Joanna Brady is the protagonist of author J.A. Jance’s “Joanna Brady” series. The mystery series has been running for over 22 years, beginning in 1993, and now spans 25 novels.
Joanna Brady, a young woman from Bisbee, Arizona, lived a quiet country life, with her husband and 9-year-old daughter Jenny. Her husband worked for the police department and was a dedicated officer. But this serenity in their lives gets shattered when her husband gets killed, and the entire story revolves around the consequences. Her life and that of her family are forever changed. Joanna decides to track down the person who murdered her husband and bring them to justice. Even if this means going against the police and their attempts of passing this as suicide.
Even though Joanna can track down the killers of her husband, they continue to have support in the same city. It’s past time for Joanna to stand up to this injustice and defend herself and her daughter. She feels obligated to repay those who helped her achieve her goal of becoming sheriff and fulfilling her husband’s ambition.
The way Joanna proves herself and protects her daughter is at the center of the entire story. Each book in the series features a different mystery to be solved.
See also: J.A. Jance Books in Order.
Joanna Brady Books in order
Joanna Brady
- Desert Heat (1993)
- Tombstone Courage (1995)
- Shoot Don’t Shoot (1995)
- Dead to Rights (1997)
- Skeleton Canyon (1997)
- Rattlesnake Crossing (1998)
- Outlaw Mountain (1999)
- Devil’s Claw (2001)
- Paradise Lost (2001)
- Partner in Crime (2002)
- Exit Wounds (2003)
- Dead Wrong (2006)
- Damage Control (2008)
- Fire and Ice (2009)
- Judgment Call (2012)
- The Old Blue Line (2014)
- Remains of Innocence (2014)
- Random Acts (2016)
- Downfall (2016)
- Field of Bones (2018)
- Missing and Endangered (2021)
Similar authors
- Joe Pickett series by C.J. Box follows a game warden and his family. They live in a small 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 different threats. See also: David Baldacci’s Will Robie Books in Order.
See also: Laura Lippman Books in Order.
Most recommended books of the series
- Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19) (4.26 Goodreads score)
- Damage Control (Joanna Brady, #13) (4.04 Goodreads score)
- Dead to Rights (Joanna Brady, #4) (4.03 Goodreads score)
- Desert Heat (Joanna Brady, #1) (4.01 Goodreads score)
- Devil’s Claw (Joanna Brady, #8) (4.06 Goodreads score)
Awards
J. A. Jance has won and been nominated for various writing awards. In 1992 and 1993, she won the American Mystery Award. Random Acts, published in 2016, was on the New York Times bestseller list.
Latest releases in the series
The latest book in the Joanna Brady series is titled Missing and Endangered. The book was published in 2021.
Book summaries
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)
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.Filled with the beloved characters, small town charm, vivid history, intriguing mystery, and the scenic Arizona desert backdrop that have made the Joanna Brady series perennial bestsellers, this latest entry featuring the popular sheriff is sure to please J. A. Jance’s legion of fans.
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.
