As usual, Jance writes a crackerjack mystery featuring Joanna Brady, who displays excellent investigative skills with diplomacy and empathy when dealing with the characters who populate these books. The setting of Southern Arizona is excellent, and I love how she incorporates real-life landmarks and settings into the story. This can work as a standalone mystery, as Jance does a good job of explaining events from previous books. However, for the whole experience, it’s best to start at the first book she wrote about Joanna (32 years ago!) and work your way through the series. Also, the Beaumont series is excellent and remains my favorite of Jance’s series.

Trigger Warning: I usually don’t do these, but I think readers should go into this knowing many of the killer’s victims are children.