Review by Booklist Review
Jance's usual hero, Sheriff Joanna Brady, plays a supporting role in this grim police procedural. Native American Dan Pardee just joined the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Task Force (MIP), whose aim is to track missing Indigenous women whose disappearances are often neglected by traditional law enforcement agencies. Dan's first case is to determine the identity of charred female remains found in the desert. Eventually, he learns that the dead woman was Rosa Rios, who was strangled, burned, and abandoned. As he investigates further, he finds other distressing cases with a similar MO, and all of the women were associated with the rodeo circuit. Dan begins to suspect that the women were victims of a ruthless serial killer. While the story is mainly about Dan's search for the murderer, it also focuses on family dynamics; Native American history, lore, traditions, and langua the mistreatment of the Indigenous peop reconciliation and closure; and the importance of a person's heritage. An intriguing read guaranteed to keep audiences engaged from first page to last.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Jance (Nothing to Lose) proves she's still at the top of her game in this tense crossover of her Joanna Brady and Walker Family series. A prologue, set in July 2022, identifies drifter Charles Milton as the murderer of six people. The action then flashes back to 2019, when Milton abducts Rosa Rios from a bar in Tucson, Ariz., before strangling and stabbing her to death. Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady and her daughter, Jennifer, who knew Rios, take notice, and since Rios was Native American, her disappearance also attracts the attention of Dan Pardee, an investigator for the Department of the Interior's new unit for cases involving Indigenous victims (and son-in-law of Brandon Walker). Milton's efforts to disguise Rios's body--which include dousing it with bleach, removing her teeth, and burning the remains--delay authorities' progress in identifying her. When the remains are finally identified, Dan, Joanna, and Jennifer all set out to track down the person responsible. It's a testament to Jance's talents that she gives away the killer's identity and fate at the book's outset, yet still manages to wring heart-stopping suspense from the central investigation. Nearly four decades into her career, Jance is still finding new ways to thrill her readers. Agent: Alice Volpe, Northwest Literary. (Sept.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
For reasons she doesn't explain until her "After-Afterword," Jance works her most popular detective, Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady, into the latest installment of her Walker Family chronicles. But it's not a starring role. Joanna is the one whom Dan Pardee, a federal agent of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Task Force, asks for help when the body of a young woman discovered outside Tucson three years ago is finally identified as that of Rosa Rios, who was followed out of a local bar and strangled shortly after she was expelled from high school. As the husband of Dr. Lanita Walker-Pardee, Dan is the pivotal figure who binds together the myriad parts of a convoluted tale that combines Indigenous family history and serial homicide. But it's criminal-justice major Jenny Brady who realizes that the case her mother has described to her has unsettling parallels to the recent attack on Jenny's rodeo competitor Deborah Russell, who was lucky enough to be rescued by the worthless boyfriend with whom she'd had a rendezvous. Deb hasn't reported the incident because she was afraid that her Mormon family would be scandalized by both the boyfriend and the rendezvous, and she has no intention of reporting it now. So there's no official record of the attack, and Jenny, then Dan, are the only ones who have access to the information that will ultimately unmask a killer revealed on page 1 as Charlie Milton, né Ronald J. Addison. Readers who find the manhunt lacking in surprise may prefer the updates on Lani and Dan's complicated family, but it's hard to imagine many readers loving the whole shebang. A labor of love triggered by a serial killer. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
