Day of the Dead

Written by J. A. Jance

Narrated by Gene Engene

Former Sheriff Brandon Walker is living the life of a reluctant retiree, but desperately misses his former career. When he is invited to join The Last Chance Club to review and attempt to solve longcold cases, he little imagines the first case to cross his path will be the one he may have botched years ago when he was sheriff. And when the case from all those decades past becomes entangled with a current murder, it seems a serial killer with a very long and shocking track record may be back in business.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books in Motion
• Release date: Aug 15, 2004
• ISBN: 9781596071315

J. A. Jance

J.A. Jance is the New York Times bestelling author of the J.P Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, Edge of Evil, and three stand-alone thrillers. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tuscan, Arizona.

Reviews for Day of the Dead

[c.j.shane · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

First a correction. Day of the Dead takes place in contemporary times. The description says, "Young girls are being spirited away from an orphanage deep in Colonial Mexico .." Colonial Mexico ceased to exist in 1810 when the Mexicans rose up against Spain and created a new nation (Mexican War of Independence). Now for the review. I quickly became a fan of Jance's Joanna Brady series when I first moved to Arizona in 2000 and was living in Joanna's hometown of Bisbee. However, I'm not so much a fan of the Walker family series, and especially this one, Day of the Dead. I think it's a bad idea to go into gory detail about what psychopathic killers do to their victims, especially when the victims are very young teen girls. This kind of writing has been referred to "torture porn." There was way too much of that in this book. In addition the writing seems tired at times, as if Jance herself had become bored with her characters. Reading this book was not satisfying.

[over.the.edge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Day of The Dead
By JA Jance
2005

After retiring, former Sheriff Brandon Walker is invited to join the Last Chance Club, a club dedicated to solving Ling dead cold cases. He accepts, and the first case on his desk is from a case he was involved with years ago, and may have botched when he was Sheriff. This is incentive for him, to help him fight the boredom of retirement and to right a wrong he may be responsible for.
Young girls are being taken from an orphanage from deep in Colonial Mexico with the promise of a loving adoptive family in southern Arizona.
What awaits them is pure terror.....evil to the nth degree...Gale Stryker and her husband are so long in their scheme of debachery that they do not realize how close to being revealed they have become. Their secrets are realized and brought to justice, with Walkers help.
Walker is the kind of guy you would want on your side, never letting go or giving up. His case work uncovers the brutality that has long been hidden. ...
This is the third book in The Walker Family series. Highly recommended.

[jamespurcell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A young Mexican girl is raped then murdered to cover up the crime. Two really evil people find that they enjoyed doing these crimes. The wife is wealthy and the husband is an MD, so they start a foundation that enables them to import continual replacements from Mexico for their savagery.Brandon Walker is asked by the mother of the first girl to solve the crime through TLC, The Last Chance, a group of retired law persons dedicated to solving old and cold crime cases. Jealous, when her young lover decides to move on, the female culprit kills in haste then frames the boyfriend. Her hasty coverup creates slips that ultimately causes their downfall.A strong aspect of the book is how it portrays the world of the Tohono O"odkam

[carl_alves_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

In Day of the Dead, former sheriff Brandon Walker is asked by an old Indian woman to investigate the murder of her daughter who was killed in 1970. Walker, who is a member of a private agency that investigates old cases, takes the case on. In his investigation he finds other similarly unsolved murders involving dismembered bodies left alongside of a road.I was largely unimpressed by Jance’s writing in this novel. I thought it was mediocre at best. The plot also suffered from a lack of believability. There really wasn’t much to like in this novel. The villain in the novel is almost comically portrayed. I would stay away from this novel.Carl Alves – author of Blood Street

[livelylady · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A thirty year old cold case leads to a pattern...found 30 years later. No one wants to believe the trail leads to the town's upstanding couple and their sick relationship. Everything comes together as the newest medicine "man" uses her intuition and understands what is happening. This book does skip around in time over the last 30 years, but the characters are distinct enough to keep everything straight. Loved this book and now resolve to read more of her books.

[bohemiangirl35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is my first J.A. Jance book. I picked it up based on the description on the back.The premise was good. A reluctantly retired sheriff joins The Last Chance Club, a group that reviews and tries to solve really cold cases. His first case is somehow connected to an old case he had before retirement and he may even be on the trail of a serial killer.An Indian legend is woven throughout the novel. I wasn't sure how the legend tied into the overall story. I'm not sure if the story seemed light because the narrative was kind of simple or because the narration was light-hearted.You definitely have to suspend belief in order to go with this one.

[onyx95_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Since Brandon Walker had retired from being Pima County Sheriff, he had felt restless. Having something to do, something to investigate was just what he needed and what he finally had again. Being invited to be part of ‘The Last Chance’ (TLC - a group dedicated to finding answers to older, cold cases) was just the ticket. When Fat Crack sent a still grieving mother to him because of his connection to the group, Brandon jumped in and found a lead that brought him to suspect a connection between his 30 year old case and an on going case that Brian Fellows was currently investigating. The ex-cop had a gut feeling and followed up with it leading to more than he had ever expected to find.Book 3 ….. Being the third of the series, I have gotten used to the Indian legends and stories intermixed in the book, but this time the it didn’t seem to have quite as good of connection to the story as they usually do. I have also noticed that the author tries to re-cap the previous books during the story telling, the refresher is nice, but does not replace reading the actual book and so I don’t recommend reading these out of order. There are tidbits that are very helpful to have about several of the characters. This story progressed at a fast pace, even though the set up for the story made it fairly obvious who done it, it was still a very intense and dramatic. The combination of characters and the continued evolution of the characters is wonderful to see and I am so glad that I have read these in order. There is another one, (Queen of the Night) and I look forward to reading this book too.

[pmtracy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The third installment of Jance’s Walker series focuses on retired Sheriff Brandon Walker. The regular characters of Diana, Davy and Lani return, but only in very minor roles.In completing his first case for The Last Chance, an organization that solves cold cases through the talents of ex-law enforcement personal, Brandon must identify the murderer of a small child in a homicide that happened 30 years ago. As the plot develops, it becomes apparent that many unsolved cases are all inter-related. The story enters its climactic finish when Brandon makes all of the connections that lead him to the suspect; someone that’s been a friend of the family for years.Keeping with the rest of this series, Jance has developed some truly evil villains. The level of violence and brutality they employ far exceeds that used in her other series. Fortunately, most is implied and only helps to increase the level of danger placed upon the main characters.This book continues to intertwine Papago legend and mythology into the writing, but not to the same degree as the first two books. It’s also interesting how this story highlighted some inconsistencies within the Tohono O’odham people’s beliefs. From older plot lines, we know that killing is abhorred by these people. If they kill another, they must undergo a 15 day purification ritual. However, during the death investigation, a body must be exhumed. You would imagine that there would be a taboos against dealing with a corpse, but an elderly woman delivers the corpse by hand to speed up the investigation. I’m really enjoying this series. I hope Lani and Davy have more active parts in future releases. Based on the ending of this book, that may be a necessity.

[emigre_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Unsettling, grusome tale. The multiple timelines are distracting and there is a lot of backstory, best for fans of the series.

[sluce_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good mystery. Like this author.