Left for Dead

By: J.A. Jance
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publishing Date: February 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-2858-6
Reviewed By: Mary Lignor
Review Date: January 21, 2012

J.A. Jance has been busy with a new Ali Reynolds mystery that will be released in February. This is her seventh in this series and is a real thrill ride. Many characters and back stories will pull the reader in and with an ending that is very carefully done, her many fans will be pleased.

Ali was a classmate and friend of Deputy Sheriff Jose Reyes from her time at the Arizona Police Academy. He is shot during a traffic stop and left for dead. It is the assumption of investigators that Reyes is the victim of the drug trafficking going on across the border in Mexico. But, as is the case in all of this author’s works, there is a surprise hiding in there somewhere. The CSI find that there is more to this shooting than just a random traffic stop and soon Reyes and his wife, Teresa are both suspected of having connections with the drug trade that plants some suspicion on them.

Ali is called to the Physicians Medical Center in Tucson. She feels that she is returning a favor, as she goes to the hospital to see Jose. He helped her some years earlier when she was trying to help a friend of hers. Ali finds it hard to believe that Jose would be involved in the drug trade, despite evidence that the CSI has found. When she arrives at the hospital she is reunited with a friend, Sister Anselm, who works at the hospital as a patient advocate. The Sister is there on behalf of another victim. A “border jumper” who was attacked and brutally beaten, the victim, a young woman, has a tattoo of a rose on her body and this might prove to be the only way to identify the girl.

Ali and Sister Anselm, along with an officer who refuses to let the case drop, team up to try and clear Jose’s name and find out who the young “Jane Doe” is. They are drawn into the drug cartel’s evil ways and the bodies start appearing. The duo has to figure out what’s what before someone else is Left for Dead. For Jance fans, her books featuring Ali Reynolds are extremely readable. They take place in a very secluded part of the United States (the very desolate border of Arizona and Mexico) which is home to border crossings and drug wars that claim many victims. This series gets better with every book.

The author keeps complete control over her many characters and the plot lines are very intriguing. The action never slows down as Ali and Sister Anselm dive into this latest case.

Quill says: The book is very readable and a definite keeper.