"Day of the Dead"
(reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer JUL 24, 2004)
It began way back in 1970, when a member of a highway clean-up crew discovered an abandoned cooler in a culvert. He was looking forward to a beer...but what he found was a chopped up body. The face of the girl inside would haunt him until his death.
Brandon Walker won’t find out about her until 2002, when the dead girl's mother, Emma Orozco, comes to visit. As a member of TLC, The Last Chance, he and his fellow members solve cold cases. Emma was referred to Walker by a mutual friend, Fat Crack Ortiz, who acts as a medicine man for the Tohono O’odham. We find that he’s free to join the TLC because he is no longer Sheriff, forced out of office by Larry Stryker, and in this we find a major irony. Pretty much right away you know that, the same year the girl in the cooler was found, Larry’s wife, Gayle, found out he was fooling around with one of his patients, and that he had gotten her pregnant. Gayle storms out...and returns covered with blood. She does not admit directly that she murdered anyone, but it is implied. Larry and Gayle once helped Diana, Matthew’s wife, and though he doesn’t care for Larry, he treats him well for Diana’s sake. He has absolutely no idea that these people are anything other than a well to do and glamorous couple, famous for their kindness and charity work.
This makes for a really interesting story structure. Matthew’s starting out completely new. This isn’t some old case that he wasn’t able to solve, but something he’s starting out from scratch. As he conducts his investigations, we visit the Strykers...and discover that the death of the first girl has given them a whole new lease on life. This becomes pathetically clear when we meet Maria Elena, a young girl who was thrilled to be unofficially adopted by a rich white couple, taken from the squalor of her life in Nogales, Mexico. Instead of her dream of a better life, she finds herself raped and beaten. We go back and forth, through a lot of voices in the present time as well as the past. We get to observe this sickness develop between Gayle and Larry, even as we watch Matthew work his way towards discovering them. Matthew is a marvelous character...very closed-mouth, very pleasant, and so accompanying him on his mission is extra interesting.
Another thing that makes this story intriquing is that it’s not just about the mystery. We have a lot of Brandon and his family’s life in here, especially how it touches on their relationship with the Tohono O’odham. Their adopted daughter, Lani, for instance, is a doctor who is being trained by Fat Crack to take over for him when he dies...he encourages her to try and get along with his daughter-in-law, who controls the tribal fortunes, for the future good of the people. Peppered through out are wonderful stories, told in the proper folkloric tone. I really loved this look into the culture of this desert people, and thought the relationships between all of the characters added a lot to the book, carrying it beyond a simple mystery.
From the way the story is told, which some back story context at the beginning, I could tell that a book came before this, and a quick search yielded Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Bees. You can pretty much bet that I’ll be looking for these first two installments in the Brandon Walker series.
- Amazon readers rating:
from 44 reviews
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Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)
Joanna Brady Series
- Desert Heat (1993)
- Tombstone Courage (1994)
- Shoot, Don't Shoot (1995)
- Dead to Rights (1996)
- Skeleton Canyon (1997)
- Rattlesnake Crossing (1998)
- Outlaw Mountain (1999)
- Devil's Claw (2000)
- Paradise Lost (2201)
- Partner In Crime (2002) *
- Exit Wounds (2003)
- Dead Wrong (2006)
- Damage Control (2008)
- Fire and Ice (2008)*
- Judgement Call (2012)
J.P. Beaumont Series (Seattle Homicide Detective)
- Until Proven Guilty (1985) ++
- Injustice for All (1986) ++
- Trial by Fury (1986) ++
- Taking the Fifth (1987)
- Improbable Cause (1988)
- A More Perfect Union (1988)
- Dismissed with Prejudice (1989)
- Minor in Possession (1990)
- Payment in Kind (1991)
- Without Due Process (1992)
- Failure to Appear (1993)
- Lying in Wait (1994)
- Name Withheld (1995)
- Breach of Duty (1999)
- Birds Of Prey (2001)
- Partner In Crime (2002) *
- Long Time Gone (2005)
- Justice Denied (2007)
- Fire and Ice (2009)*
- Betrayal of Trust (2011)
- Ring in the Dead: Novella (August 2013)
- Second Watch (September 2013)
*Features both Joanna Brady and J.P. Beaumont
++ Sentenced to Die is first three novels in one volume (March 2005)
Ex-Sheriff Brandon Walker:
- Hour of the Hunter (1992)
- Kiss of the Bees (2000)
- Day of the Dead (2004)
- Queen of the Night (2010)
Ali Reynolds series:
- Edge of Evil (2006)
- Web of Evil (2007)
- Hand of Evil (2007)
- Cruel Intent (2008)
- Fatal Error (2011)
- Left for Dead (2012)
- Deadly Stakes (February 2013)
- Moving Target (February 2014)
Other:
- After the Fire (1984; 2004)
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Book Marks:
- The official Web site for J.A. Jance
- Wikipedia page on J.A. Jance
- January Magazine interview with J.A. Jance
- MostlyFiction.com review of a Joanna Brady book
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About the Author:
J.A. Jance (Judith Ann) was born in 1944 in Waterown, South Dakota and was raised in Bisbee, Arizona. She now lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington and Tucson, Arizona.
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