Queen of the Night

Queen of the Night is the fourth in the Walker family series. This series has always struck me as a bit darker and grittier than Jance's other series, but with Queen of the Night she seems to have written a more intricate suspense novel that takes the focus off of the evil deeds of the bad guys and places it on the connections between characters. The resultant beauty in those connections and the blessings that can come out of tragic events and circumstances is a major focus in this book.

The complex character relationships could have been difficult to follow, but Jance's story flowed exceptionally well and made those connections effortless to follow. The relational aspect of the book also had an extraordinary symmetry to it -- rather show more like the "circle of life" concept. There was a lyricism to this story that I haven't fully experienced in Jance's other works and, I think, makes this one shine above the rest.

For those, like me, who have grown up in the Southwest there is plenty of regional atmosphere. The desert flora is represented by the Night-blooming Cereus which blooms once a year and has symbolic significance to the Tohono O'oodham people. Jance also weaves into her own story some of the legends of the Tohono O'oodham people (Desert People).

This is, hands down, the best Jance novel I have ever read. Get it. Read it. Really. show less

This is the fourth installment of J. A. Jance’s Walker Family series.

This may be my favorite Jance book to date. It has all of what has become a trademark of this series; a moderate build-up with a fast-paced climactic ending, great story telling, mixing of Papago mythology and culture and great character development.

The start of this story was unique in that three different crimes that happened decades apart are eventually intertwined and become related and relevant to the main focus of the book. This weaving carried through to the warp-speed development of the main characters. While Jance uses a somewhat moderate chronology in her other series, it’s not uncommon for decade time spans to elapse between Walker novels. Within this show more one book, some chapters skip through six-month time frames. A lot happens to the characters in this book.

Finishing the book, I have the distinct feeling this may be the end of the Walker series. From the start of the series four volumes ago, the reader has covered 30 to 40 years of the characters’ lives. Brandon and Diana are now in their 70’s and the events of this book simply don’t leave much more room for growth. However, given the past time jumps, it’s possible the series could pick up with some of the newly introduced child characters. This book ends in 2010 however, so this would require Jance to venture into science fiction or fantasy.

I’ve really enjoyed the style Jance developed in this series and I’ve become attached to the characters. I hope the author will consider continuing this series if there’s any reasonable way to do so. show less

First Line: They say it happened long ago that a young woman of the Tohono O'odam, the Desert People, fell in love with a Yaqui warrior, a Hiakim, and went to live with his people, far to the South.

Every summer in the Tohono O'odam Nation, the flowering of the night-blooming cereus-- the Queen of the Night-- is celebrated, but this year a man and his wife are murdered during their own private celebration, and a little girl loses the only family she's ever known.

To the little girl's rescue come Dr. Lani Walker, who sees similarities to her own childhood trauma in Angie, and Dan Pardee, an Iraq war veteran and a member of an unorthodox border patrol unit called the Shadow Wolves. With the aid of Pima County homicide detective Brian show more Fellows, they must keep the child safe while tracking down a killer.

Meanwhile retired homicide detective Brandon Walker-- stepfather to both Dr. Lani Walker and Detective Brian Fellows-- is investigating a cold case involving the murder of an Arizona State University coed. These two cases have the power to tear three families to shreds.

I have long been a fan of Jance's Joanna Brady series set in Bisbee, Arizona. Jance grew up in Bisbee, and her knowledge and affection infuse the setting with a very special quality. The Walker family series (Hour of the Hunter, Kiss of the Bees, Day of the Dead, Queen of the Night), set in Tucson and the Tohono O'odam Nation, reflect another stage in the author's life when she taught on the reservation.

Once again Jance deftly weaves together the two plot lines, imbuing both with a palpable sense of urgency and danger. Her characters in this series are not ten feet tall and bullet-proof; bad things can and do happen to them, and this adds to that sense of danger. One of the highlights of this series for me is the way that Jance incorporates Tohono O'odam teachings and legends into her storylines.

Yes, this book is the fourth in a series, but it's not necessary to read the first three in order to make sense of what's going on in Queen of the Night. Don't be surprised, however, if you read this book and then immediately want to find the others. They are always on my list of recommendations for anyone who wants to read well-crafted mysteries that give a true sense of southern Arizona. show less

I was a huge fan of J.A. Jance's J.P. Beaumont mysteries set in Seattle, but my interest dwindled when she started writing the Joanna Brady and other books set in the southwest. The quality of her writing was still there, but I just didn't connect with the Brady character or the setting, so I went into reading Queen of the Night with some skepticism. In fact, the book was a quick read, and I even stayed up really late to finish it in a single night.

As other reviewers mentioned, there are a lot of characters with complex relationships to one another, making it slightly challenging to keep everybody straight. Because I haven't read Jance's last few books, I wasn't sure if the characters were recurring or if they were a completely new show more bunch starting with this book. I did enjoy them, as well as the storyline, although I'd place this book squarely in the "thriller" category because we know from the start who the killer is. The characters are well-drawn and nuanced, and I found myself wanting to know more about them--I will probably go back and read the other books about the Walkers as well as Jance's next books in this series.

The only complaint I have is about the killer. He's the least developed character and I really didn't see his motivation for anything and didn't understand his personality. But maybe that's okay. Who wants to identify with a mass murderer, anyway? show less

It's summer and a very important event for the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona is about to occur; the annual, one night only blossoming of the Queen of the Night flower. In the events leading up to this, a man kills his wife and children and then sets off to shoot his mother and stepfather and ends up killing more than he planned; collateral damage he calls it. Dr. Lani Walker is on call when Dan Pardee, border patrol and half Apache, historidal enemies of the Tohono O'odham Nation, brings in the lone, unknown survivor of one of the two massacres, she has to face her childhood trauma from before she was adopted. In the meantime, Brandon Walker is working on solving a cold case and is worried about his wife. Diana Ladd.

The novel's show more scenes are broken up by time, temperature and location. Having not read the prior three Walker family thrillers, it took a little while to get everyone of the regular cast of characters straight, but that didn't hinder the book. I liked it fine, but not being a mystery/thriller fan per se, I didn't find anything special enough or riveting enough to make me like it more; as I say, it's not my cup of tea. This isn't a novel where you don't know who the murderer is; in the story that is in the present day of the story, you know who the murderer is before anyone knows any murders have happened, so it's more the suspense of finding out if the murderer will be caught, will people be safe. In the back story of the cold case, you don't know who the murderer is. show less

The Walker family continues to grow as another mystical Tohono O'odham waif becomes tragically available. Lots of death and mayhem as the serial killer is tracked down and apprehended. Another interesting entry in this good series.

I hated the beginning of this book – choppy writing, too many characters introduced too fast, cliches (“Now that Geet knew it was curtains for him....”), too much overly dramatic writing with not enough actual suspense. Too much explaining what was happening instead of working it into the story. Nope, this one definitely wasn't my kind of book even though I'm a fan of mysteries.

If I weren't reading it for a book discussion group, an odd book to choose, I probably would have quit in the first 30 pages. I did slog through, though, and in the end, it was okay but no better than that.

I did enjoy reading about the Tucson setting and about the Tohono O'odham Nation, I did enjoy some of the characters, although perhaps it says something show more that my favorite character was a dog. In the future, I'll avoid this author and stick to those authors whose writing I enjoy more and take chances on new authors. Hey, you don't know if you don't try, and I gave this one a try. show less