Just Jennifer

Remains of Innocence by J.A. Jance (William Morrow, July 22, 2014)

Out in Bisbee, Arizona a differently able man is found dead, presumably murdered, but the ME is out of town for the weekend and no determination will be made until Guy Machett makes his ruling.  Guy is found murdered in his home before he can come back to work.  Over two-thousand miles away, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts his step-mother has just died of emphysema, his half-sister Liza has just refurbished the house neither had lived in for over eleven years with hundred dollar bills she found hidden throughout the house and then disappeared the night after the house burned to the ground and her landlord was murdered.  On the lam from what or who, Liza doesn’t know, but she’s trying to get to Bisbee to find out what Guy knows.  Sheriff Joanna Brady does know that the trail ends in Bisbee and that she has two murders to get to the bottom of and needs the help of officials in Massachusetts to get to the bottom of at least one.  With as many twists and turns as a canyon creek, Joanna manages to untangle lies and deceit more than two decades old.  A hot, dusty setting brings Arizona to life while Jance does the same for her characters, as subtly as calling on Joanna’s step-father, the ex-ME for help, to show the difficult relationship Joanna has had with her mother.  Joanna was elected Sheriff after her husband was killed in the line of duty and her new husband Butch accepts his wife’s avocation and never feels as if he is living in another man’s shadow.  Fully realized characters and a complex case make this fast-paced read one to add to a must-read list this summer.