Web of Evil [Large Print] [Hardcover]

J. A. Jance (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2007

J.A. Jance's new series, begun in the New York Times bestseller Edge of Evil, continues with a powerhouse tale of suspense.

The highway from Los Angeles to the Palm Springs desert is parched, unforgiving, and deadly. In the suffocating stillness of a car trunk, a man -- his mouth and hands bound with tape -- awaits his fate. What possible enemy could be bitter enough to commit such a heinous crime? And when will the monster make another move?

Ali Reynolds is traveling that same blistering, lonesome highway, looking forward to putting her past behind her. But her cheating husband is in a hurry for a divorce, and the television network who wrongfully dismissed Ali for the sole sin of being over forty will face her in court as well. So Ali must return to the scene of these crimes. As she passes the site of a horrifying accident, she thanks goodness it's no longer her job to report the news. Until she finds out the news is her own. . . . For the victim is Ali's cheating husband, and soon she'll find herself the prime suspect at the center of a terrifying web of evil.

A twisted and lethal drama of heart-pounding suspense, Web of Evil asks the question: If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, just what punishment could that fury unleash?

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of bestseller Jance's uninspired second Ali Reynolds thriller (after Edge of Evil), Ali's husband, Paul Grayson, is killed on the eve of their divorce—by a train that hits the car where he's tied up in the trunk somewhere near Palm Springs, Calif. Ali, Paul's legal beneficiary, becomes the chief murder suspect. A popular blogger and former Los Angeles TV news anchor who's suing the station where she used to work for wrongful dismissal, Ali initiates her own investigation, enlisting the help of her mother, grown son Chris and high school friend Dave Holman, a homicide detective in Sedona, Ariz., where Ali now lives. In a series of clumsy plot developments involving Paul's fiancée, April Gaddis, and April's greedy mother, Monique Ragsdale, Ali learns that Paul was financing a performance variety of the sumo sudoku puzzle fad. Full of endless blogs and superficial characters, this one will disappoint fans of Jance's expertly written and paced Joanna Brady and J.P. Beaumont mysteries. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Jance delivers a devilish page-turner."

-- People

"Heart-stopping...Jance deftly brings the desert, people, and towns of southeastern Arizona to life."

-- Publishers Weekly

"Characters so real you want to reach out and hug -- or strangle -- them. Her dialogue always rings true."

-- Cleveland Plain Dealer --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 511 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (February 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786292687
• ISBN-13: 978-0786292684
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,028,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

J.A. Jance is the top 10 New York Times bestselling author of the Joanna Brady series; the J. P. Beaumont series; three interrelated thrillers featuring the Walker family; and Edge of Evil, the first in a series featuring Ali Reynolds. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, January 25, 2007

By 

A. Christie "bibliofiend508" (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Web of Evil: A Novel of Suspense (Ali Reynolds Mysteries) (Hardcover)

In this second Ali Reynolds book, she is finally getting her divorce from the philandering husband she refers to as Fang. She drives from Arizona to California only to find that her soon to-be-ex missed the meeting. He couldn't quite make because he was murdered the night before by being stuffed into a trunk of a car and left of the railroad track. You can imagine what happened. Ali is the prime suspect since she was alone on her drive which actually passed the crime scene, and since the murder occurred before the divorce, she inherits everything despite the pregnant fiancee in the picture. Ali's mother and police detective friend come to California to help her out of the mess.

I am a big JA Jance fan from the acclaimed Joanna Brady series to the grittier Beaumont series. Both of those series with their corresponding characters are highly anticipated by me. I did read the previous Ali Reynolds novel and while the story was not as good as the other series', I did like the cast of primary characters. I'm not sure what happened in this book. Again, I was really looking forward to reading this novel, but a few chapters in, I was wondering if I was actually reading a JA Jance book. I still liked Ali as a character, but that whole blog gimmick is not needed. I started skipping the blogs and the comments. I know this is a new era of technology and everyone and their mother has a blog, but don't use one in book. Boring. The story itself was totally ludicrous and ridiculous. It reminded me more of a Evanovich Stephanie Plum Novel than a JA Jance novel. Maybe that was the point since for some ungodly reason the Stephanie Plum novels are popular, but if it was, then JA took a wrong turn. Tripe maybe be popular, but it doesn't mean it's good. Bring back Joanna and Beau or write a traditional mystery for Ali. She deserves better.

Last comment--I think it is unacceptable when a book goes to press with blatant errors. Several times the character of Tracy was referred to as Terry, and the character of Jake was referred to as Jack.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sheer Stupidity, April 18, 2007

By 

Majorca - See all my reviews

This review is from: Web of Evil: A Novel of Suspense (Ali Reynolds Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Ali Reynolds has to be the stupidist heroine ever created for a series. I thought Stephanie Plum was too stupid to tie her shoe laces but Ali Reynolds is too stupid to put the shoes on! She does everything she's been told not to do, goes against advice from far smarter people, and just ignors plain common sense with a self rightous attitude that no one is going to tell her what to do or not to do. Then she has the unmitigated gaul to play the "poor me" card when she gets in over her head - again and again and again.....And the writing was so awful I couldn't believe J. A. Jance wrote this book. The same inane information is repeated over and over as if either Jance forgot she had already told us, couldn't think af anything new to say, or thought her audience was as stupid as her character. I love the books with Sheriff Brady and Beaumont but will never force myself to read any more with Reynolds as the main character. Life's too short to read garbage.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars vacuous, April 10, 2008

By 

Linda Pagliuco "katknit" (CT, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Web of Evil: A Novel of Suspense (Ali Reynolds) (Mass Market Paperback)

Web of Evil opens from the point of view of a man bound hand and foot in the trunk of a car. What a promising start. Unfortunately, the heroine, the much maltreated Ali Reynolds, makes her entrance in the next chapter. Ali is one of those characters who is annoyingly perfect. All of the others in this cast also are "types" - parents with hearts of gold, mindless bimbos, hapless illegal immigrants, cops with the hearts of lions, avaricious lawyers. Much of the action is moved along via the device of Ali's blog, Cutloose, in which she whines about losing her news anchorwoman position (too old), maligns her cheating, media exec husband, and ignores advice to avoid blogging about all the danger she blindly stumbles into after that husband disappears. Naturally, her blog is wildly popular, and Ali now seems to spend her life answering email from her legion of admiring fans. I guess this book qualifies as a mystery, since I had no idea who committed the murders or why. But it's certainly not a thriller, nor is there a glimmer of suspense.