Posts Tagged ‘JA Jance’
March 25th, 2010 | 
Author: My next favorite author is JA Jance. She has three characters that she normally writes about and one of those is Ali Reynolds. Ms. Reynolds is a former TV News Anchor who lost her job and her husband (her philandering husband is the one who fired her) and decided to move back home to Arizona for a while to get her barrings. Her grown son encourages her to start her own blog and her adventures start there. Her latest book is “Trial By Fire”. Ms. Reynolds volunteers to be a Media Consultant for one of the local sheriff’s offices that is having a little trouble. She gets mixed up in a murder (of course), has no authority to investigate but gets pulled in nonetheless.
The Reynolds character speaks to me as she is about my age, has to look for another career, has a grown child and starts her own blog. I would like to become an investigator as well but, sadly, don’t have the time or the resources and quite frankly glad that I haven’t been thrown into any murder investigations. Ms Jance’s books are always entertaining as well as suspenseful, lots of action, and have a well thought-out plot. She is very descriptive about her surroundings and allows the reader to feel like they are there.
Posted in Favorite Authors, Reading for Fun, Review of Books | 
Tags: Ali Reynolds, female detectives, JA Jance | 
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JA Jance is a great writer of fiction and has several recurring figures that I enjoy reading about. Joanna Brady is a small town sheriff in Arizona. Ms. Jance’s other great character is JP Beaumont. She wrote a book several years ago where these two characters meet called “Partner in Crime”. That story left us readers wondering, “what if”. “Fire and Ice” follows these two characters through a series of murders that are connected. JP is following on the trail of a serial killer. Joanna is having problems with a murder as well. She also has an officer who is missing a sister. Yes, you guessed it, the sister is one of JP’s victims.
It is amazing how the author can keep the two areas separate in their series. You go from the desert area of Bisbee, Arizona to the rain-soaked area of Seattle, Washington. I think that is where the title comes from fire-hot Arizona to ice-cold Washington. It is a yin-and-yang kind of thing. And it makes for a “keep you on your toes” mystery!
Even though the Joanna character and the JP character do not meet up until the end of the book it is still a great story and has a very believable if maybe a somewhat disappointing ending. But it does end none-the-less. Pick up your copy today and give it a read. This story may inspire you to read the entire series of Joanna Brady and JP Beaumont books. You can find a listing of them on the author’s website:
http://www.jajance.com/jajance.com/Books_In_Order_List.html
You can pick up a copy of “Fire and Ice” from our ebookstore page as well as all the other great books by JA Jance. You pick up a paper copy of these books or if you own a KINDLE machine you can order the electronic book.
Cheers!
jolenemacinjax
Admin
“KEEP ON READING”
This is a great little interview by JA Jance on her book “Web of Evil” that I found on YouTube! Have you had a chance to read this great writers books? Give them a try. Visit her website for more information and a booklist. I have read all of her books and my favorite character is Sheriff Joanna Brady. She begins as a wife of the local deputy who is running for sheriff and is the daughter of a former sheriff in a small town in Arizona. The story lines moves from working for an insurance agent to her losing her husband and her becoming sheriff while trying to raise her little girl with the help of her best friend, a woman minister, and her in-laws. Her mother is a little “stuck-up” and not much help more of a hindrance to her daughter. Sheriff Brady must get training for herself after she is elected where she meets her future love interest. There are now 13 books with this character. “Web of Evil” is a middle book in the series with the character Ali Reynolds. Ms Reynolds is recently divorced lady who decides to create a blog and gets involved with murder! She also writes about a Detective in Seattle J.P. Beaumont. There are 18 books with this character. I haven’t read all of these yet. Ms. Jance has one book that involves both of these characters called “Partners in Crime”. That is really a great story. I have read all of the Joanna Brady series at least twice. She is another one of those authors that you can re-read her books over again every year and find something that you missed the first time and still enjoy them!
A Great Interview with JA Jance by Stacey Cochran that was talks about how she got started writing, how she creates her characters and her latest book Damage Control. This video is about 20 minutes.
Authors@Google Interview with JA Jance as she talks about her book “Damage Control”! This video is about 50 minutes.
Every year I read an entire series from my favorite authors. Usually, it is because he/she is publishing a new story in the series and sometimes it is just because the author is no longer publishing and I haven’t read the stories in a while. While it is great to read new stories and new authors, the ones we love the most are great to re-read. There are a variety of different reasons but the main one for me is that I have forgotten the story and like to relive it once more. It’s like watching reruns of your favorite shows when they come out on DVD. They can be like old friends and you just want to get reaquainted. The classic tales never go out of style. We should all try reading one of the classic stories at least once a year. You will be amazed at how much you will enjoy the story again. For me I like to re-read all the great mystery novels from Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie to the more modern Nora Roberts, Dorothy Gilman and JA Jance.
What stories have you read more than 3 times? I think a book is not considered a favorite until it has been read at least 3 times. The first time is only because it is new or that it was recomended by a friend or relative. The second time is usually because you think you have read it before but aren’t sure so you read it again to remember. By the third time you are hooked and will probably read it again and again over the years. I confess that several years ago I was introduced to the science fiction writer, Anne McCaffrey, with her PERN series. The story line was good, the characters were well-developed and she had written quite a few books. So, I read one of the stories in the middle somewhere and then became obsessed with reading the entire series from the beginning. I printed off her book list from her website and proceded to drive around town to the various branches of our local library to get ALL of the books. I then spent the next 3 weeks reading every one of them. It has been several years since then and Ms McCaffery and her son, Todd McCaffery, has written several other books since then so now I must gather all the books together again and have another reading marathon. Maybe, this year I will just go online and order all the books from Amazon or Barnes-N-Noble to save myself some time and trouble and almost the price of the tank of gas it will cost me to get all the books in one place.
I have done that with several other authors but now I go online or to my local used bookstore to get all of the books in a series. My mother and I are both avid readers and we have a tendency to buy a lot of books when we have extra cash. We now have 7 bookcases filled with books that I won’t let her get rid of. She likes to trade her books in but I like to keep them and re-read them. I think I have the entire collection of Nora Roberts and JD Robb (minus 4 of her earliest works), all of Laurel Hamiltons, Dorothy Gilmans (except for 3 that are out-of-print), and Elizabeth Peters. I think I might be a little obsessed or put a nicer way, I AM A COLLECTOR.
Until Next Time….Keep Up on Your Reading!
Jolene
Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 1)
