J.A. Jance Books in Order

J. A. Jance (Judith Ann Jance) is a well-known mystery and thriller author from the United States.  She has made many contributions to the genre with her writings. She has created several famous works throughout her career. She is known for her ability to combine characterization and narrative while having the reader intrigued.

Judith Ann Jance was born on October 27, 1944, in Watertown, South Dakota.  She grew up in Bisbee, Arizona. She developed a strong passion for reading and writing over the years. She absorbed everything from the world around her and formed her thoughts to come.

She would devote herself to her trade with a serious sense of dedication. She did this while attending the University of Arizona, where she graduated.

Over the years, she collected materials to incorporate into her work, developing and refining it.

Her publisher urged her not to reveal her gender by using her initials as her pen name. He believed that readers might not appreciate a male detective novel written by a woman.

Beginning in 1985, she published her first book, ‘Until Proven Guilty.’  This title would introduce her to the general public. This would also be the first novel in the lengthy J P Beaumont detective series.

She still writes, dividing her time between Arizona and Seattle throughout the year.

J.A. Jance Books in order 

J.P. Beaumont

1. Until Proven Guilty (1985)
2. Injustice For All (1986)
3. Trial by Fury (1986)
4. Taking the Fifth (1987)
5. Improbable Cause (1988)
6. A More Perfect Union (1988)
7. Dismissed with Prejudice (1989)
8. Minor in Possession (1990)
9. Payment In Kind (1991)
10. Without Due Process (1992)
11. Failure to Appear (1993)
12. Lying in Wait (1994)
13. Name Withheld (1996)
14. Breach Of Duty (1999)
15. Birds of Prey (2001)
16. Partner in Crime (2002)
17. Long Time Gone (2005)
18. Justice Denied (2007)
19. Fire and Ice (2009)
20. Betrayal of Trust (2011)
21. Second Watch (2013)
22. Ring In the Dead (2013)
23. Stand Down (2015)
24. Dance of the Bones (2015)
25. Still Dead (2017)
26. Proof of Life (2017)
27. Sins of the Fathers (2019)
28. Nothing to Lose (2022)

Joanna Brady

1. Desert Heat (1993)
2. Tombstone Courage (1995)
3. Shoot Don’t Shoot (1995)
4. Dead to Rights (1997)
5. Skeleton Canyon (1997)
6. Rattlesnake Crossing (1998)
7. Outlaw Mountain (1999)
8. Devil’s Claw (2001)
9. Paradise Lost (2001)
10. Partner in Crime (2002)
11. Exit Wounds (2003)
12. Dead Wrong (2006)
13. Damage Control (2008)
14. Fire and Ice (2009)
15. Judgment Call (2012)
16. The Old Blue Line (2014)
17. Remains of Innocence (2014)
18. Random Acts (2016)
19. Downfall (2016)
20. Field of Bones (2018)
21. Missing and Endangered (2021)

Ali Reynolds

1. Edge of Evil (2005)
2. Web of Evil (2007)
3. Hand of Evil (2007)
4. Cruel Intent (2008)
5. Trial by Fire (2009)
6. Fatal Error (2011)
7. Left for Dead (2012)
8. Deadly Stakes (2013)
9. Moving Target (2014)
10. A Last Goodbye (2014)
11. Cold Betrayal (2015)
12. No Honor Among Thieves (2015)
13. Clawback (2016)
14. Random Acts (2016)
15. Man Overboard (2017)
16. Duel to the Death (2018)
17. The A List (2019)
18. Taking the Veil (2019)
19. Credible Threat (2020)
20. Unfinished Business (2021)

Walker Family Mysteries

1. Hour of the Hunter (1991)
2. Kiss of the Bees (1993)
3. Day of the Dead (2004)
4. Queen of the Night (2010)
5. Dance of the Bones (2015)

Standalone Novel

1. After the Fire (1984)

MatchUp Collection

1. Honor & … (2017)
2. Deserves to Be Dead (2017)
3. Getaway (2017)
4. Midnight Flame (2018)
5. Short Story (2019)
6. Past Prologue (2019)
7. Faking a Murderer (2019)
8. Dig Here (2019)
9. Taking the Veil (2019)
10. Rambo on Their Minds (2019)
11. Footloose (2019)

World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories

1. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 1 (2000)
2. The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 5 (2004)

Similar authors

• The Joe Pickett series by C.J. Box follows a game warden and his family. They live in a rural village as the political and economical situation changes.
• David Baldacci’s Atlee Pine series features an FBI agent with special skills. He’s assigned to the wilds of the United States and has to confront various threats. See also: David Baldacci’s John Puller Books in Order.

See also: Joanna Brady’s Books in Order.

Most recommended books:

1. Nothing to Lose (J.P. Beaumont, #25) (4.51 Goodreads score)
2. Unfinished Business (Ali Reynolds, #16) (4.33 Goodreads score)
3. It’s Not Your Fault Single (4.31 Goodreads score)
4. Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19) (4.26 Goodreads score)
5. Remains of Innocence (4.25 Goodreads score)

Awards

Jance has won and been nominated for various literary awards. In 1992 and 1993, she won the American Mystery Award.”A Last Goodbye,” published in 2014, and “Random Acts,” published in 2016, were both on the New York Times bestseller list.

Upcoming releases

The next J.A. Jance book is called Collateral Damage and will be released in 2023.

Book summaries

Until Proven Guilty (1985)

The girl was only five, much too young to die – a lost treasure who should have been cherished, not murdered. She could have been J. P. Beaumont’s kid, and the determined Seattle homicide detective won’t rest until her killer pays dearly. But the hunt is leading Beaumont into a murky world of religious fanaticism and toward a beautiful, perilous obsession of his own.

Injustice For All (1986)

The blonde on the beach was screaming. A dead man lay at her feet. But the murder is only the first ingredient J. P. Beaumont discovers in a deadly mixture of politics and passion.

Trial by Fury (1986)

The dead body discovered in a Seattle dumpster was shocking enough—but equally disturbing was the manner of death. The victim, a high school coach, had been lynched, leaving behind a very pregnant wife to grieve over his passing, and to wonder what dark secrets he took to his grave. A Homicide detective with twenty years on the job, J.P. Beaumont knows this case is a powder keg and he fears where this investigation will lead him. Because the answers lie on the extreme lethal edge of passion and hate, where the wrong kind of love can breed the most terrible brand of justice.

Taking the Fifth (1987)

In Taking the Fifth, a gruesome and very unusual murder plunges the intrepid Beau into a lethal cinematic nightmare. Michigan’s Flint Journal places Jance “in the elite company of Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell.

Improbable Cause (1988)

Perhaps it was fitting justice: a dentist who enjoyed inflicting pain was murdered in his own chair. The question is not who wanted Dr. Frederick Nielsen dead, but rather who of the many finally reached the breaking point. The sordid details of this case, with its shocking revelations of violence, cruelty, and horrific sexual abuse, would be tough for any investigator to stomach. But for Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont, the most damning piece of the murderous puzzle will shake him to his very core — because what will be revealed to him is nothing less than the true meaning of unrepentant evil.

A More Perfect Union (1988)

A shocking photo screamed from the front pages of the tabloids—the last moments of a life captured for all the world to see. The look of sheer terror eternally frozen on the face of the doomed woman indicated that her fatal fall from an upper story of an unfinished Seattle skyscraper was no desperate suicide—and that look will forever haunt Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont. But his hunt for answers and justice is leading to more death, and to dark and terrible secrets scrupulously guarded by men of steel behind the locked doors of a powerful union that extracts its dues payments in blood.

Dismissed with Prejudice (1989)

The blood at the scene belies any suggestion of an “honorable death.” Yet, to the eyes of the Seattle police, a successful Japanese software magnate died exactly as he wished—and by his own hand, according to the ancient rite of seppuku. Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont can’t dismiss what he sees as an elaborate suicide, however, not when something about it makes his flesh crawl. Because small errors in the ritual suggest something darker: a killer who will go to extraordinary lengths to escape detection—a fiend with a less traditional passion . . . for cold-blooded murder.

Minor in Possession (1990)

All manner of sinners and sufferers come to the rehab ranch in Arizona when they hit rock bottom. For Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont, there is a deeper level of Hell here: being forced to room with teenage drug dealer Joey Rothman. An all-around punk, Joey deserves neither pity nor tears—until he is murdered by a bullet fired from Beaumont’s gun. Someone has set Beau up brilliantly for a long and terrifying fall, dragging the alcoholic ex-cop into a conspiracy of blood and lies that could cost him his freedom . . . and his life.

Payment In Kind (1991)

It looks like a classic crime of passion to Detective J.P Beaumont: two corpses found lovingly entwined in a broom closet of the Seattle School District building. The prime suspect, Pete Kelsey, admits his slain spouse was no novice at adultery, yet he swears he had nothing to do with the brutal deaths of the errant school official and her clergyman-turned-security guard companion. Beau believes him, but there’s something the much sinned-upon widower’s not telling—and that spells serious trouble still to come.Because the secret Pete’s protecting is even hotter than extra-marital sex. . . and it could prove more lethal than murder.

Without Due Process (1992)

What kind of monster would break into a man’s home at night, then slaughter him and his family? The fact that the dead man was a model cop who was loved and respected by all only intensifies the horror. But the killer missed someone: a five-year-old boy who was hiding in the closet. Now word is being leaked out that the victim was “dirty.” But Seattle P.D. Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont isn’t about to let anyone drag a murdered friend’s reputation through the muck. And he’ll put his own life on the firing line on the gang-ruled streets to save a terrified child who knows too much to live.

Failure to Appear (1993)

A desperate father’s search for his runaway daughter has led him to the last place he ever expected to find her: backstage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. But the murders in this dazzling world of make-believe are no mere stagecraft, and the blood is all too real. The hunt for his child has plunged former Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont into a bone-chilling drama of revenge, greed, and butchery, where innocents are made to suffer in perverse and terrible ways. And many more young lives are at stake, unless he can uncover the villain of the piece before the final, deadly curtain falls.

Lying in Wait (1994)

The sky above Puget Sound blazes orange, as a burning fishing boat fills the air with acrid smoke . . . and the sickening odor of charred flesh. The terrible death of a Seattle fisherman has raised more questions than answers, opening a Pandora’s Box of evil that was kept tightly closed for more than half a century. Now a dark cloud is descending over the dead man’s frightened widow, and she must turn for help to an old friend, Detective J.P. Beaumont, the one man who can free her from a web of murderous greed and oppressive terror. But the secrets that hold Else Didricksen prisoner are about to ensnare Beaumont as well . . . in ways he never dreamed possible.

Name Withheld (1996)

There are those who don’t deserve to live—and the corpse floating in Elliott Bay may have been one of those people. Not surprisingly, many individuals, too many in fact, are eager to take responsibility for the brutal slaying of the hated biotech executive whose alleged crimes ranged from the illegal trading of industrial secrets to rape. For Seattle Detective J.P. Beaumont—who’s drowning in his own life-shattering problems—a case of seemingly justifiable homicide has sinister undertones, drawing the haunted policeman into a corporate nightmare world of double deals, savage jealousies, and real blood spilled far too easily, as it leads him closer to a killer he’s not sure he wants to find.

Breach Of Duty (1999)

Jonas Piedmont Beaumont has had a hard life and learned at a young age how hard life can be. Two marriages, a treacherous battle with the bottle, assorted midlife and moral dilemmas, and a few decades as a homicide detective haven’t convinced him otherwise. When Beau and his new partner Sue Danielson are assigned the murder of an elderly woman torched to death in her bed, Beau finds himself distracted by Sue’s difficulties at home. Distraction turns to terror as Sue and Beau find themselves caught up in a series of events that will leave them and their carefully constructed investigation shattered.

Birds of Prey (2001)

The Starfire Breeze steams its way north toward the Gulf of Alaska, buffeted by crisp sea winds blowing down from the Arctic. Those on board are seeking peace, relaxation, adventure, escape. But there is no escape in this place of unspoiled natural majesty. Because terror strolls the decks even in the brilliant light of day . . . and death is a conspicuous, unwelcome passenger. Former Seattle policeman J.P. Beaumont—a damaged homicide detective who has come here to heal from fresh, stinging wounds—will find that the grim ghosts pursuing him were not left behind . . . as a pleasure cruise gone horribly wrong carries him into lethal, ever-darkening waters.

Partner in Crime (2002)

The dead woman on a cold slab in the Arizona morgue was a talented artist recently arrived from the West Coast. The Washington State Attorney General’s office thinks this investigation is too big for a small-town female law officer to handle, so they’re sending Sheriff Joanna Brady some unwanted help—a seasoned detective named Beaumont. Sheriff Brady resents his intrusion, and Bisbee, Arizona, with its ghosts and memories, is the last place J.P. Beaumont wants to be. But the twisting desert road they must reluctantly travel together is leading them into a very deadly nest of rattlers. And if they hope to survive, suddenly trust is the only option they have left . . .

Long Time Gone (2005)

Fifty years ago, when she was five, Sister Mary Katherine witnessed something terrible . . .A former Seattle policeman now working for the Washington State Attorney’s Special Homicide Investigation Team, J.P. Beaumont has been hand-picked to lead the investigation into a half-century-old murder. An eyewitness to the crime, a middle-aged nun, has now recalled grisly, forgotten details while undergoing hypnotherapy.It’s a case as cold as the grave, and it’s running headlong into another that’s tearing at Beau’s heart: the vicious slaying of his former partner’s ex-wife. What’s worse, his rapidly unraveling friend is the prime suspect.Caught in the middle of a lethal conspiracy that spans two generations and a killing that hits too close to home — targeted by a vengeful adversary and tempted by a potential romance that threatens to reawaken his personal demons — Beaumont may suddenly have more on his plate than he can handle, and far too much to survive.

Justice Denied (2007)

The murder of an ex-drug dealer ex-con—gunned down on his mother’s doorstep—seems just another turf war fatality. Why then has Seattle homicide investigator J.P. Beaumont been instructed to keep this assignment hush-hush? Meanwhile, Beau’s lover and fellow cop, Mel Soames, is involved in her own confidential investigation. Registered sex offenders from all over Washington State are dying at an alarming rate—and not all due to natural causes.A metropolis the size of Seattle holds its fair share of brutal crime, corruption, and dirty little secrets. But when the separate trails they’re following begin to shockingly intertwine, Beau and Mel realize that they have stumbled onto something bigger and more frightening than they anticipated—a deadly conspiracy that’s leading them to lofty places they should not enter . . . and may not be allowed to leave alive.

Fire and Ice (2009)

Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady and Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont—in Fire and Ice, as the separate investigations into grisly homicides in two different states shockingly intertwine. As Jance proved in her previous Beau/Brady pairing, Partner in Crime, when these two join forces, fireworks happen. Fire and Ice is not to be missed.

Betrayal of Trust (2011)

When Beau discovers a snuff film recorded on a smart phone—a horrific crime that has a devastating effect on two troubled teens—his investigation unleashes a firestorm that blazes all the way up through the halls of Washington state government. Betrayal of Trust is certain to win this phenomenal crime fiction master (“In the elite company of Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell”—Flint Journal) a wealth of new fans while enthralling the army of devoted readers already addicted to the potent Jance magic.

Second Watch (2013)

Second Watch shows Beaumont taking some time off to get knee replacement surgery, but instead of taking his mind off work, the operation plunges him into one of the most perplexing mysteries he’s ever faced. His past collides with his present in this complex and thrilling story that explores loss and heartbreak, duty and honor, and, most importantly, the staggering cost of war and the debts we owe those who served in the Vietnam War, and those in uniform today.

Ring In the Dead (2013)

One day, at the end of Beaumont and Pickles’s shift, a stop at the Doghouse restaurant quickly turns deadly. Not feeling well, Pickles steps out into the parking lot for a breath of fresh air and stumbles into a crime in progress. Suffering from a heart attack, he is found unconscious, with a dead woman on the ground nearby and the murder weapon in his hand.With Pickles under investigation from Internal Affairs, it’s up to the new kid on the block, J. P. Beaumont, and his friends on the force to find out the truth.

Stand Down (2015)

Life has shifted for J. P. Beaumont. After a tragic accident that devastated—and ultimately disbanded—his Special Homicide Investigation Team, he accepts that he has left homicide detection behind at this point, but he has a lot of unanticipated free time on his hands. He’s keeping busy with renovations on the new house that he and his wife, Mel Soames, the newly appointed chief of police in Bellingham, Washington, have bought. But new fixtures and paint palettes can occupy only so much of Beau’s daily life, and Mel is encouraging him to return to where he is needed: investigating crimes.In the meantime, she is struggling to gain control of her new situation, cast into a department where some are welcoming—and some are not. It’s been a few months, and the tension in the police department is rising, but Beau realizes Mel has to tackle things in her own way, so he refrains from advising. But when Beau shows up one afternoon to survey the construction at their new house and finds Mel’s car there but no sign of her, his investigative instincts kick in. Suddenly he’s back in the game—except this time, his heart is on the line as well as his professional dignity.

Dance of the Bones (2015)

Years ago, Amos Warren, a prospector, was gunned down out in the desert and Sheriff Brandon Walker made the arrest in the case. Now, the retired Walker is called in when the alleged killer, John Lassiter, refuses to accept a plea deal that would release him from prison with time served. Lassiter wants Brandon and The Last Chance to find Amos’s “real” killer and clear his name.Sixteen hundred miles to the north in Seattle, J.P. Beaumont is at loose ends after the Special Homicide Investigation Team, affectionately known as S.H.I.T., has been unexpectedly and completely disbanded. When Brandon discovers that there are links between Lassiter’s case and an unsolved case in Seattle, he comes to Beau for help.Those two cases suddenly become hot when two young boys from the reservation, one of them with close ties to the Walker family, go missing. Can two seasoned cops, working together, decipher the missing pieces in time to keep them alive?

Still Dead (2017)

Since the disbanding of the Special Homicide Investigation Team, J. P. Beaumont’s biggest concern is pondering whether he and his wife Mel should finally get a dog. But one voicemail from his old friend Ralph Ames is about to change that. Through Ralph, Beau has become involved in an organization called The Last Chance, which enlists a number of retired homicide investigators to tackle long-unsolved cold cases. The one that has just landed on Beau’s plate is a thirty-year-old missing persons case.The facts are muddy at best; Janice Marie Harrison’s car was found abandoned near a bridge, and scratched in the dirt nearby was the word “sorry.” It’s possible her death was a suicide, but her body was never found. And as Beau begins to investigate, he discovers that no one connected to Janice—not her once-all-star football player widower, Anders; not her long-grieving sister, Estelle; not sheriff Gavin Loper, who was deputy sheriff at the time of Janice’s disappearance; and not Anders’s second wife Betsy—is exactly what they seem. The question is, which of them knows the truth?And why have they kept it buried?

Proof of Life (2017)

Be careful what you wish for . . .Before he retired, J. P. Beaumont had looked forward to having his days all to himself. But too much free time doesn’t suit a man used to brushing close to danger. When his longtime nemesis, retired Seattle crime reporter Maxwell Cole, dies in what’s officially deemed to be an accidental fire, Beau is astonished to be dragged into the investigation at the request of none other than the deceased victim himself. In the process Beau learns that just because a long-ago case was solved doesn’t mean it’s over.Caught up in a situation where old actions and grudges can hold dangerous consequences in the present, Beau is forced to operate outside the familiar world of law enforcement. While seeking justice for his frenemy and healing for a long fractured family, he comes face to face with an implacable enemy who has spent decades hiding in plain sight.

Sins of the Fathers (2019)

Former Seattle homicide cop, J. P. Beaumont, is learning to enjoy the new realities of retirementdoing morning crossword puzzles by a roaring fireplace; playing frisbee with his new dog; having quiet lunches with his still working wife.But then his pastcomes calling.When a long ago acquaintance, Alan Dale, shows up on Beaus doorstep with a newborn infant in hand and asking for help locating his missing daughter, Beau finds himself faced with an investigation that will turn his own life upside down by dragging hisnone-too-stellar past onto a roller-coaster ride that may well derail his serene present.It turns out that, even in retirement. murder is still the name of J. P. Beaumonts game.

Nothing to Lose (2022)

Years ago, when he was a homicide detective with the Seattle PD, J. P. Beaumont’s partner, Sue Danielson, was murdered. Volatile and angry, Danielson’s ex-husband came after her in her home and, with nowhere else to turn, Jared, Sue’s teenage son, frantically called Beau for help. As Beau rushed to the scene, he urged Jared to grab his younger brother and flee the house. In the end, Beaumont’s plea and Jared’s quick action saved the two boys from their father’s murderous rage.Now, almost twenty years later, Jared reappears in Beau’s life seeking his help once again—his younger brother Chris is missing. Still haunted by the events of that tragic night, Beau doesn’t hesitate to take on the case. Following a lead all the way to the wilds of wintertime Alaska, he encounters a tangled web of family secrets in which a killer with nothing to lose is waiting to take another life.

Desert Heat (1993)

A cop lies dying beneath the blistering Arizona sun—a local lawman who may well have become the next sheriff of Cochise County. The police brass claim that Andy Brady was dirty, and that his shooting was a suicide attempt. Joanna Brady, his devoted wife and mother of their nine-year-old daughter, knows a cover-up when she hears one . . . and murder when she sees it. But her determined efforts to hunt down an assassin and clear her husband’s name are placing Joanna and her surviving family in harm’s way—because in the desert, the one thing more lethal than a rattler’s bite . . . is the truth.

Tombstone Courage (1995)

With grit, courage and dogged determination, Joanne challenged the status quo — and won. Now, as newly elected Sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, she must battle the prejudice and hostility of a mistrustful, male-dominated police force — and solve a grisly double homicide that threatens to tear the sleepy desert community to pieces. For the two bodies baking in the harsh Southwestern sun are connected by sinister threads that reach back generations — and by devastating family secrets of greed, hatred and shocking abuse that could destroy the innocent along with the guilty.

Shoot Don’t Shoot (1995)

A prisoner languishes in a Phoenix jail cell accused of slaying his estranged wife. No one believes the man is innocent, except the new female sheriff of Cochise County, in town for a crash course in police training. Joanna Brady is out of her jurisdiction—and possibly out of her league. For a human monster is on the prowl, hiding the grisly evidence of his horrific crimes in the vast emptiness of the Arizona desert. And an impromptu investigation, with no official sanction, and no back-up, is drawing a cold, ingenious serial killer much too close to Brady for comfort—and closer, worse still, to her little girl.

Dead to Rights (1997)

A woman is cruelly cut down in a remote corner of Arizona, killed on her nineteenth wedding anniversary by a drunk motorist.? A year later, the driver himself dies badly, and all suspicions point to the slain woman’s still-grieving husband as his murderer. But the truth is rarely black and white in the long Southwestern shadows, and one law officer is not rushing to condemn the tragic widower so quickly: Joanna Brady, Sheriff of Cochise County. Brady’s convictions, however, are leading her on a twisted trail through inhospitable country—and setting her on a path that will bring her face-to-face with cold, calculating death in the high, lonely desert.

Skeleton Canyon (1997)

Brianna “Bree” O’Brien never returned from Skeleton Canyon. Someone brutally murdered the pretty, popular teenager who had stolen away under cover of darkness to rendezvous with her boyfriend. Perhaps youthful rage, jealousy and savage passion cost young Bree her life. Or maybe she stumbled onto something too dangerous to know. Sheriff Joanna Brady of Cochise County knows only too well the pain of losing a loved one to violence. But she is disturbed by the O’Brien’s insistence that Bree’s boyfriend is responsible for their daughter’s slaying. Joanna senses there are words not being spoken, and dark mysteries locked behind doors of the sprawling O’Brien family compound. But it is the strange disappearance of a good friend that is pulling Sheriff Brady ever closer to the lethal nest of lies, greed and secrets hiding in a desolate corner of the Arizona desert – where the next blood that feeds the parched, cracked earth could be her own.

Rattlesnake Crossing (1998)

Sheriff Joanna Brady is the law in Cochise County, and she will never allow her personal trials to interfere with the job she was elected to do—especially now that death has invaded Bisbee, Arizona, and has shattered the small desert town’s fragile peace.A gun dealer has died violently, and his stock of high-powered weapons has been cleaned out. Suspicion falls upon rancher Alton Hosfield, an armed separatist at war with the federal government and the local law—with everyone, in fact, whom he perceives as a threat to his independent way of life.Joanna Brady suspects the solution is not so cut-and-dried—especially when the cold-blooded slaying is followed by a series of others, equally horrific and perplexing. At best, an incendiary “Ruby Ridge” situation is brewing. At worst, a maniacal serial killer has come to feed on her unsuspecting community. But Joanna’s preoccupation with bringing a murderer to justice could take a terrible toll on her private life . . . and unravel threads of family, love, and responsibility that might never again be retied.

Outlaw Mountain (1999)

Alice Rogers, an elderly widow, is dead, found murdered in the Arizona desert. It’s easy enough to pin the killing on the teens caught driving her car across the Mexican border, but Sheriff Brady isn’t about to let it go at that. Alice was something of a free spirit, with a penchant for Scotch, the glitter of Las Vegas, and a romance with a man twenty years her junior. Her hot-tempered daughter Susan suspects Mom’s boyfriend—her former handyman who moved in instead of moving on when he finished his handy work. Now Susan’s furious at her brother Clete, the do-nothing mayor of Tombstone, blaming him for not protecting their inheritance by breaking up their mother’s winter romance.Yet all is not as it appears to be, and Joanna is forced to put her personal life on hold to dig deeper into Alice’s death, the lives of her greedy offspring, and the identity of her mysterious gentleman friend. And as the investigation gets sidetracked by ugly local land disputes, it takes some troublesome twists and turns, until Sheriff Brady finds herself wading through a murky morass of graft and corruption that may have given someone reason to kill—and kill again.

Devil’s Claw (2001)

In the night-still canyons of the Arizona desert, a girl is on the run. Alone but for her beloved red-tailed hawk, she flees from the dark shadows of her young life, the horror she has witnessed…and the terror that now stalks her.. Set against the backdrop of the modern west, this gripping tale finds Sheriff Brady juggling a precarious overload in both her personal and professional lives. About to be married, Joanna’s facing a daughter turning twelve and going on twenty, a meddlesome mother micro-managing her wedding, and new in-laws arriving any day. The sudden death of her much-loved neighbor and handyman, Clayton Rhodes, creates further turmoil, leaving Joanna shocked, saddened, and the target of Clayton’s irate and irrational daughter, who accuses the Sheriff’s Department of covering up a possible murder.But amidst the uproar, the report of a homicide at Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains quickly captures Joanna’s full attention. An Indian woman has been found shot to death–a woman recently released from prision after serving time for the manslaughter killing of her husband. She is the mother of a missing fifteen-year-old, Lucy Ridder.The death at first appears to be a case of domestic rage finally exploding’and a troubled teen runaway may be a victim, or a cold-blooded killer. Yet as Joanna deals with the long-standing troubles of Clayton Rhodes’ family and digs deeper into the mysterious life of Lucy and her family, she discovers that investigating family hostilities is leading her down a twisted trail of hatred, greed, and far-reaching consequences–and into a dangerous world where violence is the first response and long buried secrets are a reason to kill…or die.

Paradise Lost (2001)

When Cochise County, Arizona, Sheriff Joanna Brady′s daughter Jenny goes off on a Memorial Day weekend girl scout camp-out in nearby Apache Pass, Joanna trusts that her 12-year-old daughter will behave. But with boy-crazy Dora Matthews as a tentmate, Jenny is seduced into taking a late night unauthorized hike into the wilderness where–instead of smoking a clandestine cigarette–she and Dora stumble upon the body of a murdered Phoenix woman. Knowing that her little girl will be traumatized by her experience, Joanna must balance concern for Jenny with the demands of her new marriage and possible bid for reelection. But when young Dora Matthews herself turns up dead two days later, Joanna′s concern turns to terror. For if Constance Haskell′s killer is murdering potential witnesses, Jenny may be next.

Partner in Crime (2002)

The dead woman on a cold slab in the Arizona morgue was a talented artist recently arrived from the West Coast. The Washington State Attorney General’s office thinks this investigation is too big for a small-town female law officer to handle, so they’re sending Sheriff Joanna Brady some unwanted help—a seasoned detective named Beaumont. Sheriff Brady resents his intrusion, and Bisbee, Arizona, with its ghosts and memories, is the last place J.P. Beaumont wants to be. But the twisting desert road they must reluctantly travel together is leading them into a very deadly nest of rattlers. And if they hope to survive, suddenly trust is the only option they have left . . .

Exit Wounds (2003)

Sheriff Joanna Brady seeks an elusive and chillingly brutal killer whose crimes run deep into the past.

Dead Wrong (2006)

Juggling a family and a career has never been easy for Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady. Now the impending birth of her second child only adds to her burden, especially when two brutal crimes fall under her jurisdiction.A corpse is discovered in the Arizona desert with the fingers severed from both hands—the body of an ex-con who served twenty years for a murder he claimed not to remember. Soon after, one of Joanna’s female officers is savagely assaulted and left for dead while on an unauthorized stakeout. Since the victim is one of their own, the department directs the bulk of its resources toward finding her attacker. But the desert slaying haunts Joanna as well, and neither her pregnancy nor family concerns will keep her from doing her duty, no matter how perilous. Because justice must be served. And enforcing the law has become more than what Joanna Brady does—it’s what she is.

Damage Control (2008)

At first glance, it appears to be an accident . . .A car carrying an elderly couple goes off the side of a mountain and tumbles into oblivion on a beautiful sunny day in the Coronado National Monument. A note pulled from the twisted wreckage suggests the tragedy may have been a double suicide—but an autopsy later suggests something different. A deadly fire and a fatal home invasion may or may not have some connection to the terrible crash. And miles away in the desert, a savage rain has revealed something grisly and terrifying: two trash bags filled with human remains.It’s just another day in the life of Cochise County sheriff Joanna Brady, who must somehow balance the rigors of police work with a newborn, a teenager, a writer-husband, and a difficult mother. But Joanna will not allow murder to go unpunished in her jurisdiction—even if her path to the truth is twisting and dangerous . . . and leads to shocking revelations about those entrusted with caring for the helpless.

Fire and Ice (2009)

Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady and Seattle detective J.P. Beaumont—in Fire and Ice, as the separate investigations into grisly homicides in two different states shockingly intertwine. As Jance proved in her previous Beau/Brady pairing, Partner in Crime, when these two join forces, fireworks happen. Fire and Ice is not to be missed.

Judgment Call (2012)

With Judgment Call, Jance achieves a new high in crime fiction, as Brady wrestles with her conflicting roles of law officer and mother when her daughter discovers the murdered body of the local high school principal, and the ensuing investigation reveals secrets no parent wants to hear. At once a breathtaking recreation of the rugged landscape of the American Southwest, a moving story of a mother’s concerns for her endangered child, and thrilling masterwork of brutal crime and expert detection, Judgment Call is prime J.A. Jance, a treat for anyone who loves a good cop story wrapped around a superior family drama.

The Old Blue Line (2014)

Butch Dixon has been taken for a ride …Not a jump in the car, see the sights kind of ride. He’s been taken for everything he has. He’s lost his house, his restaurant business, his savings, his car, his best friend, his faith—all to his conniving ex-wife. But that was seven years ago. He picked himself up, left Chicago, and started over in Peoria, Arizona, running the Roundhouse Bar and Grill. He doesn’t look back on those bad years; there’s no point. Not until two curious cops show up at the Roundhouse.Faith, Butch’s ex-wife, has been murdered, and the evidence points to him. Stunned, Butch quickly realizes that the black-hearted woman is going to ruin him again, from her grave. Lucky for Butch, the Old Blue Line, a group of retired—but still sharp and tenacious—former legal and law enforcement coots, have taken it upon themselves, as a favor, to make sure he doesn’t cross that thin line. After the dust settles, Butch’s life is again upended—when a little red-haired ball of fire, Sheriff Joanna Brady, takes a seat at his bar.

Remains of Innocence (2014)

An old woman, a hoarder, is dying of emphysema in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. In cleaning out her house, her daughter, Liza Machett, discovers a fortune in hundred dollar bills hidden in the tall stacks of books and magazines that crowd every corner.Tracing the money’s origins will take Liza on a journey that will end in Cochise County, where Sheriff Joanna Brady is embroiled in a personal mystery of her own. A man she considers a family friend is found dead at the bottom of a hole in a limestone cavern near Bisbee. And now there is the mystery of Liza and the money. Are the two disparate cases connected? It’s up to Joanna to find out.

Random Acts (2016)

Sheriff Joanna Brady has a lot on her plate—she is up for re-election as sheriff, pregnant with her third child, and her eldest is packing up to leave for college. Then Joanna is woken in the middle of the night by a call reporting a motor vehicle accident. Her mother and stepfather’s RV ran off the road at high speed and hit the pillar of an overpass.Something about the accident seems suspicious, though, and when Joanna gets a call from Ali Reynolds, a journalist turned investigator, she accepts her offer to help. They come up with a plan to find out who was responsible…even if that person is not the villain they’d expected.

Downfall (2016)

Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady returns in this outstanding new mystery set in the beautiful desert country of the Southwest.With a baby on the way, sudden deaths in the family from which to recover, a re-election campaign looming, and a daughter heading off for college, Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady has her hands full when a puzzling new case hits her department, demanding every resource she has at her disposal.Two women have fallen to their deaths from a small nearby peak, referred to by Bisbee locals as Geronimo. What’s the connection between these two women? Is this a case of murder/suicide or is it a double homicide? And if someone else is responsible, is it possible that the perpetrator may, even now, be on the hunt for another victim?

Field of Bones (2018)

This time Sheriff Joanna Brady may expect to see her maternity leave through to completion, but the world has other plans when a serial homicide case surfaces in her beloved Cochise County. Rather than staying home with her newborn and losing herself in the cold cases to be found in her father’s long unread diaries, Joanna instead finds herself overseeing a complex investigation involving multiple jurisdictions.

Missing and Endangered (2021)

When Jennifer Brady returns to Northern Arizona University for her sophomore year, she quickly becomes a big sister to her new roommate, Beth Rankin, a brilliant yet sheltered sixteen-year-old freshman. For a homeschooled Beth, college is her first taste of both freedom and unfettered access to the internet, and Jenny is concerned that she’s too naïve and rebellious for her own good.Her worries are well-founded because one day Beth vanishes, prompting Jenny to alert campus authorities, local police, and her mom, Sheriff Joanna Brady—who calls in a favor. Beth is found, but Jenny’s concern has unwittingly put her in the crosshairs of a criminal bent on revenge.With Christmas vacation approaching, and Beth at war with her parents, Jenny invites Beth to the shelter of the Brady home. While Joanna is sympathetic, she’s caught up in a sensitive case—an officer-involved shooting that has placed the lives of two young children in jeopardy—leaving her stretched thin to help a fragile young woman recently gone missing and endangered.

Edge of Evil (2005)

Successful TV journalist Alison Reynolds’ career comes to an abrupt end when top executives decide they need a “younger face”. As if that’s not enough, Ali discovers her media mogul husband is cheating on her: and her best friend from high school is missing.

Web of Evil (2007)

The highway from Los Angeles to the Palm Springs desert is parched, unforgiving, and deadly. In the suffocating stillness of a car trunk, a man — his mouth and hands bound with tape — waits to learn his fate. Fortunately for him, he’ll never know. What possible enemy could be bitter enough to commit such a heinous crime? And when will the monster make another move?Ali Reynolds is traveling that same blistering, lonesome highway, looking forward to putting her past behind her. She’d left Los Angeles for the home comforts of Sedona, Arizona, and the satisfaction of a blog. But her cheating husband is in a hurry for a divorce; his very young and very pregnant fiancée has a wedding planned for the next day. And the television network that wrongfully dismissed Ali for the sole sin of being over forty will face her in court as well. So Ali must return to the scene of those crimes. As she passes the site of a horrifying accident, she thanks goodness it’s no longer her job to report the news. Until she finds out the news is her own…. For the victim is Ali’s cheating husband, and soon she’ll find herself the prime suspect at the center of a terrifying web of evil.

Hand of Evil (2007)

With his hand trapped in the door of a speeding car, a man struggles to remain upright as he’s dragged along a deserted stretch of San Juan Road in Phoenix’s South Mountain Preserve. It’s the perfect place to drive a man to his grave—literally. Starting with a crime so gruesome even prowling coyotes keep their distance from the remains, a killer begins crisscrossing the Southwest on a spree of grisly murders.A hundred miles away, Ali Reynolds is grieving. The newscasting job she once delighted in is gone and so is the philandering husband she loved and thought she knew. When a wealthy but distant member of her family unexpectedly asks her for a meeting, Ali wonders what it can mean. Before she can satisfy her curiosity, though, Ali receives another startling call: a friend’s teenage daughter has disappeared. Ali offers to help, but in doing so, she unknowingly begins a quest that will reveal a deadly ring of secrets, at the center of which stand two undiscriminating killers…

Cruel Intent (2008)

On a dating site, SingleatHeart.com, bored housewives can find romance with married men looking for sex without strings. But these “married singles” are flirting with more than just their vows. At the heart of this seemingly innocent service, a vengeful computer hacker is playing games with people’s lives…and deaths.Ex-television journalist Ali Reynolds just wants a break from excitement. In the midst of a remodel, the last thing she expects is a murder investigation that will stop the construction on her home. But when the savagely murdered body of stay-at-home mom Morgan Forester is found, Ali’s contractor Bryan is the prime suspect. Bryan swears he has nothing to do with his wife’s murder—but as the investigation progresses Ali seems to be the only resident of Sedona who believes him.Determined to prove Bryan’s innocence, Ali unknowingly lands herself directly in the path of a calculating killer. In a world filled with encrypted computer traps and life-threatening lies, will Ali be able to decode the actions of a ruthless man determined to destroy women—before he uses his wicked website to find her?

Trial by Fire (2009)

When a subdivision-in-the-making goes up in flames, everyone hopes that the unfinished, unoccupied homes will yield no victims. But one woman is found barely alive and burned beyond recognition. She is taken to the ER, where for months she lies in a medically induced coma, unclaimed and unidentified. When she finally emerges from her coma, the life she awakens to is bleak and lonely. Badly disfigured and with no clue as to who she is or where she came from, she is brought to the nuns at a Sisters of Providence Convent.At the convent, she is nursed and cared for. But before she can begin her painful and difficult recovery, Jane Doe is diagnosed with a hopeless and swift-moving cancer. Now with sudden desperation, there are two things she must find out. Ali Reynolds is called upon to grant this dying woman’s final wishes—to find the people who saved her life, and the people who tried to kill her.

Fatal Error (2011)

Ali Reynolds begins the summer thinking her most difficult challenge will be surviving a six-week-long course as the lone forty-something female at the Arizona Police Academy—not to mention taking over the 6 a.m. shift at her family’s restaurant while her parents enjoy a long overdue Caribbean cruise. However, when Brenda Riley, a colleague from Ali’s old news broadcasting days in California, shows up in town with an alcohol problem and an unlikely story about a missing fiancé, Ali reluctantly agrees to help.The man posing as Brenda’s fiancé is revealed to be Richard Lowensdale, a cyber-sociopath who has left a trail of broken hearts in his virtual wake. When he is viciously murdered, the women he once victimized are considered suspects. The police soon focus their investigation on Brenda, who is already known to have broken into Richard’s home and computer before vanishing without a trace. Attempting to clear her friend’s name, Ali is quickly drawn into a web of online intrigue that may lead to a real-world fatal error.

Left for Dead (2012)

Former reporter Ali Reynolds finds herself working against the police to add up the clues that connect one frightened teenager, two dead bodies, and $300,000…with the body count rising.Hired to investigate the grisly murder of a gold-digging divor­cée on behalf of the woman accused of the crime, Ali Reynolds is immediately drawn to the case of the secretive teenager who found the body. A. J. Sanders was in the Camp Verde desert to retrieve a mystery box buried by his absent father—a box that turns out to be filled with hundreds of thousands of dol­lars’ worth of poker chips. When a second body is found in the desert, it seems the three cases are more closely related than anyone could have imagined. Though Ali’s friends in the police department grow increasingly irritated by her involvement, Ali must stop a ruthless killer from claiming another victim…before she is lost in this game of deadly stakes.

Deadly Stakes (2013)

Former reporter Ali Reynolds finds herself working against the police to add up the clues that connect one frightened teenager, two dead bodies, and $300,000…with the body count rising.Hired to investigate the grisly murder of a gold-digging divor­cée on behalf of the woman accused of the crime, Ali Reynolds is immediately drawn to the case of the secretive teenager who found the body. A. J. Sanders was in the Camp Verde desert to retrieve a mystery box buried by his absent father—a box that turns out to be filled with hundreds of thousands of dol­lars’ worth of poker chips. When a second body is found in the desert, it seems the three cases are more closely related than anyone could have imagined. Though Ali’s friends in the police department grow increasingly irritated by her involvement, Ali must stop a ruthless killer from claiming another victim…before she is lost in this game of deadly stakes.

Moving Target (2014)

Lance Tucker, an incarcerated juvenile offender and talented hacker in his own right, is set on fire one night and severely burned while hanging Christmas decorations in a lockup rec room. B. Simpson, Ali Reynolds’s fiancé and the man who helped put Lance in jail, feels obliged to get to the bottom of what happened. With Ali off in England to help Leland Brooks at a reunion with his long-estranged family, B. turns to someone else to help out—Ali’s good friend and Taser-carrying nun, Sister Anselm.Meanwhile, in Bournemouth—Leland’s hometown—Ali begins to investigate the decades-old murder of Leland’s father, which Leland himself was once suspected of committing. With unsolved murders on both sides of the Atlantic, Ali, B., and Sister Anselm are united by their search for answers—and the jeopardy they get into as a result.From the author praised for her “inimitable, take-no-prisoners style” (Kirkus Reviews), Moving Target sends Ali on a trans-Atlantic adventure and straight into the path of a deadly killer.

A Last Goodbye (2014)

Ali Reynolds is finally getting married to her longtime love B. Simpson. They wanted a simple Christmas Eve wedding, but nothing is ever simple with Ali. Even as a motley crew of her friends—Leland Brooks, Sister Anselm, and others—descend on Vegas, the bride-to-be finds herself juggling last-minute wedding plans and a mystery in the form of a stray miniature dachshund. Ali’s grandson rescues the little dog, but Ali’s not in the market for a new pet right before her honeymoon, and leaves no stone unturned in hunting for the dog’s owner. But what she finds is more than just a shaggy dog story…Bella’s elderly owner has vanished, and her son seems to be behind it. So it’s Ali and B. to the rescue—and still making it to the church on time!

Cold Betrayal (2015)

Revenge isn’t the only dish served cold…Ali’s longtime friend and Taser-carrying nun, Sister Anselm, rushes to the bedside of a young pregnant woman hospitalized for severe injuries after she was hit by a car on a deserted Arizona highway. The girl had been running away from The Family, a polygamous cult with no patience for those who try to leave its ranks. Something about her strikes a chord in Sister Anselm, reminding her of a case she worked years before when another young girl wasn’t so lucky.Meanwhile, married life agrees with Ali. But any hopes that she and her husband, B. Simpson, will finally slow down and relax now that they’ve tied the knot are dashed when Ali’s new daughter-in-law approaches her, desperate for help. The girl’s grandmother, Betsy, is in danger: she’s been receiving anonymous threats, and someone even broke into her home and turned on the gas burners in the middle of the night. But the local police think the elderly woman’s just not as sharp as she used to be.While Ali struggles to find a way to protect Betsy before it’s too late, Sister Anselm needs her help as well, and the two race the clock to uncover the secrets that The Family has hidden for so long—before someone comes back to bury them forever.

No Honor Among Thieves (2015)

“A semi’s gone over the embankment.” The call wakes Sheriff Joanna Brady in the middle of the night, but what brings her fully alert is the rest of the story. The driver didn’t drift off to sleep and cross the center line—he was shot, multiple times, by someone with serious firepower. And when the truck crashed through the guardrail, its payload wound up scattered all over the road—boxes upon boxes of Legos.Legos that are being tracked by B. Simpson’s security firm to reduce black market sales—and Ali Reynolds is just the woman to get to the bottom of the crime. She has the tech and the intel to follow the money (or, in this case, the Legos), which makes her a valuable asset to Joanna’s team. Soon these two strong women realize that they’re not just sharing a case, they’re kindred spirits—which is paramount, because the killer they’re up against is anything but child’s play.

Clawback (2016)

When Ali’s parents lose their life savings to a Ponzi scheme, her father goes to confront his longtime friend and financial advisor, only to stumble upon the scene of a bloody double homicide. With her father suddenly a prime suspect, Ali and her husband work to clear his name and seek justice for her parents, as well as the rest of the scheme’s suddenly impoverished victims. But if Ali’s father is innocent, that can mean only one thing: one of the others is a stone cold killer.

Random Acts (2016)

Sheriff Joanna Brady has a lot on her plate—she is up for re-election as sheriff, pregnant with her third child, and her eldest is packing up to leave for college. Then Joanna is woken in the middle of the night by a call reporting a motor vehicle accident. Her mother and stepfather’s RV ran off the road at high speed and hit the pillar of an overpass.Something about the accident seems suspicious, though, and when Joanna gets a call from Ali Reynolds, a journalist turned investigator, she accepts her offer to help. They come up with a plan to find out who was responsible…even if that person is not the villain they’d expected.

Man Overboard (2017)

Cybersecurity expert Roger McGeary finally has his life back on track after years of struggling with depression. But when he falls from the balcony of his suite on an all-expenses-paid cruise, the police quickly dismiss it as an accident. Unsatisfied, Roger’s tough-as-nails aunt, Julia Miller, is determined to find answers and closure. By contacting Roger’s childhood friend Stuart Ramey to help her solve the mystery of his fate, Julia unwittingly sets up a collision course with a serial killer.Stuart, his sidekick Cami Lee, and journalist-turned-amateur-sleuth Ali Reynolds put the full resources of cutting edge online security firm High Noon Enterprises into learning the truth about Roger’s death. With Cami on the high seas investigating the ship from which Roger disappeared, Stuart stays tied to his computer, locked in a battle of wits and technology against an unusually twisted adversary. When the heartless killer sets sights on Stuart, High Noon must race against time to save him and countless others.

Duel to the Death (2018)

After taking down the man responsible for his best friend’s death, Stuart Ramey believes the case is finally closed. That is, until Stu discovers he’s been left with a multimillion dollar fortune in Bitcoin in a desperate attempt by Frigg, a rogue A.I. program created by the killer, to keep itself from being fully deactivated.To take Frigg down for good, Stu enlists the help of Ali Reynolds and the rest of his cyber security colleagues at High Noon Enterprises. But they are not the only ones who know about Frigg’s existence.Graciella Miramar, an unassuming accountant to all appearances, is actually the right-hand woman to El Pescado, the leader of a dangerous drug cartel. She’ll do anything to get her hands on that program. With Frigg’s help, Graciella hopes to take over El Pescado’s criminal underworld and become wealthy beyond her wildest dreams. But Stu—and El Pescado and his henchmen—may not be so easily defeated.

The A List (2019)

More than ten years after the sudden end of her high-profile broadcasting career, Ali Reynolds has made a good life for herself in her hometown of Sedona, Arizona. She has a new house, a new husband, and a flourishing cybersecurity company where her team of veritable technological wizards hunts down criminals one case at a time.But the death of an old friend brings Ali back to the last story she ever reported: a feel-good human interest piece about a young man in need of a kidney to save his life, which quickly spiraled into a medical mismanagement scandal that landed a prestigious local doctor in prison for murder.Years may have passed, but Dr. Edward Gilchrist has not forgotten those responsible for his downfall—especially not Ali Reynolds, who exposed his dirty deeds to the world. Life without parole won’t stop him from getting his revenge. Tattooed on his arm are the initials of those who put him behind bars, and he won’t stop until every person on that Annihilation List is dead.In this gripping suspense novel from “one of the finest practitioners of the suspenseful thriller” (The Strand Magazine), Ali Reynolds and her team race against the clock to stop this ruthless killer—before her own name is crossed out for good.

Taking the Veil (2019)

His throat was slit with the blade of a hunting knife…In this short story from the thrilling anthology MatchUp, bestselling authors J.A. Jance and Eric Van Lustbader—along with their popular series characters Ali Reynolds and Bravo Shaw—team up for the first time ever.

Credible Threat (2020)

Years after her son’s fatal overdose, grieving mother Rachel Higgins learns that his addiction may have grown out of damage suffered at the hands of a pedophile priest while he was in high school. Looking for vengeance, she targets the Catholic Church’s most visible local figure, Archbishop Francis Gillespie. When the archbishop begins receiving anonymous threats, local police dismiss them, saying they’re not credible. So he turns to his friends, Ali Reynolds and her husband, B. Simpson.With B. out of the country on a cybersecurity emergency, it’s up to Ali to track down the source of the threats. When a shooter assassinates the archbishop’s driver and leaves the priest himself severely injured, Ali forms an uneasy alliance with a Phoenix homicide cop in hopes of preventing another attack. But Ali doesn’t realize that the killer has become not only more unhinged but also more determined to take out his or her target.

Unfinished Business (2021)

Mateo Vega, a one-time employee of Ali Reynold’s husband, B. Simpson, has spent the last sixteen years of his life behind bars. According to the courts, he murdered his girlfriend. But Mateo knows that her real killer is still on the loose, and the first thing he’s going to do when he gets a taste of freedom is track him down.After being granted parole, a wary Mateo approaches Stu Ramey of High Noon Enterprises for a reference letter for a job application, but to his surprise, Stu gives him one better: He asks him to come on board and work for B. once again. Just as Mateo starts his new job, though, chaos breaks out at High Noon—a deadbeat tenant who is in arrears has just fled, and tech expert Cami Lee has gone missing.As Ali races to both find a connection between the two disappearances and help Mateo clear his name with the help of PI J.P. Beaumont, tragedy strikes in her personal life, and with lives hanging in the balance, she must thread the needle between good and evil before it’s too late.

Hour of the Hunter (1991)

The hunter is free to kill again — and hour by hour, he draws closer . . .The brilliant psychopath Andrew Carlisle spent only six years in prison for the brutal torture–murder of a young girl of the Tohono O’otham tribe. The testimony of Diana Ladd — a teacher on the reservation — put Carlisle behind bars, and now she can’t ignore the dark, mystical signs that say a predator has returned to prowl the Arizona desert. Because no matter where Diana and her young son hide . . . he will find them.

Kiss of the Bees (1993)

Twenty years ago, a darkness rose up out of the blistering heat of the Arizona desert and descended upon the Walker family of Tucson. A personified evil, a serial killer named Andrew Carlisle, brought blood and terror into their world, nearly murdering Diana Ladd Walker and her young son, Davy. Now much has changed. The family has grown larger. There’s Lani, the beloved adopted daughter—a beautiful Native American teenager “kissed by the bees” and destined, according to Tohono 0’othham lore, to become a woman of great spiritual power. And now that the psychopath Carlisle has died in prison, Brandon and Diana Walker believe that their long nightmare is finally over.They are wrong.The monster is dead, but his malevolence lives on . . . in another.

Day of the Dead (2004)

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 . . .

Queen of the Night (2010)

Every summer, in an event that is commemorated throughout the Tohono O’odham Nation, the Queen of the Night flower blooms in the Arizona desert. But one couple’s intended celebration is shattered by gunfire, the sole witness to the bloodshed a little girl who has lost the only family she’s ever known.To her rescue come Dr. Lani Walker, who sees the trauma of her own childhood reflected in her young patient, and Dan Pardee, an Iraq war veteran and member of an unorthodox border patrol unit called the Shadow Wolves. Joined by Pima County homicide investigator Brian Fellows, they must keep the child safe while tracking down a ruthless killer.In a second case, retired homicide detective Brandon Walker is investigating the long unsolved murder of an Arizona State University coed. Now, after nearly half a century of silence, the one person who can shed light on that terrible incident is willing to talk. Meanwhile, Walker’s wife, Diana Ladd, is reliving memories of a man whose death continues to haunt her in the present day.As these crimes threaten to tear apart three separate families, the stories and traditions of the Tohono O’odham people remain just beneath the surface of the desert, providing illumination to events of both self-sacrifice and unspeakable evil.

Dance of the Bones (2015)

Years ago, Amos Warren, a prospector, was gunned down out in the desert and Sheriff Brandon Walker made the arrest in the case. Now, the retired Walker is called in when the alleged killer, John Lassiter, refuses to accept a plea deal that would release him from prison with time served. Lassiter wants Brandon and The Last Chance to find Amos’s “real” killer and clear his name.Sixteen hundred miles to the north in Seattle, J.P. Beaumont is at loose ends after the Special Homicide Investigation Team, affectionately known as S.H.I.T., has been unexpectedly and completely disbanded. When Brandon discovers that there are links between Lassiter’s case and an unsolved case in Seattle, he comes to Beau for help.Those two cases suddenly become hot when two young boys from the reservation, one of them with close ties to the Walker family, go missing. Can two seasoned cops, working together, decipher the missing pieces in time to keep them alive?

After the Fire (1984)

Before she found fame as a bestselling mystery author, Judith Jance wrestled with the anguish of being married to an alcoholic. For years she channeled her pain into words, composing the poems in this moving volume, first published in 1984, a year before her debut novel.In searing and direct language, After the Fire chronicles the collapse of Jance’s first marriage under the weight of her husband’s addiction—and her own unwitting denial and codependence while she struggled to find herself. “I will not be the price of your redemption,” she wrote then. “I will not pay my life to ransom yours.”An intimate, deeply personal look into a wrenching time in Jance’s life, After the Fire is a portrait of addiction and its insidious effects on lives and love. It illuminates universal truths about unbearable loss and finding the courage to carry on, and offers inspiration and profound insight into the heart and work of a beloved bestselling author.

Honor & … (2017)

For the next hour, Joe sat with his back to the wall and his shotgun across his knees, wishing the day had gone in an entirely different direction…In this short story from the thrilling anthology MatchUp, bestselling authors Sandra Brown and C.J. Box—along with their popular series characters Lee Coburn and Joe Pickett—team up for the first time ever.

Deserves to Be Dead (2017)

Virgil’s gaze swept up and down the river as he stood over the body and listened…In this short story from the thrilling anthology MatchUp, bestselling authors Lisa Jackson and John Sandford—along with their popular series characters Regan Pescoli and Virgil Flower—team up for the first time ever.

Getaway (2017)

It was getting colder, and he was tired from the long drive, and he was feeling naked without his gun…When former NYPD homicide detective and Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent John Corey finds himself recuperating at a remote lakeside cabin, the last thing he expects is trouble. Then tough-as-nails lawyer Bennie Rosato comes running out of the woods with masked men on her trail. With no phone reception and unknown dangers lurking, can these two alpha personalities work together to survive the night?

Midnight Flame (2018)

Dispatching a couple of mortal thieves was child’s play, but he’d gladly take it…

Short Story (2019)

It was a scam, but then the scam had gone horribly wrong…

Past Prologue (2019)

Where should we go? All that we knew is gone, and all that we have is each other…

Faking a Murderer (2019)

Jack Reacher walked out of the Baltimore bust depot into a world of frozen streets and dirty snow…

Dig Here (2019)

Apparently, she can speak to the dead…

Taking the Veil (2019)

His throat was slit with the blade of a hunting knife…

Rambo on Their Minds (2019)

Give me my brother, or I’ll give you your fiancée’s dismembered corpse…

Footloose (2019)

He was a clinical psychologist who specialized in unraveling the motivations of the twisted killers who wanted to express themselves again and again. She was the kind of detective for whom justice matters more than any other consideration…

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 1 (2000)

Including such bestselling authors as Jeffrey Deaver, Elizabeth George, Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman, Ed McBain, Anne Perry, and Ruth Rendell, plus many, many others, this volume will positively blow the competition away. For, unlike the other various mystery anthologies, The World’s Finest Crime and Mystery Stories collects stories from writers around the globe, including Britain’s Silver Dagger short-fiction award winners. It will also be almost twice as big, weighing in at more than 200,000 words, and will arrive two months before the competition.

The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 5 (2004)

This volume is a feast of more than thirty gripping tales from bestselling authors. This is the anthology of choice for every fan of suspense fiction whether they love cozies, hardboiled, or any shade in between.