Day of the Dead

Looking for some purpose in his retirement, former Sheriff Brandon Walker becomes a member of The Last Chance Club (TLC). TLC investigates cold cases, and Brandon's first case is the unsolved death of an aging Native American woman's daughter thirty years earlier. He soon believes his case may be the first murder by a serial killer who is still in business. Tim Jerome's deep, gravelly voice is well suited to J.A. Jance's disturbing mystery. His measured tone and pacing adroitly capture the law enforcement characters, the cold-blooded murderers, and the several Native Americans. Jance's story may be over the top, but Jerome's reading is down-to-earth. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 12, 2004
Jance's third suspense thriller to feature ex-sheriff Brandon Walker and his family (after Hour of the Hunter
and Kiss of the Bees
) deftly mixes Native American mythology with a harrowing plot. An old Tohono O'odham woman, Emma Orozco, asks Walker for help in solving the brutal murder of her daughter, Roseanne, who was slain in 1970. Walker is able to take on the challenge because of his membership in TLC, The Last Chance, a privately funded agency that looks into old, unsolved crimes. This ingenious arrangement allows for great flexibility in the action of the story. As Walker searches for clues in Roseanne's death, he comes across similar murders—each with no leads, each involving a dismembered body left alongside a road in the Southwest. The reader learns more and more about the killers, the sexually voracious, utterly amoral Gayle Stryker and her husband, Larry, a truly effective pair of monsters. Meanwhile, Walker's dear friend Fat Crack Ortiz, a Tohono O'odham man, is dying of complications from diabetes. Most of Walker's friends, in fact, are Indians, as is his adopted daughter, Lani. He draws not so much knowledge as strength and perspective from them—no mumbo-jumbo here, only believable sensitivity. Agent, Alice Volpe. (One-day laydown July 20)

Forecast:
Backed by a 15-city author tour concentrated in the Southwest, this one should hit national bestseller lists.