Dear Readers, here is another one of my favorites. I love the Joanna Brady series the best, but I have enjoyed Ali Reynolds and the Walker Family too. The J.P. Beaumont books I could take or leave, except for the two crossover books with Joanna, Partner in Crime and Fire and Ice. I haven’t read Book 21 in the Brady series yet, but I will be!
Sheriff Joanna Brady first showed up in Desert Heat back in 1993. She is a small, red-haired, determined woman running the sheriff’s department in Cochise County, Arizona, around the old mining town of Bisbee, while raising a family at the same time. Her daughter Jenny was nine years old in that first book. In Book 21, Jenny is graduating from the police academy.
Book 21: The Girl from Devil’s Lake
Title: The Girl from Devil’s Lake
Series: Joanna Brady Book 21
Author: J.A. Jance
Genre: Mystery, Police Procedural Suspense
Published: September 2025, William Morrow (a New York Times bestseller)
Sheriff Joanna Brady is looking forward to the holidays with her busy family, and to celebrating her daughter Jenny’s graduation from the police academy. But the family is interrupted when a body is discovered beneath a flooded bridge in the Arizona desert, and Joanna is called onto the case. A young boy was murdered, and the details of the crime scene tell Joanna two things: This was not the killer’s first murder. And it’s only a matter of time before he kills again.
As Joanna digs deeper into the case, she begins to understand this murder is just one piece of a much, much bigger puzzle. She uncovers unlikely connections between cases of mysterious deaths and missing persons, having long since gone cold, that extend far beyond the confines of her small town and include the discovery of a body near Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. To get justice for the victims and to save the town of Bisbee from a predator, Joanna must chase down every dangerous lead.
Meanwhile, as a dogged journalist is circling the case and privileged information is leaked, Joanna can’t be sure who to trust. Could a prolific killer be hiding in plain sight? And how far will that person go to keep his many crimes hidden?
Book Links
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DRVSZX3K
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223097513-the-girl-from-devil-s-lake
Author’s Website: https://www.jajanceauthor.com/joanna-brady/girl-from-devils-lake
In Her Own Words
Before the book came out, J.A. Jance sat down with the Meet the Thriller Author podcast (September 23, 2025), and it is a real treat to listen to. A few of my favorite moments:
- When Joanna got engaged to Butch, her editor at the time told her not to let Joanna get married because it would be boring. Her answer: “I’ve been married to the same man for 40 years, and it still isn’t boring.”
- She still doesn’t outline. She started her newest Beaumont book with “no outline, no parachute.”
- Her first books were written between 4:00 and 7:00 in the morning, before she got her two kids off to school and went off to sell life insurance. The man who sold her that first computer set it up so that every morning the screen said, “A writer is someone who has written today.”
- Her best writing advice is to use what you know. Her sister once led a runaway horse home with her bra. In Book 5, Skeleton Canyon, Joanna turns hers into a slingshot. “The connection is me.”
Listen to the whole interview here: MTTA 222: J.A. Jance, Author Interview.
Letters from the Writer to the Reader
Here is something I didn’t know until I went digging. J.A. Jance writes her own weekly blog, and she has for years. She explained why in that interview: when she was away at college in Tucson, her mother wrote her a letter every Tuesday, and it showed up in her dorm mailbox every Friday morning. So her blog posts are her own letters from home, a little window on her world. Her blog says your letters are “read by me, and only me.”
She has been on a roll lately. On November 6, 2026, she wrote about re-reading Until Proven Guilty, her very first book, for the first time since June 1985: I Like Him, I Really Like Him. There is also a PDF archive of older posts to download and enjoy. If you are a writer, this is a great way to connect with your readers, and she says plenty of writing advice sneaks into those posts.
Read her blog: https://jajance.com/Blog/blog_home
What’s New and What’s Next
J.P. Beaumont is back. The Taken Ones, Beaumont Book 27, went on sale November 10, 2026. She tells the story of how Beau came to her on a train out of Seattle in her October 30 post, Another Opening, Another Show.
The Taken Ones on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GJZXS7M3
Next up for Ali Reynolds fans is Smoke and Mirrors, which Simon & Schuster lists for March 16, 2027.
Meet her this weekend: she has a talk and signing at the Redmond Regional Library in Redmond, Washington, today, Saturday, November 14, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific, and at Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, on Sunday, November 15, at 6:00 p.m. Pacific. For personalized autographed copies, her website says to contact Brick and Mortar Books in Redmond or The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale. The full list is on her Schedule page.
Catch Up on Joanna Brady
Here is the whole series in order. You can grab all 21 on Kindle HERE.
About the Author
J.A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the J.P. Beaumont, Joanna Brady, Ali Reynolds and Walker Family series. She grew up in Bisbee, Arizona, fell in love with the Wizard of Oz books in second grade, and knew from then on that she wanted to be a writer. She was the first in her family to attend a four-year college, graduating from the University of Arizona in 1966, and later earned a master’s in library science. She taught high school English and worked as a school librarian on the Tohono O’odham reservation.
When she asked to join the university’s creative writing program, the professor turned her down because, as she tells it, girls “ought to be teachers or nurses.” She started writing anyway in 1982, as a single mother selling life insurance, and her first book, Until Proven Guilty, came out in 1985.
Author Links
Website: https://www.jajanceauthor.com/
Blog: https://jajance.com/Blog/blog_home
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JAJance/
X: https://twitter.com/JAJance
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZv3-uAGIRAPlbwr3IYwjyw
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/J-A-Jance/e/B000API61K
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3453636.J_A_Jance
More to Read
MTTA 222: J.A. Jance, Author Interview (Meet the Thriller Author, September 23, 2025)
I Like Him, I Really Like Him (J.A. Jance Blog, November 6, 2026)
Another Opening, Another Show: The Taken Ones Is Coming (J.A. Jance Blog, October 30, 2026)
January Magazine profile of J.A. Jance (an older interview, from the early 2000s)
So, which J.A. Jance series is your favorite? Are you Team Joanna like me, or do you have a soft spot for Beau? Tell me in the comments.
Till next time…
Jolene
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