Blessing of the Lost Girls is a very interesting and somewhat unusual mystery novel by the prolific J.A. Jance and may be one of the better ones in her lengthy catalogue.
Jance writes quite a few series these days. This one takes place in Arizona within the jurisdiction of Sheriff Joanna Brady of Cochise County. Brady herself is not in this one very much. The lead protagonist is a feral agent named Dan Pardee, who works with a new federal agency which investigates the disappearances or murders of Native Americans in particular. Some burned human remains was finally identified after a few years of their discovery. They were once a lovely young woman who was a rodeo contestant and a Native American. She also was acquainted with one Jennifer Brady, the daughter of the aforementioned sheriff. Jenny Brady has grown up since her introduction to readers and is currently studying criminal justice. She has figured out a way to be of some help to this new investigation which reveals the presence of a serial killer who has been stalking the rodeo circuit for many years. Pardee is the son-in-law of another lawman created by Jance. That would be Brandon Walker, who did not appear as frequently as Brady or Jance’s other best-known detective, J.P. Beaumont. Jance has also decided to introduce her killer pretty early in this one, however there are still some alarming secrets to be discovered about this one.
Jance has delved fairly frequently into some American Indian lore over the years, and she does so even more here. The structure of the story seems a little different than her usual method, and I found myself enjoying the change of pace. I do miss having Joanna Brady more involved in the action in this one, but I am not one to begrudge authors for introducing new heroes.
Aspects of the plot still seem a bit far-fetched, but that’s not unusual for this genre or for this author. Jance remains to be a very compelling writer in this genre. Her characters go through a lor, but I like their steadfastness and pragmatism during the worst of circumstances. Jance also writes afterwords where she reveals some of the inspiration, so it’s a bit of a treat to sort of understand how these characters and stories develop in her mind.
Jance has done a good job of sort of freshening up her characters a bit, and teasing her readers with potential new directions such as how would an agency primarily responsible for investigating heinous crimes on a Native American reservation.
I am always game for new Joanna Brady and J.P. Beaumont novels, but I would not mind getting to know Dan Pardee and his family more as well.
Next up, it is time for author Amor Towles to introduce me to A Gentleman in Moscow.
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