Damage Control by J. A. Jance

(Posted for Ann Roberts)

This book was so-so, and true to form, I read it anyway.  I might have enjoyed it more, had I not also read some really spectacular books this month. The Cochise County, AZ, sheriff, Joanna Brady, investigates several things at once, while her husband Butch puts his writing career on temporary hold to care for their infant son. The story opens with an elderly couple driving their car off a cliff, which is, I admit, an attention getter.  A woman shoots a home intruder, a mysterious fire kills an older man and leaves three homeless, and a severed head and body are discovered in the desert.  All of these incidences lead up to a jumbled story, which doesn’t lend itself to much character development or depth in story-telling. Joanna is also dealing with her interfering mother, and the discovery of family secrets about her late father and late first husband.   I think that the author was trying to build a pressure cooker situation, which would evoke some sympathy or interest on the reader’s part, and just failed to do so. 

Paperback, 374 p.