FAILURE TO APPEAR
by J.A. Jance
Seattle cop J.P. "Beau" Beaumont's runaway daughter Kelly- -pregnant and about to married—is a member of the Ashland (Oregon) theater festival community and now living at Oak Farm, run by crusty Marjorie Connors. Beau (Without Due Process, etc.) and his lover Alexis, plus his ex-wife and her husband and son, all descend on Kelly just as her actress friend Tanya is accused of murdering wealthy theater patron Guy Lewis's second wife, Daphne, and p.i. Martin Short, who not only turns out to be Daphne's first husband but the leading man in porno flicks that Tanya starred in when she was just 15. Alexis and Ralph, Beau's lawyer friend, are convinced that Tanya is innocent, but discrepancies in her story turn up and Beau and local cop Fraymore are soon at odds over them. A confession and some fatal pill-taking follow, wrapping up this many-wived tale. Dead-on view of the backstabbing that can go on in an arts- community's fund-raising, but, at the final curtain, there's an enormous letdown in the well-she's-crazy explanation. Best assets: Beau and Fraymore coming to terms with their former loves.