Paradise Lost
A Brady Novel of Suspense
-
-
4.4 • 191 Ratings
-
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times bestselling J.A. Jance is back! Cochise County, Arizona, and Sheriff Joanna Brady faces her most personal and dangerous case when her daughter discovers a body in the Arizona wilderness.
When Cochise County, Arizona, Sheriff Joanna Brady′s daughter Jenny goes off on a Memorial Day weekend girl scout camp-out in nearby Apache Pass, Joanna trusts that her 12-year-old daughter will behave. But with boy-crazy Dora Matthews as a tentmate, Jenny is seduced into taking a late night unauthorized hike into the wilderness where--instead of smoking a clandestine cigarette--she and Dora stumble upon the body of a murdered Phoenix woman. Knowing that her little girl will be traumatized by her experience, Joanna must balance concern for Jenny with the demands of her new marriage and possible bid for reelection. But when young Dora Matthews herself turns up dead two days later, Joanna′s concern turns to terror. For if Constance Haskell′s killer is murdering potential witnesses, Jenny may be next.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Cochise County (Ariz.) sheriff Joanna Brady's ninth outing, bestseller Jance verges on soap opera, but avoids the worst excesses of the type. Mother-daughter relationships get a real workout, as Joanna's brittle connection with her mother is always testy and the emotional fulcrum between Joanna and her 12-year-old daughter, Jenny, is always shifting. But plenty of other combinations of blood and bonding get a workout, too. Jenny and a camping partner discover the body of a naked woman while Joanna and new husband Butch Dixon are out of town to attend a sheriffs' convention and a wedding. Joanna's personal and professional lives collide heavily as concerns for her daughter, her department, her husband and her future intertwine. With a mix of old and modern police work (interviews, crime-scene analysis, sophisticated forensics) and intense personal problems (Jenny may be targeted by the killer, Butch may have cheated on Joanna, Joanna's mother's meddling may have gotten a girl killed), Jance keeps things roiling from start to finish. With more than two dozen mysteries to her credit, the author has learned a great deal about pacing and it's evident in this page-turner, which nicely builds suspense and throws in some nifty surprises as well. Jance's sense of place remains strong, whether here in the beautifully rendered rural Arizona setting or in the rainy Seattle of her J.P. Beaumont mysteries. (Aug. 7)
Customer Reviews
🧡 this series!!! Can’t wait to start the next book!
Adventurous and surprise twists to the story you don’t expect!!
Disappointed
Am glad that this book was read after another very good one in this series, There were several times in the book where Joanne behaved like a middle schooler….SPOILERS: at the wedding when Butch came up to her with a longtime friend, and when she would not handle her mother’s harping in a constructive way. The worst was when Jenny told her how her grandmother always made her feel inadequate and put down, yet Joanne does nothing appropriate about it.
If Joanne allows herself to be browbeating, that’s her weakness…but to hear her daughter be upset about the same issue, and not make it clear that it’s unacceptable, is reprehensible parenting and tarnished her character for me.
The book had some good action and twists, but Joanne came across as surprisingly weak on a personal level, and that negatively affected my rating. Her actions as a sheriff are professional, but would have respected a more mature character in dealing with family issues.
It is a good series…Will try another book.