By J.A. Jance
Mysterious Press
Hardcover, Paperback, Large Print, Audio Cassette (Unabridged), Audio CD (Abridged) and Audio CD (Unabridged) Editions

In 1970, the chopped-up remains of a pregnant, Tohono O’odham girl named Roseanne Orosczo were found stuffed into a Coleman cooler. Her killer was never caught.

Thirty-two years later, Roseanne’s mother approaches retired Pima County Sheriff, Brandon Walker, now a member of The Last Chance (TLC) organization, to find her daughter’s murderer. TLC exists to solve unsolved crimes and is staffed with retired law enforcement officers who were experts in their fields.

Pima County’s newest Sheriff, Brian Fellows, is thrust into a current case of the murder of an unknown Mexican girl. Her body shows that she had been tortured over a long period of time before being killed and then chopped to pieces. A witness saw her body being dumped in black garbage bags, and through her statement, suspect Erik LaGrange is arrested.

Day of the Dead Excerpt “I may have found Roseanne’s killer,” Brandon said carefully. “But there’s a problem—a big problem. The guy knows me, he knows my family, and he knows where we live. I’m going to need some backup on this, Ralph. If this is our guy, we’ve got to nail him now—or I’ll never sleep again.” ©2004 J.A. Jance Published with permission from William Morrow

LaGrange is the long-time employee of Doctor Larry and Gayle Stryker, well-known, respected philanthropists who started Medicos for Mexico to provide better health care to Mexico’s orphans. LaGrange is also the long-time lover of Gayle Stryker.

Sheriff Fellows doesn’t think that LaGrange is the killer, despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary, but there is no one else to suspect. He starts looking at cases in the surrounding counties and discovers there has been a serial killer who has been killing for over 30 years.

Walker and Fellows discover the similarity of their cases, which are later proved to be linked through an unidentified fingerprint found at both crime scenes. The race to catch the real killer is on.

The secondary plot line in this story revolves around the death of Medicine Man, Fat Crack Ortiz, who passes his profession on to Lani, Walker’s adopted daughter. Walker’s ties to the Tohono O’odham people began when he adopted Lani, an orphaned child of their people. Jance weaves these complicated relationships together seamlessly.

The urgencies of a birth, a death, a heart-attack, another murder and a wreck combine to bring this book to a thrilling, but satisfying end.

Bookworm's Briefing
J. A. Jance lives where she writes and she shows us those tiny important details that make a place unique. Readers will feel as though they are being allowed entrance into the lives and customs of the Tohono O’odham people in Day of the Dead. Jance is the author of the Sheriff Joanna Brady mysteries, the Detective J. P. Beaumont series and three thrillers.