Though a resident of Cochise County, Alice Rogers’ gruesome death occurs on her way home from a Saturday evening at her daughter’s house, a twenty-mile drive from Tombstone. Medical examiner Dr. Fran Daly is again involved in investigating a death with Joanna. The women respect each other and cooperate well. Fran and Joanna are in turn disliked, patronized and sometimes ignored by certain male members of the Pima County law-enforcement units assigned to investigate the death. This antagonism hinders the investigation. The lead detective has a theory, is unwilling to listen to Joanna’ s reasons for other theories of the case, and they wind up at cross-purposes.

Running parallel to the Alice Rogers’ murder investigation is a confrontation between a construction crew at a recently approved county subdivision and an environmental group. Though some crowd control is assigned to officers under Joanna’s command, whenever any real excitement appears on the horizon Joanna is at the ready, diving into her trunk for her “work clothes” and typically forging ahead without backup.

Too often Joanna is just coincidentally alone, without backup, forced to do it all on her own. Joanna alone attempts to prevent a murder-suicide by a depressed bureaucrat facing down a greedy contractor and his politician-mistress. Joanna alone finds the body of a prime suspect in the case. Joanna alone has to arrest two other prime suspects, another businessman and his attorney-mistress, as they attempt to flee the county

The new characters -- true movers and shakers in the core mystery -- are flat, two-dimensional characters. From the triple-polyester car salesman and his attorney/mistress to the high-flying contractor and his politician/mistress, and the Hispanic bureaucrat and his wife, there are missed opportunities to make characters come alive. The ultimate missed opportunity is Farley Adams, Alice’s younger second-time around husband.

The most interesting characters are those introduced in earlier books. Joanna continues her relationship with former tavern-owner and wanna-be writer, Butch Dixon, who steps into the breach whenever Joanna’s job demands round-the-clock attention. Childhood friend, now minister, Marianne Maculyea plays a large role, though in Outlaw Mountain Marianne is in need of Joanna’s wisdom rather than providing guidance to those around her.

Joanna continues to butt heads with detectives from neighboring counties, to overcome opposition from certain male bastions of Tombstone society, and to wrestle with her conscience when she cannot be a perfect single mom for her eleven-year-old daughter, Jenny. These issues have been addressed by Jance before. This time around, her approach lacks the freshness of earlier books.

Outlaw Mountain is the seventh J. A. Jance novel featuring Joanna Brady, but you need not have read the earlier books to enjoy it. However, if the wait-list at your local library is long and the price of a hardback seems prohibitive, I suggest reading an earlier book in the Joanna Brady series. Tombstone Courage is a wonderful introduction to Joanna; also, last year’s highly rated Rattlesnake Crossing is now available in paperback.

--Sue Klock