Judgment Call, J.A. Jance

After the high school principal disappears, Jenny finds her body up the road from their ranch, and Joanna finds that this woman had a very strange personal history. The story unfolds, involves a local artists' charity and in the midst of it all Joanna discovers some facts about her father that lead to another old case (or two) being resolved. Pretty good.

The Rope, by Nevada Barr

This is a prequel to the series, and takes place in Glen Canyon where Anna has gone to try to escape after the death of her husband. Then she gets sort-of kidnapped and trapped for a couple of days in a deep hole in the desert. Creepy--had a little bit of trouble with the idea of her being at all willing to going underground in Carlsbad Caverns (in a later-in-life book written about 10 years ago, which cured me of EVER doing any spelunking!).

Anyway, this is how Anne ends up as a Park Ranger. Not sure how effective it is in explaining that, but it's wonderful to find out a bit more about what she was like as a young, pretty woman. A redhead? Who knew? :-)

Fire and Ice, by J.A. Jance

This is another mashup of the two main series characters Jance writes about, Joanna Brady and J.P. Beaumont.

Pretty good: about illegal immigration and the Mexican mob, and a nursing home investigation.

Hoodwink, by Bill Pronzini

Another Nameless book, in which he goes to a pulp magazine convention which instigates two locked-room murders. And he gets shot at. And he figures everything out, of course. Oh, and he moves his office to a nicer building and gets a new girlfriend.

Damage Control, by J.A. Jance

A rather formulaic entry in the Joanna Brady series, this finds the Sheriff trying to deal with a new baby, the recovery of a plastic bag of bones, and the apparent murder-suicide of an elderly couple (not to mention the couple's argumentative 60-ish daughters, both of whom end up in jail for fighting in a restaurant).

I like the characters, and there are some major changes in the minor characters, but I knew what was going on with half of the plot well before I should have.

Midnight Cactus, by Bella Pollen

This is one of those books that involves the landscape as a character in the story. Alice brings her two children from London to Temerosa, Arizona, ostensibly to start rehabbing the ghost town her husband has been saddled with. The plan is to turn it into a retreat or a spa-town.

Within days, she finds herself adjusting to life on her own. The contractor she hires on the advice of the town's caretaker seems to hate her very presence and his employees, she discovers, change daily. They also don't speak English, and she quickly comes to suspect him of trafficking in illegal Mexican workers.

As the story unwinds, the real story becomes more complicated on just about every level: personal, political, emotional, and physical. Alice comes to see how very challenging the geography and interpersonal contacts are, and things certainly don't turn out well. This is a story about the difference between people who have plans and those who don't plan at all.