Dance of the Bones by J.A. Jance

First Line: Amos Warren walked with his shoulders stooped and with his eyes and mind focused on the uneven ground beneath his feet.

Brandon Walker and The Last Chance have a tough assignment: to take another look at the investigation, trial, and conviction of John Lassiter. Years ago Walker arrested Lassiter for the murder of prospector Amos Warren. A plea deal is on the table for Lassiter that would release him from prison with time served. Lassiter has always maintained his innocence, and instead of accepting the deal, he's demanding Walker take another, deeper, look. 

When Walker discovers that there are connections between Lassiter's case and an unsolved one in Seattle, he asks J.P. Beaumont for help. The case gets red hot when two boys from the reservation go missing. Walker and Beaumont are going to have to work fast to keep the two youngsters alive.

As a rule I love J.A. Jance's books, but Dance of the Bones is not one of her best-- and J.P. Beaumont fans will be disappointed, since he plays a crucial (but very small) role.

Jance's Walker family series set in the Tucson, Arizona area have always used many legends of the Tohono O'odham people. Normally I enjoy reading them, but in this case they kept dragging me out of the story-- even if they did pertain to two of my favorite characters, Gabe Ortiz and Lani Walker-Pardee. Speaking of characters, the bad guy needed  to be more hands-on. Always having minions doing the dirty work sapped the killer's evil mojo. Instead of fear or anxiety, I felt irritation.

With so many interconnected loops of plot, reading Dance of the Bones was like stepping in the middle of a nest of rattlesnakes. Lots of distraction, occasional confusion, and a feeling that the story didn't live up to the often beautiful way Jance uses the English language.
   

Dance of the Bones by J.A. Jance

ISBN: 9780062297662

William Morrow © 2015

Hardcover, 368 pages

Police Procedural, #5 Walker Family mystery

Rating: B

Source: Purchased from Book Outlet 


 

Queen of the Night by J.A. Jance

Title: Queen of the Night
Author: J.A. Jance
ISBN: 9780061239243
Publisher: William Morrow, 2010
Hardcover, 368 pages
Genre: Suspense, #4 Walker family mystery
Rating: A
Source: Purchased from Amazon.

First Line: They say it happened long ago that a young woman of the Tohono O'odam, the Desert People, fell in love with a Yaqui warrior, a Hiakim, and went to live with his people, far to the South.

Every summer in the Tohono O'odam Nation, the flowering of the night-blooming cereus-- the Queen of the Night-- is celebrated, but this year a man and his wife are murdered during their own private celebration, and a little girl loses the only family she's ever known.

To the little girl's rescue come Dr. Lani Walker, who sees similarities to her own childhood trauma in Angie, and Dan Pardee, an Iraq war veteran and a member of an unorthodox border patrol unit called the Shadow Wolves. With the aid of Pima County homicide detective Brian Fellows, they must keep the child safe while tracking down a killer.

Meanwhile retired homicide detective Brandon Walker-- stepfather to both Dr. Lani Walker and Detective Brian Fellows-- is investigating a cold case involving the murder of an Arizona State University coed. These two cases have the power to tear three families to shreds.

I have long been a fan of Jance's Joanna Brady series set in Bisbee, Arizona. Jance grew up in Bisbee, and her knowledge and affection infuse the setting with a very special quality. The Walker family series (Hour of the Hunter, Kiss of the Bees, Day of the Dead, Queen of the Night), set in Tucson and the Tohono O'odam Nation, reflect another stage in the author's life when she taught on the reservation.

Once again Jance deftly weaves together the two plot lines, imbuing both with a palpable sense of urgency and danger. Her characters in this series are not ten feet tall and bullet-proof; bad things can and do happen to them, and this adds to that sense of danger. One of the highlights of this series for me is the way that Jance incorporates Tohono O'odam teachings and legends into her storylines.

Yes, this book is the fourth in a series, but it's not necessary to read the first three in order to make sense of what's going on in Queen of the Night. Don't be surprised, however, if you read this book and then immediately want to find the others. They are always on my list of recommendations for anyone who wants to read well-crafted mysteries that give a true sense of southern Arizona.

Buy from Amazon.

Buy from The Book Depository.

Buy from an Indie Bookseller.