abuse, the group's leader, Pastor Michael Brodie, still will not allow his following to speak to the detectives. It isn't until J. P. Beaumont and his partner, Ron Peters, threaten to arrest Brodie does Angela's mother, Suzanne and the other members agree to answer some questions. J. P. Beaumont, Beau to his friends, has been a homicide detective for fifteen years and has seen it all, but the murder of a child still upsets him. He's reminded of his own two children now living with his ex wife, Karen, and her new husband. When Karen left him for another man, Beau was sure that she would come back to him. Karen never did, so Beau lived his life from day to day, and then this murder happened and it was destined to change his life. Ron Peters is Beau's newest partner who he has his own set of baggage dealing with his ex wife and his children. This case has an added importance to him because it touches a little too close to home. When Beau attends little Angela's funeral he's intrigued by a mysterious woman in red who places a red rose on the child's coffin. Beau has never seen this beautiful woman before but he knows she isn't a member of Faith Tabernacle and no one at the funeral seems to know who she is. He feels compelled to speak to her, and so into his life walks Anne Corley. When Beau's old college fraternity brother and now nemesis, Maxwell Cole, tries to question Anne for his newspaper column, Anne tells him exactly what she thinks of him. Beau is overwhelmed and attracted to this woman and, miracle of miracle to Beau, Ann seems to reciprocate the attraction. They hit it off at once. They immediately begin a love affair that eventually leads them to be married one week after they met. Beau thinks that Anne is unique and enigmatic, and a little strange. She told him that she is writing a book about children that were abused and then murdered and that she has made it a habit to go to all of their funerals as research for the book. Beau is so caught up in Anne that he doesn't think straight, but Ron Peters, his partner, also thinks things are odd with Anne as well, and tries to persuade Beau not to marry her. UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY is almost like two different books. There is the murder/child abuse case which is nicely fashioned, with solid twists and turns along the way. At first the reader is lead to believe that Pastor Michael Broody is the murderer but when further developments come about, the reader begins to suspect that Angela's father might have been involved. I enjoyed all the twists. Then there is the Anne Corley love story. While Anne is very much involved in this case, I found it extremely hard to believe that a fifteen year homicide detective is so swept away with a woman's beauty that he can no longer think straight. This really bothered me. The segments dealing with the burgeoning love affair went on far too long. I found myself getting bored with it. Although I've never read this first in the Beaumont series before now, I've been reading J. A. Jance's books for many years. I've always liked this series. Beau always seemed to be a darn good detective in the later books and I enjoyed reading them. I did wonder about his wife, Anne Corely, since she is mentioned throughout the series. Well, now I know all about Anne, and I'm a little disappointed. This book is no whereas good as the later J. P. Beaumont books and I'll chalk that up to the fact that this was the first of the series and Jance was still creating the character. Jance has changed a lot of Beau's temperament and personality. He seems to have grown quite a bit and it's obvious that Jance is more comfortable with him now. Although not the best in the series, UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY is a fine book for a couple of reasons. First, the murder story is pretty skillfully woven. The reader is given lots of "could be" suspects and we see how Beau and his new partner learn to depend on each other. The second reason to read this book, is that this is a helpful novel to anyone who continues to read more of the JP Beaumont series. The reader learns where Beau got all his money and it's one of the building blocks of Beau's character Any J. A. Jance book is worth reading. If you read UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY first, don't give up on Beau, the rest of the books are far better and well worth reading. Note: This book has recently been reprinted by Avon and is available in paperback.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, August 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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