I enjoyed this more than most "murder mysteries" I read, and plan to revisit it in the future. ( )

This is the fourth installment of J. A. Jance’s Walker Family series.

This may be my favorite Jance book to date. It has all of what has become a trademark of this series; a moderate build-up with a fast-paced climactic ending, great story telling, mixing of Papago mythology and culture and great character development.

The start of this story was unique in that three different crimes that happened decades apart are eventually intertwined and become related and relevant to the main focus of the book. This weaving carried through to the warp-speed development of the main characters. While Jance uses a somewhat moderate chronology in her other series, it’s not uncommon for decade time spans to elapse between Walker novels. Within this one book, some chapters skip through six-month time frames. A lot happens to the characters in this book.

Finishing the book, I have the distinct feeling this may be the end of the Walker series. From the start of the series four volumes ago, the reader has covered 30 to 40 years of the characters’ lives. Brandon and Diana are now in their 70’s and the events of this book simply don’t leave much more room for growth. However, given the past time jumps, it’s possible the series could pick up with some of the newly introduced child characters. This book ends in 2010 however, so this would require Jance to venture into science fiction or fantasy.

I’ve really enjoyed the style Jance developed in this series and I’ve become attached to the characters. I hope the author will consider continuing this series if there’s any reasonable way to do so. ( )

The Walker family continues to grow as another mystical Tohono O'odham waif becomes tragically available. Lots of death and mayhem as the serial killer is tracked down and apprehended. Another interesting entry in this good series. ( )

It's summer and a very important event for the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona is about to occur; the annual, one night only blossoming of the Queen of the Night flower. In the events leading up to this, a man kills his wife and children and then sets off to shoot his mother and stepfather and ends up killing more than he planned; collateral damage he calls it. Dr. Lani Walker is on call when Dan Pardee, border patrol and half Apache, historidal enemies of the Tohono O'odham Nation, brings in the lone, unknown survivor of one of the two massacres, she has to face her childhood trauma from before she was adopted. In the meantime, Brandon Walker is working on solving a cold case and is worried about his wife. Diana Ladd.

The novel's scenes are broken up by time, temperature and location. Having not read the prior three Walker family thrillers, it took a little while to get everyone of the regular cast of characters straight, but that didn't hinder the book. I liked it fine, but not being a mystery/thriller fan per se, I didn't find anything special enough or riveting enough to make me like it more; as I say, it's not my cup of tea. This isn't a novel where you don't know who the murderer is; in the story that is in the present day of the story, you know who the murderer is before anyone knows any murders have happened, so it's more the suspense of finding out if the murderer will be caught, will people be safe. In the back story of the cold case, you don't know who the murderer is. ( )

I always enjoy J.A. Jance's books...This one started a little slowly for me because there were so many characters to keep track of, a lot of jumping between characters....but once I had the characters (and their stories) straight, their interwoven stories made it more interesting, more meaningful. ( )