( J )

Justice Denied (J. P. Beaumont Mysteries)

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.

Dead Wrong (Joanna Brady Mysteries, Book 12)

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.

Hand of Evil (Ali Reynolds Mysteries)

In this latest book of the series featuring the ex-anchorwoman Ali Reynolds, the mystery begins when an elderly woman finds a brutally mutilated corpse while taking her daily walk in Arizona. Is it just a coincidence that, later that day, Ali is
summoned to tea with the most powerful woman in her hometown? Once again, Ali is on the trail of a killer...but will she survive to recount the tale on her popular blog, cutlooseblog.com?

Like Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich, J.A. Jance has created heartpounding suspense featuring a strong, sympathetic woman who's been around the block. Also like those authors, Jance delivers stories that appeal enormously to both male and female audiences of all ages.

The Private Patient

Failure to Appear

A shattering tale of tragedy and horror from top ten New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance.

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 longer 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.

Payment in Kind

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.

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.

Taking the Fifth

Top ten New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance brings another stunning novel of passion, violence, and dreams turned deadly, featuring Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont.

There are many bizarre and terrible ways to die. Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont thought he had seen them all—until he saw this body, its wounds, and the murder weapon: an elegant woman's shoe, its stiletto heel gruesomely caked with blood. The evidence is shocking and unsettling, even for a man who prowls the shadows for a living, for it suggests that savagery is not the exclusive domain of the predatory male. And the scent of a stylish killer is pulling Beaumont into a world of drugs, corruption, and murder to view close-up a cinematic dream at its most nightmarish...and lethal.

Shoot/Don't Shoot (Joanna Brady Mysteries, Book 3)

An assassin's bullet shattered Joanna Brady's world, leaving herpoliceman husband to die in the Arizona desert. But the young widowfought back the only way she knew how: by bringing the killers tojustice...and winning herself a job as Cochise County Sheriff.

Shoot/Don't Shoot

Still mourning her loss, Joanna Brady needs to be strongand supportive for her nine-year-old daughter, Jenny. She also hasresponsibilities to the people who elected her Sheriff. Joanna has thehead and instinct for her new job, but not the experience—whichis what brings her to Phoenix for a pre-Thanksgiving crash course inpolice training...and into the mystery of an imprisoned husbandher gut tells her did not murder his estranged wife. SuddenlySheriff Brady has a lot more to worry about than classes and thevisiting family pre-holiday chaos. For her impromptu investigationis drawing a serial killer too close for comfort—and closer,worse still, to Joanna's little girl.

The Strangers in the House (New York Review Books Classics)

Dirty, drunk, unloved, and unloving, Hector Loursat has been a bitter recluse for eighteen long years—ever since his wife abandoned him and their newborn child to run off with another man. Once a successful lawyer, Loursat now guzzles burgundy and buries himself in books, taking little notice of his teenage daughter or the odd things going on in his vast and ever-more-dilapidated mansion. But one night the sound of a gunshot penetrates the padded walls of Loursat’s study, and he is forced to investigate. What he stumbles on is a murder.

Soon Loursat discovers that his daughter and her friends have been leading a dangerous secret life. He finds himself strangely drawn to this group of young people, and when one of them is accused of the murder, he astonishes the world by taking up the young man’s defense.

In The Strangers in the House, Georges Simenon, master chronicler of the dark side of the human heart, gives us a detective story that is also a tale of an improbable redemption.

Skeleton Canyon (Joanna Brady Mysteries, Book 5)

Although J.A. Jance and Tony Hillerman (Coyote Waits, The Fallen Man) are in many ways poles apart as mystery writers, they are united on at least two fronts: their appreciation of the hypnotically arid beauty of the American Southwest; and their sense that this landscape is peculiarly capable of engendering horrific violence. In Skeleton Canyon Jance writes: "Overhead, the stars shone like glittering diamonds against a velvet sky. The starlight was so bright that the mountains, rocks, and trees around her emerged from the gloom. Sitting there in the half-lit dark of Skeleton Canyon, it was easy for Brianna to sense time falling away from her. This rugged, almost empty corner of the Arizona desert had changed so little that even now an occasional jaguar, roaming north from the mountains of Mexico, had been spotted by a solitary rancher. And if the wild canyons of the Peloncillos still played host to an assortment of wildlife, it wasn't so far off to imagine that human outlaws still ranged that same habitat as well."

Brianna O'Brien never returns from Skeleton Canyon, where she had waited under cover of darkness to rendezvous, à la Juliet and Romeo, with her boyfriend, Ignacio Ybarra. In investigating Brianna's murder, Sheriff Joanna Brady must confront both the blatant racism of the O'Brien family--horrified to discover that their daughter could have been involved with a Mexican boy--and the family's dark past. There are skeletons in canyons, and skeletons as well locked behind the doors of the sprawling O'Brien compound. Home is where the heart is--but home is also host to a lethal nest of lies, greed, and secrets. --Kelly Flynn

Brianna "Bree" O'Brien neverretumed from Skeleton Canyon. Someone brutally murdered the pretty, popular teenager who hadsfolen away undercover of darkness to rendezwus with herboyfriend, Ignacio Ybarra. Perhaps youthful rage, jealousy and savage passion costyoung Bree herlife. Ormaybe 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'Briens' blind insistence that Ignacio 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 lethalnest 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.

Brianna "Bree" O'Brien neverretumed from Skeleton Canyon. Someone brutally murdered the pretty, popular teenager who hadsfolen away undercover of darkness to rendezwus with herboyfriend, Ignacio Ybarra. Perhaps youthful rage, jealousy and savage passion costyoung Bree herlife. Ormaybe 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'Briens' blind insistence that Ignacio 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 lethalnest 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.