I finished my latest audio book this morning on the way into work. It was my first book ever by J.A. Jance and is called, Day of the Dead. I didn't know this when I picked it off the library shelves but it is the third book in a mystery series involving an Indian reservation in Arizona. That happens quite a bit for me when I pick up an audio book from the library...I don't have the ability to research to see if it is part of a series. But usually, with mysteries it doesn't matter too much.JA Jance, on her own website, defines the difference between a "mystery" novel and a "thriller" novel. She says in a mystery, you don't know the identity of the bad guy(s) or whodunnit until the end and the joy is in solving the mystery. In a thriller, however, the reader knows who the bad guy(s) is/are up front, even if the main characters don't. This particular novel is billed as a thriller and, indeed, we readers get to see whodunnit near the beginning so I guess it fulfills her definition. In my mind though, a "thriller" also provides "thrills" and this novel just didn't do it for me.Apparently I am not alone in that opinion as most reviewers tend to classify this one as one of the lesser liked novels by JA Jance. She seems to have a devoted following of fans who really love her tremendous output but they say everybody has a bad book now and then and this one is one of hers. The story itself is OK and I really like the overall premise of having the TLC (The Last Chance) as a privately funded organization that looks into unsolved crimes...cold cases...that the police force just doesn't have time or resources to look into. And I liked the protagonist, a retired sheriff named Brandon Walker as he takes on the case for the TLC. But the balance between the mystery solving, the thriller aspects of the bad guys, and the subplots about the various members and relatives of the cold case murder victim was way to heavily weighted towards the subplots. The bad guys, a husband and wife team of sexual predators/perverts, seemed to me to be cardboard cutouts of a 1970s era TV show crime drama...i.e. very one dimensional and not at all the monsters they should have been. There were a couple of scenes that were fairly graphic sexually and that seems to have turned off many of Ms Jance's devoted followers..apparently she doesn't do much of that in most of her books.I probably owe it myself to try one of her other books, in one of her other series but at this point I am not anxious to do so. So many books out there and I'm not getting any younger...
The third installment of Jance’s Walker series focuses on retired Sheriff Brandon Walker. The regular characters of Diana, Davy and Lani return, but only in very minor roles.In completing his first case for The Last Chance, an organization that solves cold cases through the talents of ex-law enforcement personal, Brandon must identify the murderer of a small child in a homicide that happened 30 years ago. As the plot develops, it becomes apparent that many unsolved cases are all inter-related. The story enters its climactic finish when Brandon makes all of the connections that lead him to the suspect; someone that’s been a friend of the family for years.Keeping with the rest of this series, Jance has developed some truly evil villains. The level of violence and brutality they employ far exceeds that used in her other series. Fortunately, most is implied and only helps to increase the level of danger placed upon the main characters.This book continues to intertwine Papago legend and mythology into the writing, but not to the same degree as the first two books. It’s also interesting how this story highlighted some inconsistencies within the Tohono O’odham people’s beliefs. From older plot lines, we know that killing is abhorred by these people. If they kill another, they must undergo a 15 day purification ritual. However, during the death investigation, a body must be exhumed. You would imagine that there would be a taboos against dealing with a corpse, but an elderly woman delivers the corpse by hand to speed up the investigation. I’m really enjoying this series. I hope Lani and Davy have more active parts in future releases. Based on the ending of this book, that may be a necessity.
What do You think about Day Of The Dead (2005)?
Author: J.A. JanceFinished: 03/12/09Synopsis: Young girls are being spirited away from an orphanage deep in Colonial Mexico -- told they're traveling to a loving adoptive family in southern Arizona, their hopes are high. But the fate that waits for them is truly horrifying: when death comes, it will be a blessing....Former Sheriff Brandon Walker is living the life of a reluctant retiree. Playing golf while his wife, Diana Ladd, continues to write her bestselling tales of true crime, he desperately misses the action and sense of usefulness from days gone by. When he's invited to join the Last Chance Club to review and attempt to solve long-cold cases, he little imagines the first case to cross his path will be one he may have botched back when he was 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....My thoughts: This was the first book I've read by this author. I'm not sure if it was part of a series, but if it was I don't think it really mattered. I enjoyed the story, the characters and the setting. I think I'll probably read more of this author.
—Michelle (meshe)
In Day of the Dead, former sheriff Brandon Walker is asked by an old Indian woman to investigate the murder of her daughter who was killed in 1970. Walker, who is a member of a private agency that investigates old cases, takes the case on. In his investigation he finds other similarly unsolved murders involving dismembered bodies left alongside of a road.I was largely unimpressed by Jance’s writing in this novel. I thought it was mediocre at best. The plot also suffered from a lack of believability. There really wasn’t much to like in this novel. The villain in the novel is almost comically portrayed. I would stay away from this novel.Carl Alves – author of Blood Street
—Carl Alves
Western thriller: dark plot but suspenseful conclusion !We're fans of Jance, having read her some two dozen mysteries in the JP Beaumont and Sheriff Joanna Brady series. Jance has over time given us three quite different thrillers, which the author defines as stories in which the reader knows the culprits all along, with the suspense coming from the race between the bad guys and the good guys hunting them. These three novels, Hour of the Hunter, Kiss of the Bees, and this new one, Day of the Dead, are actually forming a series themselves, featuring ex-Sheriff Brandon Walker and his family, and the Tohono O'Odham Indian nation. Part of the book is used to expose us to the legends and practices, ala Tony Hillerman, of these native Americans, who in many cases are the victims of nearby evil white men. These sections of the book are interesting, but some will find they slow down the action and detract from the plot. A more balanced view is that they add illumination and evocative background to an otherwise dark storyline about child molestation, sexual deviance, and torture. Walker gets involved when he's invited to join The Last Chance, a volunteer investigative foundation (managed by our buddy Ralph Ames, JP Beaumont's lawyer friend!); he promptly gets embroiled in a 30-year-old cold case involving a dismembered teenaged young Indian woman. Meanwhile, a new dismembered corpse, a Hispanic teenager, has just been discovered out in the desert; and the authorities who care (as opposed to the ones in charge) begin to suspect a link between the two. Before it's over, many more results of the serial killers efforts will become apparent, and will the rich bad guys escape and fly to Mexico? Jance warns that the Walker set is "R-rated" compared to her normal fare; the plot is indeed disturbingly evil. Despite the author's fine writing, the first third of the book gets a little slow until Walker starts to zero in on some suspects, and then the action really heats up. Frankly, we prefer Jance's mystery novels, where the violence and inhumanity are less out front. But we have to admit we were turning pages quickly by the end of "Dead"; no doubt so will her legions of fans!
—Jerry
