β Scribed by J. A. Jance
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Every summer, the Queen of the Night flower blooms in the Arizona deserta sacred event commemorated throughout the Tohono O'odham Nation. But this year, one couple's celebration is prematurely destroyed by gunfire . . . and the sole witness to the carnage is a little girl who has lost the only family she's ever known.
Dr. Lani Walker recognizes the trauma of her own childhood reflected in her devastated young patient. Joining Dan Pardeea member of the unorthodox Shadow Wolves border patrolLani vows to keep the child safe while tracking down a ruthless killer. Meanwhile, Lani's adoptive father, retired homicide detective Brandon Walker, sees a break in his investigation of the long unsolved murder of an Arizona State University coedwhile his wife, Diana Ladd, relives terrible memories of a man whose death haunts her still.
Starred Review. Dedicated to the late Tony Hillerman, Jance's brilliant fourth suspense novel featuring former homicide detective Brandon Walker and his wife, novelist Diana Ladd (after Day of the Dead), spans some 50 years, from a murder in 1959 in San Diego to a rash of killings in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and Tucson, Ariz., in 2009. Interwoven with these crimes are legends of the Tohono O'odham Indians (aka the Desert People) and the lives of such contemporary Native people as Lani Walker, Brandon and Diana's adopted daughter. Jance's masterful handling of a complex cast of characters makes it easy for the reader to appreciate the intricate web of relationships that bind them across generations. The title refers to the night-blooming Cereus, a desert plant that blooms once a year and is of great symbolic importance to the Tohono. Jance, perhaps best known for her J.P. Beaumont series (Fire and Ice, etc.), has crafted a mystery that Hillerman would be proud of and that her fans will love. 7-city author tour.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Murders old and new disturb the peace of Tohono O'odham Nation residents and their Arizona neighbors in this fourth entry in Jance's Walker Family series. Californian Jonathan Southard is so seething with resentment that he kills his wife and children and goes after his remarried mother in Tucson. Reverberations from Southard's crimes touch the former sheriff Brandon Walker, his wife, Diana, and their adopted Native American daughter, Lani, exacerbating old wounds at a time when Walker is worried about Diana's mental health. Perhaps as a way of reacquainting readers with this seriesthere have been lapses of three to four years between installmentsJance inserts great chunks of backstory, as Diana hallucinates dead men who once terrorized her. Tohono O'odham tales and culture, which permeate the book (reminiscent of Tony Hillerman), and the flower of the title, the beautiful and aromatic cereus, which blooms in the desert just one night each year, add appeal, but the awkward backstory gimmick and the lack of much narrative pulse make this a somewhat tepid entry from a best-selling author. --Michele Leber
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
"J.A. Jance is among the best--if not the best." --Chattanooga Times In Queen of the Night, New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance brings back the Walker family--introduced in Hour of the Hunter, terrorized in Kiss of the Bees, and last seen in Day of the Dead. A multilayered thriller, grip
### From Publishers Weekly What crime fiction fan can resist a guy who isn't afraid to knock a few slime-bag heads when no one is watching? In Swain's fine second suspense novel to feature South Florida PI Jack Carpenter (after *Midnight Rambler*), imprisoned serial killer Abb Grimes hires the toug
SUMMARY: The shadowy side of the Sunshine State, where blood runs cold even in the tropical heat, is the tantalizing, terrifying territory few know better than James Swain. His razor-sharp tales of criminals, cops, and South Florida--style suspense bite like a hungry gator and never let go. The pa
**"An unsettling but captivating look at the dark and painful effects wrought by war on the minds and bodies of soldiers caught up in the moral and ethical dilemmas they face while trying stay alive" - Night Owl Reviews** **Whatever it takes, just come home to me. Promise me, Sam.** In eight month
SUMMARY: In this swiftly paced, breathlessly suspenseful debut novel, the bizarre rampage of an elusive serial killer sends shockwaves through Boston, igniting a harrowing police manhunt and resounding at the highest levels of the criminal justice system. Drawing on eleven yearsβ experience as a B
SUMMARY: In this swiftly paced, breathlessly suspenseful debut novel, the bizarre rampage of an elusive serial killer sends shockwaves through Boston, igniting a harrowing police manhunt and resounding at the highest levels of the criminal justice system. Drawing on eleven years experience as a Bo