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Summary
Summary
The smash New York Times bestselling author continues the chilling tale begun in Kiss of the Bees and Hour of the Hunter with this shocking new tale of knife-edge suspense
The Walker family survived the atrocities perpetrated by a serial killer and his crazed acolyte in both Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Bees. But can they escape the vengeance of a new enemy whose target is their precious daughter, Lani?
Told they're traveling to a loving adoptive family in southern Arizona, young girls are being spirited away from an orphanage deep in Colonial Mexico. But the fate that awaits them is truly horrifying. And when death comes, it will be a blessing.
Former Sheriff Brandon Walker is a reluctant retiree. Golf just can't replace the action and sense of purpose his job provided. When he's invited to join The Last Chance Club to review and long-cold unsolved cases, he has no idea that the first case to cross his path will be one he may have botched as a young sheriff. And when the case from all those decades past becomes entangled with a current murder, it seems a serial killer with a very long and shocking track record may be back in business . . .
Author Notes
Judith Ann (J. A.) Jance was born in Watertown, South Dakota on October 27, 1944. She received a degree in English and secondary education in 1966 and a M. Ed. in library science in 1970 from the University of Arizona. Before becoming an author, she taught high school English, worked as a school librarian on a Native American reservation, and sold insurance.
She is the author of many popular mystery series including the J. P. Beaumont Mystery series, Joanna Brady Mystery series, and the Ali Reynolds series. She won the American Mystery Award for Without Due Process in 1992 and for Failure to Appear in 1993. Both of these titles are books in the J. P. Beaumont Mystery series. In 2014, her fiction book, A Last Goodbye, made the New York Times bestseller list.
Random Acts, a title in A Joanna Brady and Ali Reynolds Novella Series, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2016.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Jance's third suspense thriller to feature ex-sheriff Brandon Walker and his family (after Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Bees) deftly mixes Native American mythology with a harrowing plot. An old Tohono O'odham woman, Emma Orozco, asks Walker for help in solving the brutal murder of her daughter, Roseanne, who was slain in 1970. Walker is able to take on the challenge because of his membership in TLC, The Last Chance, a privately funded agency that looks into old, unsolved crimes. This ingenious arrangement allows for great flexibility in the action of the story. As Walker searches for clues in Roseanne's death, he comes across similar murders each with no leads, each involving a dismembered body left alongside a road in the Southwest. The reader learns more and more about the killers, the sexually voracious, utterly amoral Gayle Stryker and her husband, Larry, a truly effective pair of monsters. Meanwhile, Walker's dear friend Fat Crack Ortiz, a Tohono O'odham man, is dying of complications from diabetes. Most of Walker's friends, in fact, are Indians, as is his adopted daughter, Lani. He draws not so much knowledge as strength and perspective from them no mumbo-jumbo here, only believable sensitivity. Agent, Alice Volpe. (One-day laydown July 20) Forecast: Backed by a 15-city author tour concentrated in the Southwest, this one should hit national bestseller lists. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Resting both her regular series sleuths, Joanna Brady and J. P. Beaumont, this latest Jance mystery returns to Arizona's Tohono O'Odham reservation, also the setting for two earlier nonseries novels, Hour of the Hunter 0 (1991) and Kiss of the Bees0 (2000). Retired cop Brandon Walker sets out to investigate a cold case, the mutilation murder of a 15-year-old Tohono O'Odham girl. Suspense builds gradually in the multilayered novel, which is filtered through multiple perspectives, each person adding a piece to a textured puzzle that tracks a pair of serial killers whose crimes extend backward across three decades. As in Jance's two series, the action is intermixed with well-placed social commentary, this time regarding the unconscionable ill use of reservation peoples by vicious mil-ghan0 (whites), even in the recent past. Although the Indian cultural backdrop is not as integral to the story as it is in Hillerman's novels, this will still appeal to Hillerman devotees as well as to thriller fans accustomed to a sheen of blood spatter and sex with their suspense. --Stephanie Zvirin Copyright 2004 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Jance macabre. They're serial killers, sadistic and repellent. Well, he is; she's more your standard cross-me-and-I'll-snuff-you type. Presenting Dr. Lawrence and Gayle (think Messalina) Stryker, honorees at the Tucson "Man and Woman of the Year" banquet when we first meet them. Attractive, philanthropic pillars of the community, for over a quarter-century they've been decorating a secret room in the Stryker manse with teenage girls hustled over from Mexico to satisfy the Krafft-Ebing tastes of the dissembling doctor. He performs; she enjoys. Across town, retired sheriff Brandon Walker, making his third appearance, is bored beyond measure. His wife Diana keeps writing those Pulitzer Prize-winning books, leaving him to contemplate his navel. Then suddenly he's contacted by the Last Chance, a volunteer organization dedicated to solving cold cases. Three decades ago, a young Hispanic female was murdered, mutilated, and stuffed piecemeal into a Coleman Cooler. Is Brandon interested? Does a drowning man crave a lifeline? A coincidence here, a lucky break there--easy on the ratiocination--and soon enough Brandon discovers what Dr. and Mrs. Monster have been up to. Then he almost wishes he hadn't. Despite the grisly patina, this is a neat fit for the Jance formula (Partner in Crime, 2002, etc.), her signature blend of mystery-lite and soap-opera heavy. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
This is the third entry in Jance's series featuring Tucson-based author Diana Ladd; her former-sheriff husband, Brandon Walker; their adopted Papago Indian daughter, Lani; and a large and confusing cast of extended family and friends. Brandon is asked to solve a 30-year-old case involving a dismembered woman, while his son, a detective, works on a contemporary case that is eerily similar. Through flashbacks, we learn early on that the killer is a long-time acquaintance of Diana and Brandon; the suspense builds as the two cases merge, the clues mount, and we wonder if the killer will be discovered before striking again or disappearing forever. In the earlier books (Hour of the Hunter; Kiss of the Bees), this family experienced an incredible string of brutal events, including stalking, torture, and murder, and the brutality continues here. Jance attempts to deepen the story through the use of Papago mysticism and a rich sense of the Arizona landscape, but readers of her J.P. Beaumont or Joanna Brady series will be surprised at the graphic sexual violence. Purchase where the author is popular. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/04.]-Ann Forister, Roseville P.L., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Day of the Dead A Novel of Suspense Chapter One They say it happened long ago that I'itoi, Elder Brother, came to a village to see if his Desert People had enough water after the long summer heat. As he walked along he heard a crowd of Indian children playing. He stopped for a while and watched them, listening to the music of their voices and laughter. About that time Elder Brother saw an old woman carrying a heavy load of wood for her cooking fire. Old Woman was not as happy and carefree as the children. She had no energy to sing or play. About that time an old coyote came and stood by I'itoi. He, too, watched the children. Old Coyote's ribs showed under his thin, ragged coat. Like Old Woman, Old Coyote could no longer play and dance. His paws were too stiff and sore from just walking around in the desert. Seeing Old Woman and Old Coyote made I'itoi sad. Because Elder Brother's heart was heavy, he couldn't walk very fast. He went to the shade of some cottonwood trees to rest. It was autumn, so the leaves on the tree had turned yellow, but they still made shade. As Great Spirit sat under the trees, he thought about the children at play and about how different they would be when they grew old. He thought about some young calves he had seen that morning in a field and about how they would change as they grew older. He thought about a young colt he had seen kicking up its heels with joy, and he thought about how, one day, Young Colt would become Old Horse. He thought about flowers and about how their leaves withered and their colors faded when they grew old. Thinking about these things, I'itoi decided he would like to have something around him that would not change as it became old. He wanted something that would not grow heavy like the cows and horses or wrinkled and bent like old men and women or dry and colorless like dead flowers. Great Spirit wanted something that would always stay happy and beautiful like the children. As I'itoi was thinking these things under the cottonwood trees, he looked up. He saw the yellow leaves. He saw the blue sky through the leaves. He saw the shadows under the yellow leaves. He looked down and saw streaks and spots of sunlight dancing around on the ground just as the Indian Children had danced. Then Great Spirit laughed, for you see, nawoj -- my friend, I'itoi had found just what he wanted. March 16, 2000 Brandon Walker stood in front of the bathroom mirror locked in mortal combat with the stubborn strings of his bow tie. As sweat dampened his brow and soaked through the underarms of his starched white shirt, he longed for the good old days when, as Pima County sheriff, he could have shown up at one of these cattle calls in his dress uniform instead of having to put on a stupid tuxedo. There was a tap on the door. "Are you ready?" Diana asked. "It's getting late." "Then you'd better come help me with this damned tie," Brandon grunted. Diana opened the door, and her reflection joined his in the mirror. She was so beautiful that seeing her took Brandon's breath away. She was dressed in a deep blue full-length taffeta gown that complemented every inch of her still slim figure. In the cleft at the base of her throat a diamond solitaire pendant hung from a slender gold chain. That single piece of jewelry had cost more than Brandon's first house. Her auburn hair, highlighted now with natural streaks of gray, was pulled back in an elegant French twist. "Hi, gorgeous," he said. She smiled back at him. "You're not so bad yourself. What's the trouble?" "The bow," he said. "I'm all fumble fingers." It took only a few seconds for her to untangle and straighten the tie. "There," she said, patting his shoulder. "Now let's get going." Brandon picked up his jacket from the bed and shrugged his way into it as he followed his wife down the hall. "Which car?" he asked. "Mine or yours?" "Yours," she said. They drove east from Gates Pass and into downtown Tucson to the community center where the Tucson Man and Woman of the Year benefit gala was being held. The honorees, Gayle and Dr. Lawrence Stryker, were friends of Diana Ladd's dating back to her days as a teacher on the Tohono O'odham Reservation. Now a local luminary, Diana had been asked to give a short introductory and no doubt laudatory speech. Brandon's plan was to go, be seen, and do his best to be agreeable. But when it came to Larry and Gayle Stryker, he intended to keep his mouth firmly shut. That would be best for all concerned. Larry Stryker sat on the dais overlooking the decorated ballroom filled with candlelit banquet tables and listened as Diana Ladd stood at the microphone and spoke about old times. "As some of you know, in the early seventies I went through a rough patch. I was teaching on the reservation, had lost my husband, and had a brand-new baby. Not many people stuck with me during that time, but Larry and Gayle Stryker did, and I'll always be grateful for that. Over the years it's been gratifying for me to see what they've done with their lives and to watch as they've turned a single idea into a powerful tool for good." Larry searched the sea of upturned faces until he caught sight of Brandon Walker sitting at one of the foremost tables. The former sheriff, looking uncomfortable and out of his element in what was probably a rented tux, sat with his arms folded across his chest. Their eyes met briefly. Brandon nodded in acknowledgment, but there was nothing friendly in the gesture -- on either side. Former sheriff. That was the operant word here. While Diana Ladd spoke of the good old times, Larry was free to let his thoughts drift back to those times as well. Fortunately, no one in the room -- most especially Brandon Walker -- was able to read his mind. Day of the Dead A Novel of Suspense . Copyright © by J. Jance. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from Day of the Dead by J. A. Jance All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
