Queen of the Night (Walker Family Mysteries, 4)

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. However, it is a sequel to earlier Jance books. Since it has been several years since I read them, it was difficult to remember the characters from the earlier books and how they related to this one.

"Queen of the Night" is the latest mystery/suspense thriller by Southwestern/Western sleuth-writer extraordinaire, J. A. Jance. Set in Arizona, with scenes of fear unfolding within the Tohono O'odham Nation's reservation boundaries, "Queen of the Night" stars familiar Dr. Lani Walker, a Tohono O'odham physician and a new character, Dan Pardee, an Apache Iraqi war veteran who has become a Shadow Wolf, an unorthodox Native American Border Patrol group. Along with his canine companion and guard, Bozo, Dan intervenes to rescue a lost child from a terrible multiple murder scene set in the beautiful Arizona desert on the night of the blooming of the Queen of the Night, the night-blooming cereus. The pace never slackens, as more players from different races and official agencies become involved in the investigation of the multiple murders and the wrenching decision regarding the placement of the four-year-old child witness to the murders. Tribal customs, traditions, and history are woven into the story line skillfully, with many inner conflicts surfacing to confuse the hunt for the murderer. The human touch is all, in Jance's narratives. Readers will be unable to stop turning pages whether electronically or physically, as "Queen of the Night" approaches its final resolution, engaging all race, all issues, all senses, all attention. There is a message of interconnectedness, acceptance and human compassion in the mystery novels of J. A. Jance that transcend the genre, taking it to realms beyond pure entertainment.

This is a well written book with characters that come to life with the reading. The stories of the traditions of the Tohono O'odhan people are as intriguing as the crimial mystery in this book.

When I started this book, I thought "my lord, so many years, so many characters..I will never keep up"..but I did. I have read a lot of Ms. Jance's work, missed a couple, as these stories and characters came togather an emotional bond develops between reader and character. This is much different than Brady or Beaumont books...pacing is slower, but in many ways more intense and personal, on a new level her best work. For those who gave up, I understand the feeling, but turns out you missed out.

In 1959, ASU coed June Lennox travels with Sully from the Tempe, Arizona campus to Southern California for spring break. She never returns to school as she is left dead in the desert. In 2009 in Tucson, retired Pima County homicide detective Brandon Walker visits his dying pal former Pinal County detective "Geet" Farrell at the hospice; they worked a serial killer case together back in 1975. Geet got Brandon a job with TLC (The Last Chance) entity that works cold cases. Hs current case is the homicide of June Lennox. At the same time, Brandon's wife Diana Ladd Walker still struggles with "visits" from the dead in her nightmarish past. They are Andrew Carlisle who tried to rape her, her late odious first husband Garrison Ladd III who set her up to be raped, and serial killer Mitch Johnson who kidnapped her adopted daughter Lani. At the same time, Pima County Homicide Detective Brian Fellows and Border Patrol agent Dan Pardee track a killer on the land of the desert people, the Tohono O'odham. The latest extended Walker Family mystery (see Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Dead) is a great entry as J.A. Jance deftly balances her myriad of leads, their cases, the present day culture of the People and the geography. The multiple plots connect by the Walkers and company who diligently work at what they do best. Ms. Jance is at her best with this terrific mystery that blends past and present Tucson, Southern California and the Tohono O'odham Nation into a powerful thriller. Harriet Klausner