by J. A. Jance
Part of Joanna Brady, book 8
First published 2001
Sheriff Joanna Brady should be thinking about wedding flowers and guest lists, not crime scenes. Her marriage is just days away in Bisbee, Arizona, and she wants nothing more than to focus on the final preparations. Instead, two cases land on her desk that refuse to stay simple. A teenager has vanished without explanation, while an elderly man in his eighties has died under circumstances that appear natural but feel wrong. The cases seem unrelated at first glance. The missing youth and the dead octogenarian move in different worlds, separated by decades and circumstance. But Brady knows that in a small town like Bisbee, connections often hide beneath the surface. As she digs deeper into both investigations, a fragile thread begins to emerge between the disappearance and the death. Brady must follow that thread wherever it leads, even as her wedding day approaches and the pressure mounts to close both cases quickly.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, small-town
Setting: Bisbee, Arizona
496 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Avon