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For the first time, critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling suspense master J.A. Jance brings together her two most beloved creations: Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady and Seattle investigator J.P. Beaumont. 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. But the twisting desert road they must reluctantly travel together is leading them into a very deadly nest of rattlers. And if they hope to survive, suddenly trust is the only option they have left . . .… (more)
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Joanna Brady is a sheriff in
J.P. Beaumont is an experienced Seattle detective who's just been assigned to the unfortunately (aptly?) named Special Homicide Investigation Team.
When Latisha Wall, an up and coming artist in Bisbee, is murdered "Beau" is sent to Bisbee to assist with the investigation because Ms. Wall was also in the Washington State Witness Protection Program. Her death comes just before she was due to testify against UPPI, a company providing prison management services to different states.
Joanna Brady and J.P. Beaumont are established characters in their own series and by not being familiar with either series I think I missed some of the appeal this book might have for regular J.A. Jance readers. Though the plot moved along at a good pace the main story line wasn't particularly absorbing. The secondary plot lines weren't developed at all. The most interesting plot points that probably should have been the focus weren't introduced until the very end of the book and were wrapped up too neatly for my taste. Despite these flaws, the writing was not bad and I have read much worse. I think I would be more interested in the J.P. Beaumont series than Joanna Brady series if I should decide to read any more J.A. Jance novels.
Two and a half stars.
Carl Alves - author of Blood Street
What’s a little different about this story is that Joanna’s series, while following her, is written as third person POV. Beaumont’s—I haven’t read any books in that series—apparently is written in first person. At least I believe so based on his angle being written that way in this story. I found that somewhat jerky, jumping back and forth between the styles.
We do get what’s going on in the personal lives of both main characters. At his request, Joanna digs up information on Beaumont’s wife of one day who’d been a vigilante killer who grew up in Bisbee for a time. An uncomfortable scene is provided when Joanna and Beaumont are attracted to the other and need to put the brakes on to prevent anything from happening. Readers might not be too happy with her, but I guess it makes her seem more human, and out of it, she does have a better appreciation for what she does have.
I can say that while I enjoyed the story, the mystery and the characters we’ve come to know, it’s probably my least favorite of the series which I’ve been reading back-to-back. I think I would have enjoyed it more if Beaumont’s character had been told in the third person like the rest of the story. Unlike Beaumont readers, I had no vested interest in his history.
Beaumont is dispatched from Seattle when a woman murdered in Brady’s jurisdiction turns out to have been under a witness protection program overseen by Washington state authorities. There’s a
Like most of the Brady series, the real attraction of the plot is watching the main character navigate a complicated personal life while treading a non-traditional career path. There’s a brief, distracting, and totally unnecessary what-if scene between Brady and Beaumont which comes out of nowhere and then goes back to the same place over the space of just a few pages, but it’s enough to distract and detract. Better each of these characters should remain in their own wheelhouse and do their own things, separately.