Hand of Evil

This is the second J.A. Jance novel featuring Ali Reynolds. She is an interesting character being a 40-year old Sedona resident who lives in a life of chaos. She has much going on, dealing with the loss of her job in broadcasting, deaths of her husband and a close friend, then her own brush with danger. Ali likes to try and solve murders so she is kept busy with the disappearance of her father's handy-man, the young daughter of her detective friend and a woman who has some ugly secrets to share with her. So the book never has a dull moment with Ali trying to solve all these mysteries and finding the answers she seeks.

Even though this is a fictional story, it depicts what can happen when a child is molested at a young age. Ali Reynolds is grieving for a wandering eyed husband. The wealthy family that offered her a college scholarship wants to see her but a friend's daughter goes missing just as the meeting was requested. Ali steps in to help her friend find his daughter and gets entangled in a web of evil that is more than a quarter of a century old. The daughter witnesses a brutal murder and is afraid to go to the police because of what she was doing at the time. Ali's parent's have a friend who has gone missing as well. Is all of this tied to the wealthy family in some way? Murder and child molestation are involved but in what way? Karen Ziemba reads HAND OF EVIL and has a clear and easy voice to listen to. You are able to tell who is talking with her various inflections.

Jance does it again with the third installment of her Ali Reynolds series. Reynolds was "cut loose" from her previous job and her previous marriage in the beginning of the series. She started writing a blog on the Internet and soon she was connecting with fans and other people who were experiencing things similar to her. Being an investigative journalist positions her to investigate missing people, and a host of other things. This series is contemporary with the use of the Internet and current technology. This installment finds Ali in a slump after dealing with the events of the previous two books. This book deals with several different plots, but Jance weaves them together well. Have you ever read a book, and after the climax thought, "I wish there was more?" This book has it. One of the plots came to a suspenseful conclusion and there were still lots of pages left in the book. There is a butler introduced in this book who I just love and I hope he will be in future books. I can't wait for the next one.

I found this to be a really fun and quick read. The villain is a surprise in a convoluted way. The family is still a close knit and delightful group of supportive and quirky individuals. She introduces a new character in the family circle that I hope continues to be a part of this series. I enjoyed the book a great deal.