Jance is also the author of the J. P. Beaumont series, one that I like a lot. This is the first I have read of her Sheriff Joanna Brady series of novels that take place in Cochise County, Arizona. Apparently, in a preceding book, Jance explains how Joanna became sheriff, stepping into the role following the death of her husband, who had been sheriff until he was killed.An elderly woman, Alice Rogers, is discovered dead, covered with vicious cholla cactus spines. In her hands is clutched a vial of insulin, yet she was not diabetic. She was a wealthy woman, and the clues seem to point to a mysterious gardener and handyman who has disappeared, leaving behind no fingerprints in his house. Alice’s grown children, Cletus, the mayor of Tombstone, and Sally, both had motives. Alice had a large estate, and both were in need of money. The plot begins to get confusing, and the book takes on more the feel of a police procedural as eco-terrorists attack a local subdivision construction site, a Tuscon woman is discovered collecting rattlesnakes whose home range the subdivision is destroying, Joanna’s chief deputy for operations gets drunk and resigns in despair over her engagement to a local writer, a substantial heroin ring is uncovered, and fingerprints of the missing gardener match those of a dead policeman who had been working on a corruption case near Las Vegas. Someone has also dumped off a retarded teenager at the local Catholic church bazaar, and Joanna has to try to locate the parents or guardians. Not to mention that Joanna, a single parent, has to deal with her precocious eleven-year-old and her interfering and obnoxious mother.
She’s a tough character dealing with the bad guys and manages to get herself out of some difficult situations -- I do wish the author had dressed her in something more practical than a skirt and pantyhose. It seems some kind of uniform would have been more realistic given herhands-on involvement. Everyone in the small town of Brisbee seems to be rather untrustworthy, and I hope they have a big jail at the rate the dead bodies and crooks are piling up.
It’s a good story, but I think I prefer the Beaumont series. Joanna seems to lack some common sense that other characters have, and some of her fears regarding her relationship with the former in-laws are just silly.
