Friday Fiction: Richard Price

--by Hanje Richards

Richard Price’s novels explore late 20th century urban America in a gritty, realist manner that has brought him considerable literary acclaim. Several of his novels are set in a fictional northern New Jersey city called Dempsy.

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Blood Brothers - Eighteen-year-old Stony De Coco has to make a choice: either join his father in the tightly-knit world of New York's construction unions, or take off and find his own path. But Stony’s family is not about to make that choice easy. As he tries to protect his little brother, Albert, from their dangerously unbalanced mother, and to postpone the difficult adult responsibilities that await him, he finds hope in a job working with children at a hospital – a job that promises not to make anyone happy but Stony.

Clockers - Epic slice of urban grit about frazzled drug-dealers and burnt-out cops. Of the many impeccably authentic urban types here, Price focuses on two: 20-ish "Strike'' Dunham, black chief of a crew of crack-dealers ("clockers'') in the dead-end burg of Dempsy, NJ, and 43-year-old white Dempsy homicide cop Rocco Klein. Each is suffering an identity crisis when a murder puts them on a collision course.

Freedomland - Assigned to investigate the case of Brenda Martin's missing child is detective Lorenzo Council, a local son of the very housing project targeted as the scene of the crime. Under a white-hot media glare, Lorenzo launches an all-out search for the abducted boy, even as he quietly explores a different possibility: Does Brenda Martin know a lot more about her son's disappearance than she's admitting?

Right behind Lorenzo is Jesse Haus, an ambitious young reporter from the city's evening paper. Almost immediately, Jesse suspects Brenda of hiding something. Relentlessly, she works her way into the distraught mother's fragile world, befriending her even as she looks for the chance to break the biggest story of her career.

As the search for the alleged carjacker intensifies, so does the simmering racial tension between Dempsey and the mostly-white neighboring town, Gannon. And when the Gannon police arrest a black man from Dempsey and declare him a suspect, the animosity between the two cities threatens to boil over into violence. With the media swarming and the mood turning increasingly ugly, Lorenzo must take desperate measures to get to the bottom of Brenda Martin's story.

At once a suspenseful mystery and a brilliant portrait of two cities locked in a death-grip of explosive rage, Freedomland reveals the heart of the urban American experience –dislocated, furious, yearning – as never before. Richard Price has created a vibrant, gut-wrenching masterpiece whose images will remain long after the final, devastating pages.

Lush Life - A tale of two Lower East Sides: one a high-priced bohemia, the other a home to hardship, its residents pushed to the edges of their time-honored turf. When a cocky young hipster is shot to death by a street kid from the "other" lower east side, the crime ripples through every stratum of the city in this brilliant and kaleidiscopic portrait of the "new" New York.

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Samaritan - Ray Mitchell, a former TV writer who has left Hollywood under a cloud, returns to urban Dempsy, New Jersey, hoping to make a difference in the lives of his struggling neighbors. Instead, his very public and emotionally suspect generosity gets him beaten nearly to death. Ray refuses to name his assailant, which makes him intensely interesting to Detective Nerese Ammons, a friend from childhood, who now sets out to unlock the secret of his reticence. Set against the intensely realized backdrop of urban America, the cat and mouse game that unfolds is both morally complex and utterly gripping.

Mystery Monday: Sara Paretsky

--by Hanje Richards

Because I am a huge mystery fan, "Mystery Monday" was born. Because I like to read mysteries in order, I'm going to list and talk about them in chronological, rather than alphabetical, order.

If an author has written more than one series (and many authors have), I'll talk about different series in different posts to keep things as clear as possible. For those interested in reading some of the featured titles, I've noted at the end of each book's summary whether it's available at the Copper Queen Library or at another library in Cochise County through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Sara Paretsky (born June 8, 1947) is a modern American author of detective fiction. The protagonist of most of Paretsky’s mystery novels is V.I. Warshawski, a female private investigator. She drinks Johnnie Walker Black Label, breaks into houses looking for clues, and can hold her own in a street fight, but also she pays attention to her clothes and sings opera along with the radio.

After earning a law degree at the University of Chicago, V.I. Warshawski (Vic) had a short stint as a public defencder before becoming a private detective specializing in commercial cases and company finances. In most novels she is drawn into murder cases that have a connection to white-collar crime. Vic regularly ends up pursuing cases that affect her friends and estranged family, or those she feels are being bullied by the uper crust of Chicago.

Indemnity Only (1982) - Meeting an anonymous client late on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. But trouble is Chicago private eye V.I. Warshwski's specialty. Her client says he's the prominent banker, John Thayer. Turns out he's not. He says his son's girlfriend, Anita Hill, is missing. Turns out that's not her real name. V.I.'s search turns up someone soon enough -- the real John Thayer's son, and he's dead. Who's V.I.'s client? Why has she been set up and sent out on a wild-goose chase? By the time she's got it figured, things are hotter — and deadlier — than Chicago in July. V.I.'s in a desperate race against time. At stake: a young woman's life. (CQL)

Deadlock (1984) - When her cousin, Boom Boom, is murdered, V.I. begins an investigation and is caught up in a game of lies, extortion, blackmail, sabotage, and murder in Chicago's shipping industry. (CQL)
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Bitter Medicine (1987) - Consuelo Alvarado's baby is trouble. Consuelo is sixteen. Diabetic. And the daughter of a friend. When she goes into labor too early, even V.I.'s wild drive to get her to the hospital can't save either Consuelo or her child. Soon V.I. is investigating possible malpractice at the emergency room — and falling for a doctor who works there. Mixing business and love is always bad medicine, but V.I. finds herself listening to her heart, not her head. And when a brutal murder and the violent destruction of a women's clinic put her at the center of a very dirty conspiracy, justice may be the only remedy for a hurt that cuts deep... and chills right to the bone... (CQL)

Blood Shot (1988) - V.I. Warshawski isn't crazy about going back to her old south Chicago neighborhood, but a promise is something she always keeps. Caroline, a childhood friend, has a dying mother and a problem — after twenty-five years she wants V.I. to find the father she never knew. But when V.I. starts probing into the past, she not only finds out where all the bodies are buried — she stumbles onto a very new corpse. Now she's stirring up a deadly mix of big business and chemical corruption that may become a toxic shock to a snooper who knows too much. (CQL)

Burn Marks (1990) - Someone knocking on the door at 3 a.m. is never good news. For V.I. Warshawski, the bad news arrives in the form of her wacky, unwelcome aunt Elena. The fire that has just burned down a sleazy SRO hotel has brought Elena to V.I.'s doorstep. Uncovering an arsonist — and the secrets hidden behind Elena's boozy smile — will send V.I. into the seedy world of Chicago's homeless... into the Windy City's backroom deals and bedroom politics, where new schemers and old cronies team up to get V.I. off the case — by hook, by crook, or by homicide. (CQL)

Killing Orders (1990) - V.I.'s battleaxe Aunt Rosa is under investigation by the FBI and SEC after counterfeit stock certificates were found at St. Albert's Priory, where she serves as treasurer. As malicious as her aunt is, V.I. knows she's not dishonest, so V.I. vows to protect her from taking the fall. But V.I. starts questioning the strength of her family ties when a menacing voice on the phone threatens to throw acid into her eyes if she doesn't butt out. The stakes are high as she begins to sniff out a connection between Chicago's most powerful institutions: the Church and the Mob. (CQL)
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Guardian Angel (1992) - Here, Warshawski fights the good fight against forces of greed and corruption, first brought to her attention by elderly downstairs neighbor and self-appointed guardian Mr. Contreras. His alcoholic friend Mitch Kruger, a fellow retiree from the Diamond Head Machine Company, cadges a bid from Contreras, brags about soon-to-come riches from Diamond Head, disappears, and later is found murdered. Then there's dog-obsessed, cranky old Mrs. Frizell down the block who seems to have traded solid CD investments for junk bonds at the behest of her new neighbor, yuppie banker Todd Pichea. V.I.'s stubborn sleuthing into Kruger's murder produces numerous threatening confrontations, middle-of-the-night file searches, car chases, a second murder, and a nasty fright for her dear friend Dr. Lotty Herschel. The final result is the unraveling of a massive scam in which even V.I.'s prissy lawyer/ex-husband Dick Yarborough is involved. (CQL)

Tunnel Vision (1994) - Stubbornness has landed private eye V.I. Warshawski in big trouble at her Chicago office. With her grand old Loop building set to be razed, she's become a hold-out tenant amid frayed wiring and scary, empty corridors. Then she finds a homeless woman with three kids in the basement, and before she can rescue them, they disappear. Worst of all, she's been implicated in a murder — after the body of Deirdre Messenger, a prominent lawyer's wife, turns up sprawled across her desk.

V.I., who had volunteered with Deirdre at a women's shelter, suspects her death is linked to a case of upper-class domestic abuse so slickly concealed that the police refuse to believe it. Increasingly at odds with the cops, V.I. is blindly plunging ahead after the truth. And her path may lead to corruption at the highest levels.or deep into the abandoned tunnels beneath Chicago's streets, where secrets are hiding in the dark like a child's — or V.I.'s — worst nightmare. (CQL)

Hard Times (1999) - Multimedia conglomerate Global Entertainment has purchased the Chicago Herald-Star, forcing the paper's staff to scramble to stay employed. Reporter Murray Ryerson, V.I.'s longtime friend and sometime rival, manages to reinvent himself as the host of a television show on Global's network.

On her way home from a party celebrating Murray's debut, V.I. almost runs over a woman lying in the street. Stopping to help, V.I. soon learns that her Good Samaritan act will drop her squarely in a boiling intrigue. In a case that forces her to go head-to-head with one of the world's largest providers of private security and prison services, a case that exposes dark hidden truths behind the razzle-dazzle of the entertainment industry, V.I. will be ahead of the game if she gets out alive. (CQL)

Total Recall (2001) - For V.I., the journey begins with a national conference in downtown Chicago, where angry protesters are calling for the recovery of Holocaust assets.

Lotty was a girl of nine when she emigrated from Austria to England, one of a group of children wrenched from their parents and saved from the Nazi terror just before the war broke out. Now stunningly — impossibly — it appears that someone from that long-lost past may have returned.

With the help of a recovered-memory therapist, Paul Radbuka has recently learned his true identity. But is he who he claims to be? Or is he a cunning impostor who has usurped someone else’s history... a history Lotty has tried to forget for over fifty years?

As a frightened V.I. watches her friend unravel, she sets out to help in the only way she can: by investigating Radbuka’s past. Already working on a difficult case for a poor family cheated of their life insurance, she tries to balance Lotty’s needs with her client’s, only to find that both are spiraling into a whirlpool of international crime that stretches from Switzerland and Germany to Chicago’s South Side. (CQL)

Blacklist (2003) - Longtime client Darraugh Graham asks Vic to investigate his mother Geraldine's suspicion that trespassers are living in the empty mansion her father built in the suburban Chicago enclave where she has spent most of her life. Vic literally tumbles into trouble when, upon falling into a pond on the property, she comes up clutching the hand of a dead man. He is identified as Marcus Whitby, a young African-American journalist who was writing about members of the 1930s Federal Negro Theater Project ( CQL)

Fire Sale (2005) - A nagging conscience makes V.I. Warshawski agree to fill in as coach for the girls' basketball team at her South Side alma mater — which in turn leads her to the headquarters of By-Smart, the global retail empire where V.I. hopes to get some desperately needed funds for the struggling squad. But conscience seems to be in short supply at By-Smart... with the exception of Billy Bysen. He's the earnest teenage grandson of the chain's gruff, tight-fisted founder. And when Billy disappears — along with a mysterious document much desired by By-Smart's management team — V.I. is hurled onto a twisted, body-strewn path that runs through Chicago's dirtiest places and reveals some of its dirtiest secrets. (CQL)

Hardball (2009) - When Warshawski is asked to find a man who's been missing for four decades, a search that she figured would be futile becomes lethal. Old skeletons from the city's racially charged history, as well as haunting family secrets — her own and those of the elderly sisters who hired her — rise up with a vengeance. (CQL)

Body Work (2010) - The enigmatic performer known as the Body Artist takes the stage at Chicago's Club Gouge and allows her audience to use her naked body as a canvas for their impromptu illustrations. V. I. Warshawski watches as people step forward, some meek, some bold, to make their mark.

The evening takes a strange turn when one woman's sketch triggers a violent outburst from a man at a nearby table. Quickly subdued, the man — an Iraqi war vet — leaves the club. Days later, the woman is shot outside the club. She dies in V.I.'s arms, and the police move quickly to arrest the angry vet.

A shooting in Chicago is nothing new, certainly not to V.I., who is hired by the vet's family to clear his name. As V.I. seeks answers, her investigation will take her from the North Side of Chicago to the far reaches of the Gulf War. (CQL)

Friday Fiction: Ann Beattie

--by Hanje Richards

Ann Beattie (born September 8, 1947) is an American short story writer and novelist. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a PEN/Bernard Malamud Award for excellence in the short story form. Her work has been compared to that of Alice Adams, J.D. Salinger, John Cheever, and John Updike. She holds an undergraduate degree from American University and a masters degree from the University of Connecticut.

Ann Beattie: The New Yorker Stories - When Ann Beattie began publishing short stories in The New Yorker in the mid-seventies, she emerged with a voice so original, and so uncannily precise and prescient in its assessment of her characters’ drift and narcissism, that she was instantly celebrated as a voice of her generation. Her name became an adjective: Beattiesque. Subtle, wry, and unnerving, she is a master observer of the unraveling of the American family, and also of the myriad small occurrences and affinities that unite us. Her characters, over nearly four decades, have moved from lives of fickle desire to the burdens and inhibitions of adulthood and on to failed aspirations, sloppy divorces, and sometimes enlightenment, even grace.

Another You - Marshall is an English professor at a small college in New Hampshire, and he seems to be experiencing one of those pesky midlife crises, as is Sonja, his wife. But Beattie explodes this convention and creates a drama of escalating intensity about how easily ordinary lives can go completely out of control. Every character has a secret, and, unnervingly, every secret is connected. It all begins when Marshall takes too strong an interest in a pretty student distressed by the trauma her roommate has suffered at the hands of another professor. Marshall barely knows McCallum but is soon entangled in his surprisingly volatile, even violent, life. While Marshall grapples with his Pandora's Box, Sonja confesses she's had a rather silly affair with her boss, and then Evie, Marshall's charming stepmother, dies, opening the door on the long-concealed facts of her life. As truth proves to be more elusive than a subatomic particle, Beattie's addled but resilient characters cling to love and strive for compassion, if not comprehension.

Doctor’s House - Siblings Nina and Andrew survived neglect and outright cruelty. Their mother was an alcoholic and their father was a sadist and a philanderer. The narration shifts briefly to Nina and Andrew's mother, who talks about her marriage to the tyrannical doctor and her difficulty connecting to the children, but mostly she indulges in "self-serving re-creations of her past." What all three have in common is a hatred for the monster they once lived with. Unfortunately, the siblings parallel the parents -- Nina marries a doctor and later becomes withdrawn and bitter, while Andrew is sexually compulsive; the cumulative effect of their anecdotes is chilling.

Follies: New Stories - No one can resist comparing Beattie’s grown baby boomers with their younger selves — the characters who appeared in her early short story collections. Those who were once young and aimless still lack direction — only in Follies, they’re much older. This time, the author has given them a past, which is refreshing, especially as they contemplate typical middle-age concerns (parents in nursing homes, children in trouble, failed relationships, etc.). Collection of nine stories and a novella.

Love Always: A Novel - Lucy Spenser, the Miss Lonely Hearts of a chic counter-cultural magazine, finds her unflappable Vermont life completely upended by her teenaged soap-opera-star niece, Nicole, and her hangers-on.

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Park City: New and Selected Stories - This collection includes thirty-six stories, including eight new pieces that have not appeared in a book before. Beattie's characters embark on stoned cross-country odysseys with lovers who may leave them before the engine cools. They comfort each other amid the ashes of failed relationships and in hospital waiting rooms. They try to locate themselves in a world where all the old landmarks have been turned into theme parks. Funny and sorrowful, fiercely compressed yet emotionally expansive.

Picturing Will - This novel unravels the complexities of a postmodern family. There's Will, a curious five-year-old who listens to the heartbeat of a plant through his toy stethoscope; Jody, his mother, a photographer poised on the threshold of celebrity; Mel, Jody's perfect -- perhaps too perfect -- lover; and Wayne, the father who left Will without warning and now sees his infrequent visits as a crimp in his bed hopping. Beattie shows us how these lives intersect, attract, and repel one another with dazzling shifts and moments of heartbreaking directness.

What Was Mine and Other Stories - A collection of short fiction, twelve works in all, including two never-before-published novellas. Here are disconnected marriages and uneasy reunions, nostalgic reminiscences and sudden epiphanies -- a remarkable and moving collage of contemporary lives. In the title story, a boy gains a new and disturbing sense of his dead father's identity through the contemplation of loss. "Installation #6" is about the difference between objective and subjective reality. In it an artist has his handyman brother tape record "some thoughts you can listen to" to be played in the gallery where his construction is on display. The monolog thus becomes both a part of and a commentary on the artist's work. Next, against a sensuous Mediterranean backdrop, a woman vacationing with her husband faces the shortcomings of their relationship in "In Amalfi."

Spotlight On... Dick King-Smith

--by Hanje Richards

Ronald Gordon King-Smith (born March 27, 1922, in Bitton, Gloucestershire) better known by his pen name Dick King-Smith, is a prolific English children's author, best known for writing The Sheep-Pig, retitled in the United States as Babe the Gallant Pig, upon which the movie Babe was based. He is one of the UK's most prolific authors and has written over a hundred books. He has had many pets, including rats, mice, ornamental pheasants, dachshunds, geese and guinea fowl, and bred guinea pigs and English rabbits.

Babe: The Gallant Pig - When Babe arrives at Hogget Farm, Mrs. Hogget’s thoughts turn to sizzling bacon and juicy pork chops — until he reveals a surprising talent for sheep herding, that is. Before long, Babe is handling Farmer Hogget’s flock better than any sheepdog ever could. Babe is so good, in fact, that the farmer enters him into the .Grand Challenge Sheepdog Trials. Will it take a miracle for Babe to win?
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Charlie Muffin’s Miracle Mouse - This is the story of Charlie Muffin, a quiet man who works as a taxidermist and mouse breeder. When he tells his friend Merry that it would be impossible to breed a green mouse, she challenges him to try, implying that she'll marry him if he can do it. Charlie tries, succeeds, and marries Merry. Together they care for the famous green mouse, Adam Muffin, and raise a daughter, Cherry Muffin.
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Dick King-Smith’s Animal Friends: Thirty-One True Life Stories - King-Smith reminisces about animals he has met in his life. Some critters he merely encountered along his way as a soldier, farmer, entertainer, and author. Many of these receive brief but affectionate one-page treatment, as does the duckling he and his family rescued from the road, giving it chocolate cake and a lift to the ocean. Such animals as Dodo, the family's wirehaired dachshund, which became a television celebrity along with the author, are remembered at greater length. Whether taking up a single page or several, each anecdote is highlighted watercolor-and-ink interpretations of the joy, adventure, and playfulness.


Godhanger - There is terror in Godhanger Wood. With each passing day, another animal falls prey to the bloodthirsty gamekeeper, and another corpse is nailed to his gibbet. As the death toll rises, it seems that nothing can save the creatures of Godhanger. But there is one who brings new hope: the Skymaster, a mysterious and mighty bird who appears suddenly on a winter's day. His followers speak of his strange powers and listen faithfully to his wise words. Gentle yet formidable, the Skymaster is determined to stop the gamekeeper for good. But to do so, he may have to make the greatest sacrifice of all.



I Love Guinea Pigs - An affectionate guide to the most charming of very small animals. Did you know, for instance, that guinea pigs rarely get sick and love to eat? Or that they love one another and have adorable children, too? Portrayed in all their amiable chunkiness, guinea pigs finally receive the tribute they so richly deserve.
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The Merman - While vacationing in Scotland, Zeta meets a rather unusual fellow. He's a terrific swimmer. He chats with seals. And he has a fish tail. Marinus is a merman — definitely not your average summer friend. Who else could teach Zeta everything from swimming to astronomy to French? Everything's an adventure when Marinus is around, and as the summer ends, Zeta knows she'll miss her new friend terribly. Luckily, Marinus has one last surprise in store for her — one that will last a lifetime...

A Mouse Called Wolf - Wolfgang Amadeus Mouse ("Wolf," for short) has a big name for such a little mouse. But the name fits. His favorite pastime is listening to Mrs. Honeybee, the lady of the house, play the piano. If only he could sing along to the music! One day, Wolf decides to try — and to his surprise, out of his mouth comes a perfect melody. It's not long before Wolf is singing everything from "Three Blind Mice" to Chopin to the Beatles, all to Mrs. Honeybee's accompaniment. Then, an accident leaves Mrs. Honeybee in danger, and it's up to Wolf to save her... the only way he knows how.
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Mysterious Miss Slade - All the village children think Miss Slade is a witch. Perhaps it’s the patch on her eye. Or maybe it’s the ancient caravan she lives in, surrounded by six dogs, six cats, several goats, and a lot of chickens. But Jim and Patsy Reader know better. To them, Miss Slade is the eccentric neighbor who lets them ride her donkey, shares her lunch of chips and cookies, and makes them laugh out loud.

But Miss Slade is still a mystery to Jim and Patsy. Why does she speak like an aristocrat? And where did she get that gold sovereign? It turns out Miss Slade does have a secret after all — one that brings trouble when discovered. Luckily, she has some friends — human and canine —who can help.
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The Queen’s Nose - The story of Harmony Parker, a 10 year old girl who wants an animal of her own but is not allowed by her parents, who think they are dirty. Harmony has a 15 year old sister, Melody, who spends most of her time looking in a mirror. Harmony's best friend is a toy dog, Rex Ruff Monty.
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The School Mouse - Everyone has heard of house mice and field mice and church mice. But Flora is determined to become the first-ever school mouse. Being the first anything is hard, and Flora quickly discovers that being the first school mouse is no exception. When she learns to read, no one — her parents in particular — can see the use in it. She must convince them reading is tremendously important — especially after she finds a bag marked POISON.
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The Water Horse - "When eight-year-old Kirstie finds a mysterious egg on the beach after a big storm, no one in the family expects it to hatch. But the next day, after a night in the bathtub, a mysterious little creature is born: part turtle, part horse, part frog, with an alligator tail. Only Kirstie's grandpa knows its true identity: a Water Horse, the sea monster of Scottish legend. The creature becomes a family pet, tamable and lovable, though with a huge appetite. As he grows and grows, the family must decide where to place him, somewhere away from those who would exploit him or, worse, accidentally become his dinner; perhaps Loch Ness would be safest. This well-written, fast-paced fantasy combines a popular subject with appealing, distinctive characters, humor, and drama."

Mystery Monday: Local Author J.A. Jance

--by Hanje Richards

J.A. Jance has written three mystery series set in Arizona. The Joanna Brady series is set here in Cochise County in general and in Bisbee specifically. Her two other Arizona series are the Ali Reynolds series, set mostly in Sedona, and the Walker Family Series, set in the Tucson area.
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Jance was born in South Dakota and raised in Bisbee. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona. Before she became an author, she worked as a school librarian on a Native American reservation, as a teacher, and selling insurance.

Joanna Brady Series

As the Joanna Brady series begins with Desert Heat, the protagonist is the mother of nine-year-old Jenny and the wife of Andy Brady, who runs for Sheriff of Cochise County but gets murdered before the election. Joanna runs in his stead, clears his name, and wins the election to become Sheriff, even though she does not have much background in upholding the law. On the one hand, many of the community are not used to having a woman in a position of power, which makes her job as Sheriff somewhat more difficult, but, on the other hand, her relative independence from the old-boys network of local law enforcement makes it easier for her to clean house there as needed.
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Desert Heat - A cop lies dying beneath the blistering Arizona sun – a local lawman who may well have become the next sheriff of Cochise County. Joanna Brady, his devoted wife and the mother of their nine-year-old daughter, knows a cover-up when she hears one.. and murder when she sees it. But her determined efforts to hunt down an assassin and clear her husband's name are placing Joanna and her surviving family in harm's way – because in the desert, the one thing more lethal than a rattler's bite... is the truth.
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Tombstone Courage - When drug dealers murdered her lawman husband, Joanna Brady vowed she would carry on his good work no matter what the cost. Now, as newly elected Sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, she must battle the prejudice and hostility of a mistrustful, male-dominated police force and solve a grisly double homicide that threatens to tear the sleepy desert community to pieces.

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Shoot/Don’t Shoot - A prisoner languishes in a Phoenix jail cell, accused of brutally slaying his estranged wife. No one believes the man is innocent, except the new female sheriff of Cochise County, in town for a crash course in police training. Joanna Brady is out of her jurisdiction – and possibly in over her head. An impromptu investigation, with no official sanction and no back up, is drawing a cold, ingenious serial killer much too close to Brady for comfort – and, worse still, closer to her little girl.
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Dead to Rights - A woman is cruelly cut down in a remote corner of Arizona, killed on her nineteenth wedding anniversary by a drunk motorist. A year later, the driver himself dies badly, and all suspicions point to the slain woman's still-grieving husband as his murderer.

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Skeleton Canyon - A pretty, popular teenager never returned from her secret tryst in Skeleton Canyon. Perhaps it was youthful rage or savage passion that ripped the life from a child of privilege and abandoned her broken body to the cold Arizona night. Or maybe she stumbled onto something terrible, something too dangerous to know.
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Rattlesnake Crossing - A gun dealer is the first to die, his entire stock of weapons cleaned out. But the killer isn’t finished yet, as a series of brutal, blood-chilling murders paralyzes the small Southwestern community the maniac has chosen to feed upon. Every stranger is suspect, every house the possible sanctuary of a monster who skillfully eludes each move of his pursuers.

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Outlaw Mountain - What kind of monster would savagely murder a 71-year-old and leave her battered corpse to rot in the Arizona desert? The slaying of a complex and truly uncommon senior is only one thread in a bloody tapestry – as death follows death in horrific succession, leading one dedicated officer of the law to risk everything as she seeks answers in the lethal shadow of Outlaw Mountain.
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Devil’s Claw - In the desert, a Native American woman is dead – an ex-con once jailed for the murder of her husband – and her teenage daughter has vanished into the long shadows of the night-still canyons. A terrifying excursion into a world of passion and violence, where long-buried secrets are the best reasons of all to kill... or to die.
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Paradise Lost - The desecrated body of a missing Phoenix heiress lies naked, lifeless, and abandoned in the desolate beauty and lonely terror of the high desert night. A hideous crime is inviting death once more into Sheriff Joanna Brady's world. But this time, the nightmares of her professional and personal lives are intertwining in ways too awful to contemplate, because one corpse is only the first piece in a twisted and sinister puzzle in which nothing seems to fit. And the next item on a killer's bloody agenda may well be Brady's own beloved daughter.
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Partner in Crime - The dead woman on a cold slab in the Arizona morgue was a talented artist recently arrived from the West Coast. The Washington State Attorney General's office thinks this investigation is too big for a small-town female law officer to handle, so they're sending Sheriff Joanna Brady some unwanted help – a seasoned detective named Beaumont. Sheriff Brady resents his intrusion, and Bisbee, Arizona, with its ghosts and memories, is the last place J.P. Beaumont wants to be.

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Exit Wounds - The heat is a killer in Cochise County, Arizona, with temperatures over 100 degrees. In the suffocating stillness of an airless trailer, a woman is lying dead, a bullet hole in her chest. Why someone would murder a harmless loner with a soft spot for strays is only one of the questions nagging at the local police; another is why the killer used an eighty-five-year-old bullet, fired from the same weapon that slaughtered two other women who were discovered bound, naked, and gruesomely posed on the remote edge of a rancher′s land.

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Dead Wrong - A corpse is discovered in the Arizona desert with the fingers severed from both hands – the body of an ex-con who served twenty years for a murder he claimed not to remember. Soon after, one of Joanna's female officers is savagely assaulted and left for dead while on an unauthorized stakeout. Enforcing the law has become more than what Joanna Brady does – it's who she is.

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Damage Control - A car carrying an elderly couple goes off the side of a mountain and tumbles into oblivion on a beautiful sunny day in the Coronado National Monument. A deadly fire and a fatal home invasion may or may not have some connection to the terrible crash. And miles away in the desert, a savage rain has revealed something grisly and terrifying: two trash bags filled with human remains.
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Ali Reynolds Series
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What do you do if you’re a forty-something female television newscaster and the powers that be suddenly force you off the air because they’ve decided you’re over the hill? And what if you discover, almost simultaneously, that your media mogul husband is a philandering rat?
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Ali’s return to Sedona, Arizona puts her in the middle of her parents’ travails as long-time owners and operators of a local diner. Her mother’s astute observations keep Edie Larson’s finger firmly on the pulse of everything going on in town while her father’s unfailing kindness to down-and-outers proves to be both a bane, an inspiration and, ultimately, a blessing.
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Edge of Evil - The end of her high-profile broadcasting career came too soon for TV journalist Alison Reynolds – bounced off the air by executives who wanted a "younger face." With a divorce from her cheating husband of ten years also pending, there is nothing keeping her in L.A. any longer. Ali is summoned back home to Sedona, Arizona, by the death of a childhood friend. Once there, she seeks solace in the comforting rhythms of her parents' diner, and launches an on-line blog as therapy for others who have been similarly cut loose. But when threatening posts begin appearing, Ali finds out that running a blog is far more up-close and personal than sitting behind a news desk. And far more dangerous. Suddenly something dark and deadly is swirling around her life... and a killer may be hunting her next.

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Web of Evil - Fired from her dream job as an L.A. news anchor and still recovering from the truth about her cheating husband, Ali is content to lick her wounds far away in Sedona. Her ex, Paul, is in a hurry for a divorce so he can marry his very young, very pregnant fiancé. But the day before the final proceedings, Paul's bound and broken body is found in the Palm Springs desert. Ali finds herself the sole heir to his wealthy estate – and the prime suspect in his brutal murder. As the evidence piles up against her, she must navigate a torturous path strewn with danger to expose the real cold-blooded thriller.

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Hand of Evil - Starting with a crime so gruesome even prowling coyotes keep their distance from the remains, a killer begins crisscrossing the Southwest on a spree of grisly murders. A hundred miles away, Ali Reynolds is grieving. The news job she once delighted in is gone, and so is the philandering husband. When a member of the family who gave Ali a generous scholarship for her education decades earlier suddenly asks her for a meeting, Ali wonders what it can mean. Before she can satisfy her curiosity, though, Ali receives another startling call: a friend's teenage daughter has disappeared.
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Cruel Intent - Ali Reynolds just wants a break from excitement to remodel her new home. But when the savagely murdered body of stay-at-home mom Morgan Forester is found, Ali’s contractor Bryan is the prime suspect. Bryan swears he has nothing to do with his wife’s murder – but as the investigation progresses, Ali seems to be the only person who believes him.

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Trial By Fire - In the heat of the Arizona desert, a raging fire pushes temperatures to a deadly degree, and one woman is left to burn. Pulled naked and barely breathing from the fire, the victim has no idea who she is, let alone who would do this to her – or why. Ali Reynolds is on the scene as the new media relations consultant for the Yavapai County Police Department, keeping reporters at bay and circumventing questions about arson and a link to a domestic terrorist group called Earth Liberation Front. Ali fearlessly pursues justice – and what she discovers is a secret even darker and more twisted than she ever could have imagined.

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Walker Family Series
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This series features ex-sheriff Brandon Walker and his family. This is the darkest of the J.A. Jance series set in Arizona. Jance combines Native American and Anglo cultures in these books set in Central Arizona.

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Hour of the Hunter - The hunter is free to kill again – and hour by hour, he draws nearer... The brilliant psychopath Andrew Carlisle spent only six years in prison for the brutal torture-murder of a young girl of the Tohono O'odham tribe. The testimony of Diana Ladd – a teacher on the reservation – put Carlisle behind bars, and now she can't ignore the dark, mystical signs that say a predator has returned to prowl the Arizona desert. Because no matter where Diana and her young son hide... he will find them.

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Kiss of the Bees - Twenty years ago, a darkness rose up out of the blistering heat of the Arizona desert and descended upon the Walker family of Tucson. A personified evil, a serial killer named Andrew Carlisle, brought blood and terror into their world, nearly murdering Diana Ladd Walker and her young son, Davy. Now, much has changed. The family has grown larger. There's Lani, the beloved adopted daughter – a beautiful Native American teenager "kissed by the bees" and destined, according to Tohono O'odham lore, to become a woman of great spiritual power. And now that the psychopath Carlisle has died in prison, Brandon and Diana Walker believe that their long nightmare is finally over...
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Day of the Dead - Retired Pima County Sheriff Brandon Walker's work with The Last Chance – an exclusive, nationwide fraternity of former lawmen investigating unsolved homicides – has brought new purpose to his life. But a gruesome, three-decades-old cold case is leading him into a strange world at the unlikely border between forensic science and tribal mysticism – a place where evil hides behind a perfect façade. A long-forgotten murder in the Arizona desert now threatens to bring home a new horror for Walker and his family, who have already survived the dark hunger of two human monsters. And suddenly, the relentless ex-cop is the only person who can still unravel a blood knot of terror and obsession before the innocent die again.

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Queen of the Night - Every summer, in an event that is commemorated throughout the Tohono O'odham Nation, the Queen of the Night flower blooms in the Arizona desert. But, one couple's intended celebration is shattered by gunfire, the sole witness to the bloodshed a little girl who has lost the only family she's ever known. To her rescue come Dr. Lani Walker, who sees the trauma of her own childhood reflected in her young patient, and Dan Pardee, an Iraq war veteran and member of an unorthodox border patrol unit called the Shadow Wolves. Joined by Pima County homicide investigator Brian Fellows, they must keep the child safe while tracking down a ruthless killer.
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In a second case, retired homicide detective Brandon Walker is investigating the long unsolved murder of an Arizona State University coed. Now, after nearly half a century of silence, the one person who can shed light on that terrible incident is willing to talk. Meanwhile, Walker's wife, Diana Ladd, is reliving memories of a man whose death continues to haunt her.

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As these crimes threaten to tear apart three separate families, the stories and traditions of the Tohono O'odham people remain just beneath the surface of the desert, providing illumination to events of both self-sacrifice and unspeakable evil.