by J. A. Jance
Part of Joanna Brady, book 9
First published 2002
Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady sends twelve-year-old Jenny on a Memorial Day Girl Scout campout at Apache Pass. Jenny rooms with Dora Matthews, a boy-obsessed girl who talks her into sneaking out for a midnight wilderness hike. Instead of the cigarette smoking adventure Dora planned, the girls find the corpse of a Phoenix woman named Constance Haskell. Joanna knows the discovery will leave Jenny shaken. She tries to shield her daughter while managing her own reelection campaign and new marriage. Two days later, Dora Matthews turns up dead. Joanna realizes the killer may be eliminating witnesses to the first murder. Jenny saw the same crime scene that got Dora killed. The sheriff must solve Constance Haskell's murder before the killer decides Jenny knows too much.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, family-drama, race-against-time
Setting: Cochise County, Apache Pass, Phoenix
Period: Memorial Day
432 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Avon
Content warnings: death, murder