AUTHOR: Webb, BettyTITLE: Desert NoirDATE READ: 02/05/15RATING: 4.5/B+GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS Crime Fiction/2001/Poisoned Pen Press/252 pgs SERIES/STAND-ALONE: #1 in the Lena Jones serisTIME/PLACE: Scottsdale, AZ/presentFIRST LINES: I was admiring the view from my second story window when the screaming started. COMMENTS: This is a book I have been meaning to read for a long time… not sure why I never started the series, just the same old adage … too many books, too little time. I really enjoyed it!. The reason I bumped it up to the top of the mt ranges of TBR was because I was going to Murder in the Magic City where Betty Webb would be attending. I have seen her at other mystery events over the years & guess I just thought enough is enough I really need to read one of her books! Lena Jones is one of those young women w/ a murky past -- not in the sense that she did something wrong & is making a new life, but rather she doesn't know her true beginnings. She grew up in various foster homes and doesn't know her real heritage. She is constantly on a mission to find out but not making much headway. She was only 4 when she was found on the side of the road w/ a head injury & doesn't recall how she got there or what/who went before. She is a private detective and on this 1st outing her neighbor & friend gallery owner Clarice Kobe is beaten to death in her art gallery. There is an abusive ex-husband, artist clients bearing grudges and that only skims the surface of those who really did not find Clarice someone they liked. She comes from a family that has a lot of wealth -- gained by disturbing and destroying the naturalness of the area and developing tact housing projects. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery and especially if you also want to take a virtual trip to the southwest!
This book does indeed include noir elements as the title might suggest.Anyone who has ever lived in the Phoenix area will recognize much of the setting. Longtime residents will appreciate the author's commentary on the changes to their hometown. The Phoenix area has changed over the years from a "big town" with clean air, wide vistas, and low crime to a sprawling metropolis with smog and the usual big city problems. The author's own heartbreak over these unflattering changes is evident through her main character, Lena.Lena Jones is a likeable wiseass investigator who tries not to think about her tragic childhood in the foster care system. She has patchy memories of her own parents and life with them before becoming a ward of the state. She begins the book as an atheist, but a strange mystical experience in the desert as she struggles to survive leads her to believe there is something more than what is on the everyday surface of life. She's not sure what it is or what to call it, but it serves to help her avoid a consuming hatred and bitterness when faced with the evil actions of others. She is able to see the sad and tragic souls buried beneath ugly and criminal behavior and it is this that allows her to do her job compassionately.As a first novel, I found the plot well crafted and the characters affective (yes, I do mean affective); the author makes you feel something, sometimes strongly, for each of her characters. I was a bit disappointed in the rather high number of "typos" the publisher failed to correct before printing.A well done regional mystery. I'll be back for more from this author.
Excellent CozyThe first book in the Lena Jones series. Lena is a PI who retired as a police officer after being shot. Her history is interesting and little more is brought in each book. Her partner, Pima indian is a computer nerd. While investigating her friend's death she locates, the woman who took to her to the hospital after she had been shot. Lena was 4 years at the time. She has been asked to help wife abuser accused of his wife's murder. She starts to investigate and someone is trying to kill her. Lena searches to finds answers before they are successful.
—Betty
This is the first in a series, and at first I didn't think I was going to get that much into it, but ened up enjoying it and reading through pretty quickly. Besides solving a murder investigation, Lena Jones has the mysteries about her own life to try to unravel. As a child moving throught the foster care system, she learned not to attach to anyone, but doesn't know anything about her own family. There are also those descriptions of the desert landscape, around Scottsdale Arizona, where the book takes place.
—Janice
With roaming coyotes, autumn stained desert vistas, and a tough but vulnerable female P.I. who was raised in a series of foster care homes, Desert Noir had me hooked before I’d finished the opening page. The idiosyncratic beauty of Arizona’s landscapes, peoples, cacti and wildlife permeates this first of the series mystery set in the Scottsdale art scene. Lena Jones and her Pima Indian business partner investigate crimes from computer hacking to murder, so when the owner of the gallery next store is beaten to death it’s only natural for them to get involved. I love discovering a great series that already has a lot of books, and can’t wait to start reading Desert Wives where Lena poses as a polygamist wife to infiltrate a fundamentalist Mormon compound.
—Jaylia3
