Field of Bones

July 16, 2018
A serial killer investigation disrupts Joanna Brady’s maternity leave in bestseller Jance’s exciting 18th novel featuring the Cochise County, Ariz., sheriff (after 2016’s Downfall). Acting sheriff Tom Hadlock is on duty when June Carver brings in her son, Jack, with a skull that the high school senior found in the remote San Bernardino Valley. Evidence at the scene suggests that a serial killer has been using it as a dump site. Readers know from the first chapter that a man known only as the Boss has been keeping his victims prisoner, torturing them, and disposing of their bodies in the desert. Hadlock puts every available officer on the case, while Joanna offers advice and secures an FBI profiler willing to help. Jance ratchets up the tension by switching between the Boss’s depredations and the police’s efforts to identify him and rescue his prisoners. The birth of Joanna’s daughter, Sage, and other developments in her personal life will enthrall established fans. This long-running series shows no signs of losing steam. Agent: Alice Volpe, Northwest Literary Agency.

August 1, 2018
Just because Sheriff Joanna Brady has a newborn baby in tow doesn't mean she can't do her best to take charge of a case of serial kidnapping, rape, and murder.Sure, Eleanor Sage Dixon takes her mother away from election night when she makes her arrival just as the citizens of Cochise County, Arizona, are returning Joanna to office for the third time. And her birth paves the way for chief deputy Tom Hadlock to assume the post of acting sheriff. But teenage poacher Jack Carver's discovery of a skull in the desert, miles from any home, unleashes a case that's too big for Tom, especially when a return to the site reveals the remains of several dead girls As Latisha Marcum, abducted from the streets of New Orleans by a man she knows only as the Boss, prays for the survival and deliverance that have eluded her fellow captives, Joanna (Downfall, 2016, etc.) tries her best to keep her distance from the investigation. Despite her best intentions, the reckless interference of her old antagonist, Bisbee Bee reporter Marliss Shackleford, pulls her back from the sidelines with the rueful confession: "I'm not very good at maternity leave," even though professional honors will go to rookie deputy Garth Raymond. Veteran Jance, who still thinks the best way to bring even her minor characters to life is to share every possible detail about their life stories, their formative years, and their ancestors, provides more backstory than a family reunion. Long before the end, her summaries, flashbacks, journal entries, and reminiscences have pulled off the impossible feat of draining the suspense from what might have seemed a foolproof story of women in extreme peril.On the plus side, Jance's heroine does get to hear the most suitable compliment imaginable from a hard-used victim: "I never knew cops could be so nice."

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August 1, 2018
On the night she's waiting for her reelection returns, Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady gives birth to her daughter, Sage, three weeks earlier than expected. With Brady suddenly on maternity leave, Acting Sheriff Tom Hadlock soon has his hands full after a remote desert area, in which skeletal remains are found, is determined to be the dumping ground for a serial killer. While Brady's husband, author Butch Dixon, is on a book tour, Brady eases back into work before her leave ends, given the crimes at hand and the possibility of more to come. Intermittent chapters detail a man calling himself the Boss, who hunts for and imprisons young women, whom he then chains in a basement dungeon and feeds only dog kibble, abusing his captives at will. This twentieth entry in the Joanna Brady series is another page-turner, advancing the private life of the protagonist while detailing the grisly crimes. And there's a recipe for Joanna's much-lauded meat loaf. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)