Devil's Claw
Written by J. A. Jance
Narrated by C. J. Critt
4/5
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About this audiobook
In the night-still canyons of the Arizona desert, a girl is on the run. Alone but for her beloved red-tailed hawk, she flees from the dark shadows of her young life, the horror she has witnessed…and the terror that now stalks her.
New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance returns with her eighth novel in the highly acclaimed Joanna Brady mystery series. Set against the backdrop of the modern west, this gripping tale finds Sheriff Brady juggling a precarious overload in both her personal and professional lives. About to be married, Joanna's facing a daughter turning twelve and going on twenty, a meddlesome mother micro-managing her wedding, and new in-laws arriving any day. The sudden death of her much-loved neighbor and handyman, Clayton Rhodes, creates further turmoil, leaving Joanna shocked, saddened, and the target of Clayton's irate and irrational daughter, who accuses the Sheriff's Department of covering up a possible murder.
But amidst the uproar, the report of a homicide at Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains quickly captures Joanna's full attention. An Indian woman has been found shot to death--a woman recently released from prision after serving time for the manslaughter killing of her husband. She is the mother of a missing fifteen-year-old, Lucy Ridder.
The death at first appears to be a case of domestic rage finally exploding'and a troubled teen runaway may be a victim, or a cold-blooded killer. Yet as Joanna deals with the long-standing troubles of Clayton Rhodes' family and digs deeper into the mysterious life of Lucy and her family, she discovers that investigating family hostilities is leading her down a twisted trail of hatred, greed, and far-reaching consequences--and into a dangerous world where violence is the first response and long buried secrets are a reason to kill…or die.
Once again, J.A. Jance delivers a gritty, deftly written thriller that unfolds on a vivid landscape of raw beauty and unrelenting danger. And, as always, Sheriff Joanna Brady brings the setting to life with the sensitivity, spirit, and intense passion for justice that makes Jance novels ring with authenticity.
J. A. Jance
J. A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the J. P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, the Ali Reynolds series, six thrillers about the Walker Family, and one volume of poetry. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, she lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington.
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Desert Heat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skeleton Canyon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tombstone Courage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shoot Don't Shoot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead to Rights Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil's Claw Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rattlesnake Crossing: A Joanna Brady Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outlaw Mountain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Missing and Endangered: A Brady Novel of Suspense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remains of Innocence: A Brady Novel of Suspense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Damage Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Judgment Call: A Brady Novel of Suspense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Downfall: A Brady Novel of Suspense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Downfall + Random Acts: A Brady Novel of Suspense Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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Reviews for Devil's Claw
148 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Continues the saga of her family and work relationships in the midst of crime solving. Wonderful.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5JA Janice doesn’t disappoint! I am disappointed in the pronunciations of Fort Huachuca. Grated my nerves each time.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lucy, a teenage girl whose only friend is a red-tailed hawk, knows her life is in danger after witnessing her mother’s death. She’s got what the killer is looking for. Not knowing who to trust, she’s on the run. Sheriff Joanna Brady has a lot on her plate. She’s looking for the missing teen and it’s suspected that the girl had killed her mother. It requires digging into the past and learning more about the circumstances around Lucy’s father’s death to catch the killer.There’s great deal going on in her personal life as well. She’s getting married within the week and her overbearing mother is driving her nuts with details. The sudden death of her neighbor who has been taking care of the animals on Joanna’s ranch hits her hard, especially when Clayton’s estranged daughter breezes into town making accusations that Joanna killed him. Now she adds an interesting element! Joanna is about to meet her in-laws and just knows her house won’t be clean enough, and Jenny, while she loves Butch, does have some fears about what the change in relationship will mean to her.The fast-moving story is packed with events and emotions. It contains all of the twists and twerks of the prior stories but I was really sorry to see what I believe was a missed opportunity. Lucy is friendless due to not only her heritage, but the fact that her mother had been in jail for the murder of Lucy’s father. Jenny and Lucy never get to meet and it would have been nice to see a non-adult accept her as she is which Jenny would have easily done. But, these stories are always realistic and the two had no reason to meet, especially since they don’t live close by. The hawk does add a nice touch.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I've loved J. A. Jance's books for years and this 12 year old paperback given to me by a friend is certainly no disappointment. It's part of the series starring Sheriff Joanna Brady of Bisbee, AZ. In this one Brady and her boyfriend Butch are nearing their wedding date when a 15 year old part Apache girl, Lucy, and her pet red-tailed hawk disappear. That same night Lucy's mother is murdered just after being released from prison where she had been because she confessed to killing Lucy's father.As if that isn't enough, neighbor Clayton Rhodes is found dead and Brady learns to her surprise that he has left her his large ranch, and his only surviving child is a woman who is a handful to say the least.Lucy is a sympathetic character. She loved her father and after his murder she was sent to live with her grandmother. She has no friends other than her hawk and so she leads a lonely life as she suffers bullying from her classmates. She is also a very brave girl whose journey in this book is something not many 15 year old girls could accomplish.Joanna's extremely critical mother is a character you would just like to smack around, but in this book she actually does some nice things, and Butch's mother turns out to be made of the same cloth. Oh boy, Joanna is in for quite a wedding! All the regular characters are part of the story making Devil's Claw a suspenseful but also fun read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Another episode in the continuing adventures of Joanna Brady, the first (and only) female sheriff in Arizona. Joanna is eagerly anticipating her wedding in a few weeks, although not eager about meeting her fiance's parents. In the meantime, she's trying to solve a murder, locate a missing teenage who happens to be the daughter of the murder victim, deal with the unexpected death of her beloved next-door neighbor, and keep her feet on the ground, and her mother off her back.I was a bit confused about the ending at first, I really had to sit down and almost draw myself a diagram to see how the pieces fit so nicely together. Jance's explanation may have wrapped it all up a bit too neatly, and left me saying 'Huh?' When I finally understood what had happened and why, it made sense, but I think the resolution of the main crime (the murder) case could have been a bit more carefully explained as far as who all the players were and how they were involved.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I read the whole thing and its 406 pages. It's part of the same series as Dead Wrong with the same main character and her daughter but she isn't married in this one because it's the book before Dead Wrong. It's about a girl who finds out her mother that supposedly killed her dad was getting out of jail. She hated her mom for doing that and she didn't want to see her mom. So she went to a place she knew her mom would go to before she came home to her grandmother's house. While she was there waiting for her mom, her mom did show up but so did someone else. And while the girl was there watching she saw her mom get murdered. After that she waited till the man was gone with her mother and then ran away. The man followed her but she got away.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Southwestern mysteries continue to grow in popularity, with Jance's series, set in southern Arizona, one of the strongest entries in the subgenre. The new novel to feature Sheriff Joanna Brady opens at the entrance to a desert canyon called the Cochise Stronghold, where Sandra Ridder, who is part Apache, is trying to retrieve an item she buried eight years ago, before going to prison for killing her husband. The next day hikers find her corpse, while Sandra's 15-year-old daughter, Lucinda, and the girl's pet red-tailed hawk go missing. Could Lucinda, who seems to be a troubled loner, have killed her mother as revenge for her father's murder? Joanna starts to investigate shortly before she's to be married. Then Clayton Rhodes, the neighbor who helps feed Joanna's animals, dies suddenly, and unexpectedly bequeaths his ranch to her. Clayton's estranged daughter feels she should have inherited the property. Unreasonably and viciously, she blames Joanna for exerting undue influence over her father. The tangled threads of Joanna's personal life come close to overwhelming her professional one, and she has to exercise all of her time management skills to keep the murder inquiry on track. Her fianc?, Butch Dixon, comes off as way too perfect to be human, but his parents, in an amusing touch, are seriously dysfunctional. Sometimes the dialogue is stiff, but generally this is a solid installment in a worthy series. The Arizona desert, as usual in Jance's mysteries, plays an unforgettable part in this atmospheric tale. Mystery Guild dual main selection.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I started reading Jance with her J.P. Beaumont series, but prefer the Joanna Brady books because of the southwestern setting and better realism she achieves speaking through a female voice.