From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Sheriff Joanna Brady investigates the murder of Carol Mossman, who lived alone in the desert and was shot with an antique gun. Her 17 dogs died, too, due to an intense buildup of heat in the trailer. The investigation leads to the deceased woman's siblings, grandmother, and father, and two murdered female reporters. As the facts come together, it becomes apparent that the victim's father raped his daughters, impregnating at least two. While working on the case, Brady deals with the local animal activist group and illegal immigrants, all while running for reelection. While none of the scenes depict details of the incestuous relationships, the lasting effect of abuse becomes a major point of the story. The human abuse in turn leads back to the topic of animal abuse, painting a sad picture of the horrors of both. But Jance manages to keep the atmosphere positive, with lots of action, energy, and realism along the way, and Brady's personal thoughts and beliefs give a perspective to the events. This 10th in the series offers topics for thought and a rousing plot.Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VACopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Is it possible that author Jance watched the darkly humorous movie FARGO before writing this? For we have a noble female sheriff with a sweetly supportive husband, small-town murders, and a tangled plot. But unlike FARGO, there is little humor. In its place we find self-righteousness and a made-for-television ending, delivered in fine fashion by reader Debra Monk. It's no fault of Monk's--as any good actor does, she makes the most of the material at hand and brings it to life. Her characterizations are strong and confident, as if she is unaware of the weak underpinnings of the story. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
No need to have read previous books to enjoy this Joanna Brady mystery. Jance slips in enough background to bring readers quickly up to speed. Before that, however, comes a whopper of a setup. Loner Carol Mossman is found brutally murdered, her 17 dogs dead beside her in her blistering hot trailer. Soon after, two more women turn up dead--all three shot with bullets more than a quarter-century old. That single clue eventually leads Sheriff Brady to a horrifying secret that nearly destroys an entire family. The dramatic opening will suck readers in, and the pacing is a satisfying balance between Joanna's struggles to be a good sheriff, wife, and mother and her dealing with her reelection and newly discovered pregnancy. Joanna's compassion and insecurity--and her sometimes cranky determination--make her a particularly realistic and appealing protagonist. As in Partner in Crime (2002), Jance builds her story around a real-life contemporary social concern, in this case the psychological disorder known as hoarding. Brady fans won't want to put this one down, which may itself be a form of hoarding. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
The pressure is high for Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady in Exit Wounds, a riveting mystery where the action is as relentless as the desert heat. Combining police work, politics, and a personal life is never easy. But this time out, Sheriff Brady has her hands particularly full. She's investigating the murder of an animal hoarder and the death of her 17 dogs; trying to keep the lid on trouble at the local jail; and dealing with a deadly car crash involving undocumented aliens -- all while trying to fit everything in around the political demands of her struggling reelection campaign. On top of all that, she's coping with personal issues that she suspects will rock her family to the core.

As always, J. A. Jance does a superb job of juggling the gritty realities of police procedure and political power struggles, while portraying characters whose personal lives are as realistically complex as their jobs and the world they live in. Exit Wounds is a gripping read￯﾿ﾽand Joanna Brady is sure to face the unexpected challenges in her life head-on. Sue Stone

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The heat is a killer in Cochise County, Arizona, with temperatures over 100 degrees. In the suffocating stillness of an airless trailer, a woman is lying dead, a bullet hole in her chest. Why someone would murder a harmless loner with a soft spot for stray dogs is only one of the questions nagging at the local police; another is why the killer used an eighty-five-year-old bullet, fired from the same weapon that slaughtered two other women who were discovered bound, naked, and gruesomely posed on the remote edge of a rancher's land.

The slayings are as oppressive as the blistering heat for Sheriff Joanna Brady, who must shoulder the added double burden of a brutal reelection campaign and major developments on the home front. With suddenly more on her plate than many big-city law officers have to contend with, Joanna must put marital distractions and an opponent's dirty tricks in the background and deal with the terrifying reality that now threatens everyone in her jurisdiction: a serial killer in their midst.

SYNOPSIS

Heat kills in Cochise County, Arizona, but the woman lying dead inside an airless trailer is the victim of a serial killer's eighty-five-year-old bullet, not the weather. Sheriff Joanna Brady sorts out dirty politics while pursuing a sadistic murderer with a monstrous obsession.

The incomparable J. A.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In a fine addition to a lively series, bestseller Jance's ninth after last year's Partners in Crime, Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady once again juggles police work and her complicated personal schedule with lan. It's the Fourth of July, and Brady is racing from event to event, unofficially campaigning for reelection, when she learns that a woman has been found dead in a mobile home, surrounded by 17 dead dogs. The dogs died of the blazing desert heat, but Carol Mossman was shot. Then Brady gets the news that two female bodies have been turned up in a nearby county in New Mexico. Ballistics reveal that the same gun was used in both crimes. Meanwhile, Brady and her husband are delighted to learn that she's pregnant. Morning sickness and eating aversions play a larger role in Brady's day than she would like, but she struggles on with the minutiae of a sheriff's life. Clues to the three murders are slow in coming, but eventually Brady learns that Carol's father Ed Mossman belonged to a cult called the Brethren for many years, and the two women who were murdered in New Mexico were in the midst of producing a report on the publicity-shy Brethren. Joanna begins to understand that the more she learns about the Mossman family and this group, the closer she'll be to solving the murders. Joanna Brady's life is never simple, always busy, and full of questions large and small about human nature. (Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In the latest of Jance's Joanna Brady mysteries, the Arizona sheriff investigates the murder of Carol Mossman, a lonely woman who lived in a house trailer in the desert with her 18 dogs. Joanna slowly uncovers a web of deceit involving the Mossman family, including child abuse and incest. This very dark tale also includes polygamists, animal rights activists, illegal immigrants, and a dangerous group of cultists holding children against their will. Joanna must conduct her ever-widening investigation while coping with a reelection campaign and the early stages of pregnancy. Stephanie Brush, whose voice resembles actress Deborah Winger's, provides a smooth, energetic reading. Her ability to convey sympathy for the plights of these characters makes the proceedings seem less sordid than they might have been. Recommended for collections where Jance's works are popular.-Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Sheriff Joanna Brady investigates the murder of Carol Mossman, who lived alone in the desert and was shot with an antique gun. Her 17 dogs died, too, due to an intense buildup of heat in the trailer. The investigation leads to the deceased woman's siblings, grandmother, and father, and two murdered female reporters. As the facts come together, it becomes apparent that the victim's father raped his daughters, impregnating at least two. While working on the case, Brady deals with the local animal activist group and illegal immigrants, all while running for reelection. While none of the scenes depict details of the incestuous relationships, the lasting effect of abuse becomes a major point of the story. The human abuse in turn leads back to the topic of animal abuse, painting a sad picture of the horrors of both. But Jance manages to keep the atmosphere positive, with lots of action, energy, and realism along the way, and Brady's personal thoughts and beliefs give a perspective to the events. This 10th in the series offers topics for thought and a rousing plot.-Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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