Dead to Rights (Joanna Brady Mysteries (Audio))

Rating:
Summary: Great - Except for Chapter 20
Review: Dead to Rights tells the story of a very bad week in the life of Sheriff Joanna Brady. Still trying to cope with the murder of her late husband, Sheriff Brady also has to cope with murder, suicide, undocumented aliens, a weaselly governor, workplace squabbling , and hostile newspaperfolk. Add to that enough mother-daughter conflict and examples of marital frustration to rival The Joy Luck Club, and you've got a novel that keeps things hopping.

The only area in which the book falls short is when it reveals the murderer of Bucky Buckwalter. I've read Chapter 20 several times and motivations still don't make a lot of sense.

This book has a great deal of character development in it, as well as the advancement of several of the ongoing subplots. If you've read later books, but not this one you'll find it helpful in its detailing, among other things, Marianne Maculyea's adoption experience, how Jenny gets Kiddo the horse, Butch Dixon coming on the scene, and Eleanor and Doc Winfield hooking up.

While the mystery falls a little flat at the end, Jance does an excellent job keeping the pace up and developing her characters and storylines. While I wouldn't suggest this as the first Joanna Brady novel you read - pick up Desert Heat or Partners in Crime for that - this is definitely a don't-miss book.

Rating:
Summary: Hum drum desert mystery
Review: I've read several of the Joanna Brady books, and they are very pleasant to read, but this one was a little dry. The killer's motivation didn't excite me much, and the side stories were not extremely compelling either in this sub-par entry to the excellent series.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Simple-Minded Mystery
Review: This book is entertaining enough if you have to find something to read on a bus ride or in a waiting room. The story is ok, the characters are likable enough. It's easy to empathize with Joanna. "Dead to Rights" is not a page turner, but it's not boring. It's all pretty shallow; there's no meat to the story and nothing particularly impressive about the writing. Not memorable.

For comparison's sake, I'd say that the Joanna Brady mysteries are about as sophisticated & engaging as Lilian Jackson Braun's "The Cat Who..." series (although there is a bit more violence in the J.A. Jance books). It's fine for someone looking for a quick & easy little story. A more serious-minded reader will think this is a waste of time & paper.

By the way, another reviewer calls the "The First Book in this Series," but that means that it's the first book that that reviewer read, not that it's the first in the series. If you're going to read the series, you may as well start in the beginning: "Desert Heat" is the first book I believe, and this is the fourth or fifth.