Rating: 
Summary: Magnificent
Review: This one of my all-time favorite series. One of the reasons that I appreciate this series is that I have read the first book in the series, DESERT HEAT, first. I liked it so much that I managed to read every other book in the series in sequence getting to know each of the main characters well. One reason the series is good is that an ordinary woman (Joanna Brady) becomes an extraordinary woman (Sheriff Joanna Brady) by circumstances beyond her control, but still finds the time to become an ordinary woman (a loving mother to her daughter, Jenny as well as newlywed wife to her new husband, Butch). PARADISE LOST is my all-time favorite book in this series. (...)In this novel, a time of a month and a half has passed since DEVIL'S CLAW. Joanna and Butch are back from their honeymoon in France and are now adjusting to married life. During a Girl Scout camping trip, Jenny (Joanna's daughter) and her tentmate find a body of a woman, while Joanna is eight hours away from town attending a Sheriff's convention as well as attending the wedding of Butch's friend. Later, Jenny's friend is killed in a hit-and-run accident and that's when things start to get dicey. Joanna Brady has matured gracefully from a grieving policeman's widow to Sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona. She is no longer a neophyte and knows how to give orders and get things done. It is always a pleasure to see her friends, Maryanne Maculyea, Jeff Daniels, Kristin, among others. These characters also change as each book comes along and one is always wondering what's going to happen next. I was disappointed that Angie Kellogg did not make an appearance in this book but it is the richness Ms. Jance gives to all her other characters that makes it a special series. (...)
Rating: 
Summary: Joanna Brady investigates another murder
Review: This series has been going on for a long time now. I first read a J.A.Jance novel when she had only a few J.P.Beaumont novels. No one even knew that she was female, because the books had been released as paperback originals, without author photos in the back of the books. I've been following her ever since. Jance is a serviceable, if not brilliant author. Her writing style is pretty good, though her ear for dialog is only so-so. Where she's strongest is characters and plots. This book is no exception. The main character, Joanna Brady, is the housewife-turned-sherriff who works to run her department and solve crimes. In this installment, Joanna's daughter and a classmate sneak off from a camp-out to smoke a cigarette and find a dead body. The victim is a middle-aged former spinster who's lost her fortune to a fortune-hunting husband, who's now apparently lured her to her death, or at least that's what everyone thinks. Joanna works her way through the mystery, interviewing witnesses and suspects, and listening to reports from detectives and so forth who do more of the same. This is not the strongest of the Brady books. For one thing, the series was better when she was a younger sherriff, and the men in the department were somewhat suspicious of her. She has to prove herself. Now she's done that, and so things are somewhat more tepid. Instead, she has ups and downs with a new husband, a daughter who's growing up, and so forth. They don't add to the story as much as they might. That being said, this is still a good book, and a worthy addition to the series. The plot's not entirely predictable, and the story takes some twists and turns that are fun, to say the least.
Rating: 
Summary: Sheriff Brady's Bunch
Review: This sprawling mystery has a soap opera feel to it. Sheriff Joanna Brady doesn't just solve crimes. She is newly remarried, mother of a sensitive 12-year old daughter, has an irritating mother, and what looks to be a househusband. I felt the walls of resistance rising against slogging through this type of story. But Ms. Jance is an experienced spinner of tales, and I became involved almost in spite of myself. Joanna's daughter and tent mate discover a brutally murdered woman while at a Girl Scout camp out. The girls snuck away after to lights out to smoke cigarettes and encountered a body instead. For a while there, I didn't know which caused more consternation; the discovery of the body or sneaking smokes. But when the daughter's tent mate is found dead in suspicious circumstances, things heat up. Joanna's understaffed department is confronted with a possible serial killer, a car jacker, and the daughter's safety. While the serial killer plot is fairly transparent, the death of the 13-year old tent mate is not. Ms. Jance does an excellent job of unfolding clues and motives perfectly paced and well placed. The author's strength is in her story telling abilities and her obvious love of the desert locale. Her weaknesses are dialogue and male characters with as many dimensions as volleyball. The husband is a marvel of patience and understanding, her chief deputy is robotically perfect at following orders and her former father-in-law is a lovable old geezer. Too much of the book takes place in a car. Apparently Sheriff Brady does not believe in phones (though she is forever on her cell phone), faxes or even inquiring as to whether someone is at home before sending half her staff whizzing across state while she takes off in the other direction. But even with these shortcomings, the story moves along and keeps the reader engaged. I think "Paradise Lost" would be a good Young Adult selection.
-Sweetmolly-Amazon.com Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Sheriff Brady's Bunch
Review: This sprawling mystery has a soap opera feel to it. Sheriff Joanna Brady doesn't just solve crimes. She is newly remarried, mother of a sensitive 12-year old daughter, has an irritating mother, and what looks to be a househusband. I felt the walls of resistance rising against slogging through this type of story. But Ms. Jance is an experienced spinner of tales, and I became involved almost in spite of myself. Joanna's daughter and tent mate discover a brutally murdered woman while at a Girl Scout camp out. The girls snuck away after to lights out to smoke cigarettes and encountered a body instead. For a while there, I didn't know which caused more consternation; the discovery of the body or sneaking smokes. But when the daughter's tent mate is found dead in suspicious circumstances, things heat up. Joanna's understaffed department is confronted with a possible serial killer, a car jacker, and the daughter's safety. While the serial killer plot is fairly transparent, the death of the 13-year old tent mate is not. Ms. Jance does an excellent job of unfolding clues and motives perfectly paced and well placed. The author's strength is in her story telling abilities and her obvious love of the desert locale. Her weaknesses are dialogue and male characters with as many dimensions as volleyball. The husband is a marvel of patience and understanding, her chief deputy is robotically perfect at following orders and her former father-in-law is a lovable old geezer. Too much of the book takes place in a car. Apparently Sheriff Brady does not believe in phones (though she is forever on her cell phone), faxes or even inquiring as to whether someone is at home before sending half her staff whizzing across state while she takes off in the other direction. But even with these shortcomings, the story moves along and keeps the reader engaged. I think "Paradise Lost" would be a good Young Adult selection.
-Sweetmolly-Amazon.com Reviewer
Rating: 
Summary: No suspense here
Review: This was my 1st book by this author and will most likely be the last. The characters were likeable enough but the story was just so-so. I didn't find this book suspenseful at all. And also, the last sentence on the back cover about the killer's "bloody agenda" targeting Brady's daughter is misleading. I thought this was a book about someone stalking or trying to kill the girl but it is not like that at all. If you must read it, pick it up at the library, don't buy it!!
Rating:
Summary: J. A. Jance adds dimension
Review: to her heroine in the Joanna Brady series. Brady, the sheriff of Cochise County not only solves some pretty tough crimes with a lot of personal involvement in this novel, she has a new emotional mix to balance. With her new marriage and a "house husband" and a daughter who is just beginning the throes of teenage angst, Brady exhibits some of the emotional stress that comes with the territory of being a wife, mother and career woman. Jance once again treats us to the wild beauty of the deserts she was raised in, while giving us some reality of the tedium/political balance and danger that involves police work, particularly for women in management. Brady is drawn in a more complex faction, and Jance is wise to insure that she makes some mistakes and acts in ways that we shake our heads at from time to time. The supporting cast is also strongly drawn, and its nice to not like Jenny, Brady's daughter very much -- the writer gives a picture of a real teen, not just an accessory to the family. Jenny's personally involved in finding the first of three bodies in homicides that occur in a few days in Cochise County. The murders, which appear to be related, are, in a sort of "domino theory" way. In addition, the problems of meth labs in the wilderness, unregistered aliens and carjackings in southern Arizona are highlighted, helping the reader understand what a difficult piece of real estate Brady has inherited as sheriff. In this book, we actually get some insight and humanity from Brady's mother, Eleanor, for the first time! Eleanor's own second marriage is described in realistic terms, as is the infighting and small conflicts of the sheriff's troop. I'm always anxious to buy and consume a new Jance novel; her heroine has not grown stale and shows promise of more complexity and action-oriented stories in the future. Great read!
Rating:
Summary: J.A. Jance cranks up the intensity
Review: When her daughter and a fellow scout find a corpse, and then the fellow scout is killed, Sheriff Joanna Brady springs into action. She means to protect her daughter no matter what and no sacrifice, even promises to her new husband, will get in the way. Brady goes after the killer(s) with dogged determination and all of the scientific help modern criminal labs can bring to the table. Like some of the earlier Joanna Brady mysteries, I did find some missing details here. Whatever happened to Maggie MacFerson, for example, after she threatened to destroy Brady's career? Because Jance does such a fine job in developing her characters and because she adds true emotional intensity to the involving mystery, I found I didn't mind. Jance does an excellent job interweaving the mystery with the emotional and personal lives of her characters. As Brady is losing the race with the murders, she is also losing her connection to her mother, her daughter, and her husband. The harder she tries, the more she risks everything she wants out of life. Resolution of these personal matters is every bit as important as the resolution of the mystery, and Jance does a fine job delivering a satisfying conclusion to both.
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