last updated on February 15, 2022 ja jance / judith ann jance is an American author who wrote several mystery-thriller series, including the j.p. beaumont, the joanna brady series, the ali reynolds series and the walker family series.
here is the list of ja jance books in order for each of the series the author has written.
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new j. a. jance’s books
j.p. beaumont series
j.p. beaumont is a homicide detective in seattle
- until proven guilty (j.p. beaumont #1), 1985
- injustice for all (j.p. beaumont #2) , 1986
- rage trial (j.p. beaumont #3), 1986
- take the fifth (j.p. beaumont #4) , 1988
- unlikely cause (j.p. beaumont #5), 1987
- a more perfect union (j.p. beaumont #6) , 1988
- dismissed with prejudice (j.p. beaumont #7), 1989
- minor in possession (j.p. beaumont #8) , 1990
- payment in kind (j.p. beaumont #9), 1991
- without due process (j.p. beaumont #10) , 1992
- missing appearance (j.p. beaumont #11), 1993
- lurking (j.p. beaumont #12), 1994
- name withheld (j.p. beaumont #13), 1996
- breach of duty (j.p. beaumont #14), 1999
- birds of prey (j.p. b eaumont #15), 2001
- partner in crime (j.p. beaumont #16, joanna brady #10), 2002
- long ago time (j.p. beaumont #17), 2005
- justice denied (j.p. beaumont #18), 2007
- fire and ice (j.p. beaumont #19, joanna brady #14), 2009
- betrayal of trust (j.p. beaumont #20), 2011
- ring in the dead (j.p. beaumont #20.5), 2013
- second watch (j.p. beaumont #21), 2013
- retreat (j.p. beaumont #21.5), 2015
- bone dance (j.p. beaumont #22, walking family #5), 2015
- still dead (j.p. beaumont #22.5), 2017
- proof of life (j.p. beaumont #23), 2017
- sins of the fathers (j.p. beaumont #24), 2019
- nothing to lose (j.p. beaumond #25), 2022
joanna brady series
joanna brady is a sheriff in cochise county arizona
- desert heat, role (joanna brady #1), 1993
- tombstone courage, role (joanna brady #2 ), 1994
- shoot, don’t shoot (joanna brady #3), 1995
- dead to rights (joanna brady #4 ), 1996
- skeleton canyon (joanna brady #5), 1997
- rattlesnake crossing ( joanna brady #6), 1998
- outlaw mountain (joanna brady #7), 1999
- devil’s claw (joanna brady #8), 2001
- paradise lost (joanna brady #9), 2001
- partner in crime (joanna brady #10, j.p. beaumont #16 ), 2002
- exit wounds (joanna brady #11), 2003
- very evil (joanna brady #12), 2006
- damage control (joanna brady #13), 2008
- fire and ice (joanna brady #14, j.p. beaumo nt #19), 2009
- called to trial (joanna brady #15), 2012
- the old blue line ( joanna brady #15.5), 2014 – novella
- remains of innocence (joanna brady #16), 2014
- there is no honor among thieves (joanna brady #16.5, ali reynolds #10.5), 2015
- random acts (joanna brady #16.6, ali reynolds #11.5), 2016
- fall (joanna brady #17), 2016
- field of bones (joanna brady #18), 2018
- missing and endangered (joanna brady #19), 2021
ali (alison) reynolds series
ali reynolds is a former news anchor in her 40s living in sedona, arizona
- edge of evil (ali reynolds #1), 2005
- network of evil (ali reynolds #2), 2007
- hand of evil (ali reynolds #3), 2007
- cruel intent (ali reynolds #4), 2009
- trial by fire (ali reynolds #5), 2009
- fatal mistake (ali reynolds #6), 2011</li
- left for dead (ali reynolds #7), 2012
- deadly stakes (ali reynolds #8), 2013
- moving target (ali reynolds #9), 2014
- one last goodbye (ali reynolds #9.5), 2014
- Cold Betrayal (ali reynolds #10), 2015
- No Honor Among Thieves (ali reynolds #10.5), 2015
- clawback (ali reynolds #11), 2016
- random acts (joanna brady #16.6, ali reynolds #11.5), 2016</li
- man overboard (ali reynolds #12), 2017
- duel to the death (ali reynolds #13), 2018
- the list (ali reynolds #14), 2019
- credible threat (ali reynolds #15), 2020
- unfinished business (ali reynolds #16), 2021
walking family series
brandon walker is a former sheriff in tucson, arizona
- the hour of the hunter (walking family #1), 1991
- the kiss of the bees (walking family #2) , 1993
- day of the dead (walking family #3), 2005
- queen of the night (walking family #4 ), 2010
- bone dance (walking family no. 5, j.p. beaumont no. 22), 2015
h.a. biography of jance
ja jance was born in watertown, south dakota. When she was a child, she moved with her family to Bisbee, Arizona, where she grew up.
in 1962 he graduated from bisbee high school, where he received a scholarship that allowed him to attend the university of arizona. he graduated from here in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education.
Before starting her writing career, JA Jance had several jobs, including that of being school librarian on a Native American reservation, a teacher, and an insurance salesperson.
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It was during his time selling insurance that he started writing, in the middle of the night, as his day job and his children didn’t give him much time to write during the day. talk about ambition, which fortunately helped her keep going so that she could finally realize her dream of being a full-time writer, of successful books, however.
an interesting fact is that the series ja jance joanna brady takes place in arizona, the same place where the author grew up.
I totally admire this author. Over the years he realized that everything that happened to him, the good and the bad, could be used in his writing. living with an alcoholic first husband was part of who she is now. the author’s words on this:
Eighteen years spent married to an alcoholic helped shape the experience and character of Detective J. p. beaumont. my experiences as a single mom have taken a backseat to joanna brady
shows how much you’ve learned over the years and how you’ve learned to capitalize on that experience. I would venture to think that writing these books was also a cleansing experience for the author. congratulations to her.
ja jance’s book list currently includes 25 novels in the j.p. beaumont series, 19 novels in the joanna brady series, 164 in the ali reynolds series, 5 in the walker family series, not to mention all the novels the author wrote in each of these series. then ja jance also wrote a book of poetry and several short stories.
while the order of the books in ja jance is pretty clear, you should pay attention to the fact that some of the books cross over between the various series (for example, partner in crime is book #16 in the j.p. beaumont series and #10 in the joanna brady series). whenever such a crossover occurs, I’ll mention it in parentheses next to the appropriate book.
To read the ja jance books, I suggest you read them in order. As I mentioned earlier, the various series will intersect at some point, and it’s interesting to follow the main characters interacting with each other to solve various crimes.
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ja jance’s first series was j.p. beaumont, which began in 1985.
my favorite series, however, is the series ja jance ali reynolds. somehow i can relate to ali’s female character a lot more than i can, say, beaumont or walker. the series started in 2006 with edge of evil, which was also the first book i picked up from the series to read.
ali is a former broadcast journalist in his 40s who currently lives in sedona, arizona. His age contributed greatly to her being fired from his job, as the broadcast executives wanted someone younger in her place, they wanted a younger face on TV to break the news.
So Ali goes to her husband’s house, a famous media mogul, only to find that he too has replaced her in his life with a much younger female version. so she finally packs her bags and heads over to her house in sedona to pick up the broken pieces of her life one more time, not to mention helping her friend’s family after learning that one of the best friends of hers died.
I found it interesting to read about her starting her own blog. I don’t remember exactly if her blogs were as big in 2006 as they are now.
in Man Overboard, book #12 by ja jance ali reynolds, published in 2017, ali is now more of an amateur private eye. He becomes involved in a case in which cybersecurity expert Roger McGeary falls off the balcony of a cruising yacht. The police don’t think much of his death, so Roger’s aunt Julia asks Ali and Roger’s childhood friend Stuart Ramey to help him find out exactly what happened to Roger.
The serial killer who attacked Roger is also after other people who have lost their parents to suicide. in this book an ai (artificial intelligence) is unfortunately used for evil. When the killer also targets Stuart, Ali, with the help of his company, High Noon Enterprises, has to stop the killer before it’s too late for Stuart.
in the list, we meet everyone once again, this time investigating a fairly common topic in our modern times: the fraudulent activities of the use of your own sperm by a doctor for artificial insemination. This is a topic that has been addressed several times since DNA has been used to investigate a person’s ancestry. dr Edward Gilchris used to be a pretty popular doctor who helped people with artificial insemination when DNA procedures weren’t as well known as they are now. It turns out that he actually used his own sperm as a donor for childless people.
What no one knew, however, was that he had a genetic kidney defect that was passed on to some of the children he created using his own sperm. the story has a truly contemporary theme, especially since these days virtually everyone can find information about their own ancestry in various places online with little cost and effort.
Looking back to Ali Reynolds’ early books, it was interesting to see the author’s technological development in her books. she initially started with ali writing her first blog post. now, we’re into cyberbullying, and even sophisticated ais and genetic manipulation.