She Treads Softly: Blessing of the Lost Girls

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Blessing of the Lost Girls

Blessing of the Lost Girls by J. A. Jance
9/19/23; 352 pages
HarperCollins
A Brady and Walker Family

Blessing of the Lost Girls by J. A. Jance is a highly recommended investigative thriller looking for a serial killer.

Federal investigator Dan Pardee is a field officer with the newly formed Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Task Force, MIP. Pardee, is the son-in-law of Brandon Walker, and also meets with Sheriff Joanna Brady as he tries to find a serial killer operating around rodeos across the Southwest. The man he is looking for calls himself Charles Milton, a serial killer who is targeting young women. Milton is careful to not leave evidence behind but Pardee has just been assigned Rosa Rios' cold case that may stop him. Joanna's daughter Jennifer also provides help to the investigation.

Jennifer has a bigger role in the investigation, but, honestly, the whole Walker family plays a smaller role in this novel. As the investigation evolves, Native American folklore is incorporated into the story at the beginning of each chapter. The narrative provides clues along the way as the investigation unfolds. Although readers know the guilty party, the tension is in following the investigation as more information is uncovered.

The writing is excellent, however, after a frightening start, the pace does slow down in this novel. The actual investigation is very interesting and detailed. Pardee is a great character and hopefully Jance will include him in another novel. Blessing of the Lost Girls should still appeal to fans of the series.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins via Edelweiss.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.