Fairly good, but if this is going to be one of those series where she does something stupid and gets beaten up every book, I’ll pass. I will read the next one then decide ( )

new sheriff must solve old and new murder cases

This is the second book in the Joanna Brady series by J. A. Jance. Joanna is the newly elected sheriff of Bisbee, Arizona, following in the footsteps of her father and filling the job her husband was running for when he was killed in Book 1 (Desert Heat). She starts the job immediately upon being elected and before she can even be sworn in, a murder occurs. Harold Patterson, an elderly rancher, is extremely upset when his estranged middle-aged daughter Holly arrives back in town accompanied by a hypnotherapist and a lawyer claiming she was abused by Harold when she was a child. She is ready to sue in a personal injury trial for half the ranch. Ivy, Holly's younger sister, stayed on the ranch and kept it running, took care of her ailing mother for years, and now feels she is being forced out of her home. She is bitter and angry. Harold does have a long hidden secret and decides to compensate Holly for all her pain. Ivy feels betrayed. Before the plan can be revealed, he is murdered. When the body is discovered in a mine hole, a second much older skeleton is discovered beneath him. Now Joanna must solve two murders on the day she's elected.

I didn't find this as interesting as the first book in the series but it may be because it's a transitional book that leads to Joanna solving more complex mysteries in the future. I always enjoy the fact that J. A. Jance does such impeccable research about the southern Arizona towns of Bisbee and Tombstone. This was an enjoyable book and I look forward to continuing the series. ( )

Continuing through the series to see if I am going to keep books or give up. Here we have book two of the Joanna Brady series. This one picks up a few months after the original. There's been a definable shift to the characters due to events in the first book, which is good. Hints are given that multiple plots abound in this book. I could even speculate that an overarching plot exists from the first book. It isn't obvious yet.

I'm glad Joanna at least acknowledges she's naive and out of her depth when it comes to being sheriff. I'd hate to have the character go in too cocky.

Maybe I'm just good at figuring these books out. Again, I knew the culprit the moment they appeared on page. The author keeps pointing to some very obvious non-culprits to try to throw you off. So not working for me. I have my suspicions. And I came really close. Harold's wife killed Burton's father for diddling Holly, Harold's daughter. Now, Amy the therapist tricks Holly into killing Harold to keep him quiet because he was going to reveal everything, and it would ruin her scam to get the money and land. I'm really hoping this plotting difficulty is because I'm just really good at guessing.

I'm thinking I'll just ahead in the series. If I suffer the same issues, I'll call it quits for this series. ( )

Fairly standard and undemanding plotting. ( )