Review by Booklist Review
Joanna Brady, now the newly elected sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, returns in her fourth mystery. When veterinarian Amos Buckwalter is murdered, all fingers point to Hal Morgan, the angry husband of a woman the drunken vet killed in a car accident the previous year. When she alone thinks he's innocent, Brady, herself a bereaved widow, is unsure if her personal feelings are getting in the way of her professional judgment. More deaths follow as the emotionally fragile Brady attempts to juggle her own family problems (a demanding nine-year-old daughter and a domineering mother) with the trials of her job and a potential new love interest. Jance expertly introduces multiple subplots and does a fine job of drawing her characters and creating a sense of the small community of Bisbee, Arizona. With the success of the previous Joanna Brady mysteries and of her J. P. Beaumont series set in Seattle, Jance is hot and getting hotter. Expect demand. (Reviewed Sept. 15, 1996)0380973944Benjamin Segedin
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Cochise County, Ariz., sheriff Joanna Brady (Shoot/Don't Shoot) has her newly elected hands full in this fourth adventure. When veterinarian Amos Buckwalter is murdered by arson, deputies immediately suspect Hal Morgan, whose wife, Bonnie, was recently killed by a drunken Buckwalter in a car accident. Morgan, himself an ex-cop, had been picketing Buckwalter's animal hospital, handing out Mothers Against Drunk Driving literature just before the vet's body was found in a burning barn. Joanna doubts his guilt because she understands his grief, her own husband having been murdered not so long ago. Besides, the widow Buckwalter is strangely stoic, even getting a makeover and playing golf on the day after her husband's death. While Joanna locks horns with experienced detectives on the case, she must cope with her rebellious nine-year-old daughter, Jenny, a bossy mother, budget-cutting county supervisors and her aching loneliness. The unlikely sheriff (her husband had run for the office, and she entered the campaign only after his death) is an engaging heroine, vulnerable but determined to meet the challenges in her personal and public life. Jance skillfully ties the mystery to the southeastern Arizona landscape, its historic mining towns and their modern problems. 75,000 first printing; author tour. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The up-and-coming Jance's last mystery, Tombstone Courage (Morrow, 1994), nudged its way onto the national best sellers lists. Here, she continues the adventures of Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A fourth outing for Joanna Brady (Shoot, Don't Shoot, 1995, etc.), who's not only the sheriff of Arizona's Cochise County-- and that means administrator, investigator, crisis manager, grief counselor, and on-call patroller--but also a full-time mother, daughter, and daughter-in-law. Joanna's biggest case this time is the torching of unloved veterinarian Amos Buckwalter's barn with him inside. Everything points to Hal Morgan, whose wife was the victim of Bucky's lethal binge of drunk driving a year ago, as the killer. But Joanna's impressed by Morgan's claims of innocence and appalled by the Widow Buckwalter's unseemly lack of mourning (a round of golf and a makeover the following day), which contrasts so vividly with Joanna's continued grieving for her own husband. Besides Bucky's murder, there are other cases- -the death of ancient Reed Carruthers, a smuggler's fatal car crash--but more important are the endless domestic intrigues of Joanna's circle. What's holding up her friend Marianne Maculyea's adoption of a Chinese orphan? How can Joanna prevent her daughter from bullying her into buying Bucky's horse? What can Joanna say to the wife of a deputy who's leaving her husband over Joanna? And why does Joanna's long-lost adult brother get along so much better with their difficult mother than Joanna does? Jance's portrait of Sheriff Supermom and her world is painted in broad, soapy strokes--perfect entertainment for anybody who wonders how J.J. Marric's George Gideon would've made out as a southwestern American female. (First printing of 75,000; author tour)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
