Murder in the Desert

When Bec and Jen and I decided to come up with a series of books the Ethereal Readers book club would read instead of voting separately for each book, we wanted to offer a variety. This past year we've read a nonfiction, an historical fiction, a classic, and a Christmas book. We also decided to offer a mystery, since we (really meaning Bec and me) love mysteries. Thus, Damage Control, by J.A. Jance.

Damage Control is the 13th book in a series of 16 books featuring Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady as the protagonist. I had never read a book by Ms. Jance. I looked forward to reading this book as this particular series takes place in real-life Cochise County in southern Arizona, specifically in the town of Brisbee. While I’m much more familiar with the area around Phoenix, it still was fun to understand and relate to the climate and topographical issues faced by this fictional sheriff.

Damage Control takes place during the monsoon season, when the rains come as deluges and flooding prevails because of the clay earth. I’ve never actually been here during monsoon season, but I have seen the results of heavy rains, and I could fully understand what the citizens of Cochise County faced.

I thought the storyline was great, though I must admit the fact that the scene that transpired in the prologue wasn’t addressed until almost the end of the book was somewhat disconcerting. In fact, I had completely forgotten about it until it came up again at the end of the book when we learn that the person killed was the boyfriend of the murdered developmentally disabled girl. Whaaaaaaat????

But other than that, I enjoyed the story. Having read about a billion mysteries in my life, I was knew from the get-go that the elderly couple didn’t commit suicide – or at least only did so as a result of some bad action by someone else. The fact that Sheriff Brady figures out what happened when there was somewhere around 40 pages left in the book made me wonder if she was wrong and it was going to be someone else. I began suspecting one of the daughters. I was glad to be wrong.

Simply put, however, what I liked best about the book was Sheriff Brady herself. I found her to be a realistic portrayal of a working mother who was lucky enough to have a stay-at-home husband/baby-dad. I didn’t find her to be particularly Supermom. She was often tired and crabby. She fought with her own mom. (I assume if I read earlier accounts of her life, I will find out what exactly caused the dissention between Brady and her mother.)

The scene depicting the funeral of the murdered sheriff’s deputy was very moving. There must really be very little that is sadder than a funeral for a first-responder.

I’m kind of surprised that this series has never been made into a television movie. It seems perfect.

I think that I’m going to start reading this series from the first book, Desert Heat. I love to watch characters develop throughout a long series of books.

What did you all think? Did you have the murder figured out before Sheriff Brady? Who would star in my made-for-television movie?