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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Departure for the Author, August 22, 2004
J A Jance has the gift to write in different voices. There's the Sheriff Brady Series, the JP Beaumont series and now the Brandon Walker series. Readers seem to prefer one or two, and I'm a strongo Joanna Brady fan. Day of the Dead isn't even the same genre, much less style. The book opens with a young girl's horrific story. Wrenched from a quasi-detention home in Mexico, the young girl thinks she's moving to a new lfie with adopted parents, where she can go to school. She wakes up to find herself imprisoned by people she had every reason to trust, tortured by unwanted sex, with no escape but death. As other reviewers note, this novel is really suspense rather than mystery. We learn the identity of the evil Stryker couple, and we watch them spreading evil till the very end. The crimes are so ghastly (like some of Lawrence Block's grisly details in the Matt Scudder series), and the innocence such a contrast, that I wonder if Jance was trying to send a strong message. Perhaps we're supposed to see a vivid example of a wealthy, pillar-of-the-community couple who can literally get away with murder. We can contrast their protected status with the vulnerable orphans they destroy and even the wife's lover, who comes to a tragic end after being framed for a murder. We get fascinating glimpses into native culture, reminiscent less of Hillerman than of James Doss. Walker's adopted daughter, determined to become a medicine woman, emerges as the most human and likeable character in the book. More distracting were the series of flashbacks that interrupted the forward flow of the suspense. The story of Brenda, a Native American lawyer who gets drawn back to the reservation, seemed especially irrelevant, although the character was likeable. Jance is too skilled a storyteller to lose the reader and I admire any well-published author who goes out on a limb with a new technique. I can understand why an author might need to diversity her writing. Experienced authors must create new challenges for themselves or risk losing their edge. But as a reader, I can't help wishing she'd opted for another Joanna Brady instead.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Loyal Jance fan but greatly disappointed in this book, August 14, 2004
I want to start by saying that I am a diehard Jance fan. I love the JP Beaumont and Joanna Brady novels but I found this one so disturbing that I gave it up after 100 pages and just flipped to the end. Why? It was very gory, graphic and disturbing. I, personally, felt no reason to have included such graphic, detailed child rape and murder scenes. The bottle scene and others were just too much for me. When I read, I want to be entertained with a good story, perhaps some humor... and I don't want nightmares. This one definitely could give a sensitive soul nightmares for days. I'm not giving up on Jance but, I disagree with another review, I don't see this character being her most memorable. It's just not a comfortable read.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Western thriller: dark plot but suspenseful conclusion !, August 3, 2004
We're fans of Jance, having read her some two dozen mysteries in the JP Beaumont and Sheriff Joanna Brady series. Jance has over time given us three quite different thrillers, which the author defines as stories in which the reader knows the culprits all along, with the suspense coming from the race between the bad guys and the good guys hunting them. These three novels, Hour of the Hunter, Kiss of the Bees, and this new one, Day of the Dead, are actually forming a series themselves, featuring ex-Sheriff Brandon Walker and his family, and the Tohono O'Odham Indian nation. Part of the book is used to expose us to the legends and practices, ala Tony Hillerman, of these native Americans, who in many cases are the victims of nearby evil white men. These sections of the book are interesting, but some will find they slow down the action and detract from the plot. A more balanced view is that they add illumination and evocative background to an otherwise dark storyline about child molestation, sexual deviance, and torture. Walker gets involved when he's invited to join The Last Chance, a volunteer investigative foundation (managed by our buddy Ralph Ames, JP Beaumont's lawyer friend!); he promptly gets embroiled in a 30-year-old cold case involving a dismembered teenaged young Indian woman. Meanwhile, a new dismembered corpse, a Hispanic teenager, has just been discovered out in the desert; and the authorities who care (as opposed to the ones in charge) begin to suspect a link between the two. Before it's over, many more results of the serial killers efforts will become apparent, and will the rich bad guys escape and fly to Mexico? Jance warns that the Walker set is "R-rated" compared to her normal fare; the plot is indeed disturbingly evil. Despite the author's fine writing, the first third of the book gets a little slow until Walker starts to zero in on some suspects, and then the action really heats up. Frankly, we prefer Jance's mystery novels, where the violence and inhumanity are less out front. But we have to admit we were turning pages quickly by the end of "Dead"; no doubt so will her legions of fans!
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