Blessing of the Lost Girls (Joanna Brady #20; Walker Fa… (2024)

It’s been a long time since I’ve read JA Jance. I loved her Joanna Brady series but was less fond of JP Beaumont and I dislike her Ali Reynolds series. So, I was anxious to return to Joanna Brady. But Brady is a minor character in this story. Her daughter, Jenny, plays a bigger role than Joanna does. It focuses much more on Dan Pardee, an agent with the Murdered and Missing Indigenous People task force. Dan is the husband of Lani Walker-Pardee, which provides a tie back to Janice’s Walker family series.
I felt like this story was all over the map. Jance throws in all sorts of backstories. Too much of the story was spent bringing the reader up to speed on everyone’s relationships. There’s a fine line between how much time is spent on the actual mystery and everyone’s personal life. This one veered too far into the personal which slowed down the story. I started to wonder if Jance wasn’t purposely wrapping things up for characters she knew she would never revisit again.
And while the folk tales that start each chapter were interesting, they also took me out of the story. (These may work better if reading, but were a distraction for the audio experience.) In the Afterword, Jance explains why she included them. I found her explanation extremely interesting, but I still feel they were a distraction. Speaking of the Afterwords (yes, plural), they are worth taking the time to listen to both.
The plot was decent, if not exceptional and it shines a light on how often missing indigenous women are ignored. This is one of those books where the reader knows who is behind the killings and the only question is how law enforcement will find him. The twist about the killer’s backstory seemed designed purely to prolong the hunt for him. The killer’s ending was also a letdown and also a bit unbelievable.
A solid three but it didn’t make me long to read more of her books.
I listened to this and Hillary Huber was just an ok narrator.

Federal investigator, Dan Pardee investigates the cases of missing Indian people. Women have been coming up dead and missing after going to rodeos. Sheriff Joanna Brady’s daughter, Jenny, a criminal justice major may have information to help crack the case. This was a good story with many great characters. It had me quickly flipping the pages. Thanks NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC that will be released September 19, 2023!

I have been a big fan of J.A. Jance and her writing since a long time now and I have devoured her different series with pleasure. Blessing of the Lost Girls is not just one series it's a twofer. You get Joanna Brady but you also get the Walker series. I love it when authors let there characters interact and it's not the first time Jance has done this. The book revolves mainly about the brand new agency MIP and their quest to solve the cases where indigenous people have gone missing or been murdered which I understand is not very popular to deal with. I get the feeling that the authorities doesn't think they are as important. This is one of the best books by this author in a long time, sadly she has mostly written about Ali Reynolds and that hasn't been very good lately. This book however shows what a master she is with the written word and it's a pleasure reading it. I must thank William Morrow Harper Collins and Edelweiss for giving me an advance copy of this great book out in stores on the 19th of September. Don't you dare miss this one.

I have read the Joanna Brady series since book #1, so was really happy to find that J.A. Jance not only had a new series but had also managed to bring an "old friend", Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady, into this first installment of the Walker Family chronicles. Joanna isn't the "star" of the show this time...but hey...she's there! Mostly the characters you will see the most often are Joanna's grown children who are following in their mother's footsteps. Dan Pardee, a federal agent with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Task Force, asks for her help when the body of a young woman is discovered outside Tucson three years ago but has only now been identified as Rosa Rios, who was followed out of a local bar and strangled shortly after she had been expelled from high school. As the husband of Dr. Lanita Walker-Pardee, Dan is the main figure who ties together the many parts of a convoluted tale that combines Indigenous family history and serial homicide. It’s criminal-justice major Jenny Brady, Joanna's daughter, who realizes that the case her mother has described to her has unsettling parallels to the recent attack on Jenny’s rodeo competitor, Deborah Russell, who was lucky enough to be rescued by her worthless boyfriend with whom she’d had a meeting. Deb hasn’t reported the incident because she was afraid...and rightly so... that her Mormon family would be scandalized by both the boyfriend and the rendezvous, so she has no intention of reporting it now or ever. This means that there’s no official record of an attack ever happening, and Jenny and Dan, are the only ones that have access to the information that will ultimately unmask a killer revealed on the first page as Charlie Milton, nee Ronald J. Addison. Readers may find the manhunt lacking in much of a surprise and learn more from the updates on Lani and Dan’s complicated family life. I can't say that I liked it a lot, a little, or not enough to continue. I'll probably give this series another try before deciding...but it doesn't have the 'flavor" of the original series that fans loved...but everything eventually changes.

This was between 3 and 4 stars. I like this author and have read many of her books. I enjoy the way her stories unfold and the realistic feel given to the characters and their relationships. They seem well grounded, good and true. She also creates some intriguing story lines.

A couple of things kept this from 4 stars. One was the little story that was woven throughout. It, for me, didn't work. It was distracting and pulled me out. It felt like a page out of the movie "A Little Princess" (the 1995 version), which didn't seem to work here.

I also really like Joanna Brady's character. She just didn't have a big enough role in this one as the author was creating room for Joanna's daughter to shine instead. Maybe I'll grow used to that....I don't know. So 3 stars for this one.

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BLESSING OF THE LOST GIRLS (A Brady and Walker Family Novel Book #1) by J.A. Jance is a gripping serial killer crime mystery/police procedural suspense with combined characters from two of Ms. Jance’s long time series. This book can be read as a standalone because the character’s relationships are explained, and the focus is on a new generation of both families.

Federal agent Dan Pardee is now working for a new government agency, Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Task Force (MIP). An unidentified burned body was found in Cochise County and identified two years later with newly submitted dental records by the new MIP unit. Dan is assigned the case which brings him into Joanna Brady’s jurisdiction, but it is Joanna’s daughter, criminal justice major Jenny Brady, who has information for this investigation.

Dan’s investigation begins to grow as he discovers a rodeo connection from this killer to several more missing girls. He now realizes he is chasing a serial killer who preys on marginalized girls and is skilled at not leaving a trail.

I felt this was an exceptionally strong crime mystery plot which the author took step-by-step to an exciting conclusion, even knowing who the serial killer is from the beginning. The story could be right out of the headlines with the focus on missing and murdered indigenous women. Dan is a determined and skilled law enforcement agent with an interesting Native American background which makes him perfect for his job. I also liked the possibility of Jenny Brady working with Dan in the future, which was left open. The serial killer is terrifying in his proficiency. I have heard of J.A. Jance for years, but this is the first book I have read by this author. I feel that helped me enjoy the new focus on these characters without expectations, but the marketing of it as a Brady and Walker book is confusing. Dan Pardee is a great character and I think he should be the focus in future marketing.

I found this engrossing serial killer crime mystery/police procedural suspense a thrilling read with a much needed focus on missing and murdered indigenous women. I am looking forward to more books featuring Dan Pardee.

I’ve enjoyed all the various characters in JA Jance books even as the cross storylines. This one however, went too far combining characters. Too much time was spent explaining the relationship and that left the main storyline too undeveloped. Better editing might have saved it but alas that didn’t happen.

I’m a longtime fan of Jance’s Joanna Brady series but felt let down by this one. This was a combination of two of her series, the Walker Family and Joanna Brady, but it was mostly Dan Pardee, a Walker family member, investigating the disappearances of missing Native American girls in Arizona. On the plus side, I find Jance’s focus on this often neglected population highly commendable and relevant. Joanna’s daughter Jennifer does play a role in the investigation; still, Sheriff Joanna of Cochise County AZ is way on the periphery here.

This is my first 5⭐️ read this month! I absolutely loved the multiple POVs and getting some chapters from the serial killer’s perspective 😯 the short chapters made it difficult to stop reading because I kept wanting to read just one more! There are a lot of characters and it took me a little bit to keep track of all of them, but I felt that they all played an important part in the story.

This was my first book by Jance and her writing is amazing. I loved reading the afterword (and the after-afterword!) and learning about the inspiration for the book. This book deserves all of the positive reviews it’s been getting 🧡

An interesting read written in an unusual way.

The opening tells the conclusion and thereafter readers are taken on a journey told from multiple POVs, across a timeline and with indigenous American lore added.

Jance can definitely tell a story but I was not as enthralled with this format of plot (knowing the ending from the outset). I’m not sure if it was the opening that revels the killer or the sheer number of sub-stories running in the novel.

A good read overall because of the subject matter.

Too many characters. I was hoping for a Joanna Brady novel. It didn’t come together well at all

Don't get me wrong, I began reading Jance because of Joanna Brady. But I love that this book is about so many other people. Wonderful inclusion of Native stories and thank you for the background. Likewise our new hero ;), and that Jennifer Brady is one smart cookie ;)

J.A. JANCE stays consistent with all her book. My first introdiction to Sherrif Brady, Looking forward to many more.
A serial killer on the loose on Rodeo circuits. With a little help from Joanna's daughter; read how he gets taken down. Solid 4.5 stars!

J.A. Jance's Sheriff Joanna Brady series set in Cochise County, Arizona, and her books about the Walker family in Tucson have been my favorites for years. There are some series that, when you read them, you feel as though you've come home, and this applies especially to Joanna Brady. Over the years, I've watched Joanna grow from a young widow and newly elected sheriff to a seasoned veteran with a new family. These characters have become my fictional family who just happen to live in one of my favorite (and well-traveled) corners of the world.

The author's Walker family books are also favorites. I love the Tucson setting and how Jance weaves Tohono O'odham legends into each book. When I learned that Blessing of the Lost Girls combined both the Bradys and the Walkers, I couldn't be happier, and I hope this is only the first book to see this blending.

From the first, readers know the identity of the serial killer. This story is about how he is caught and the people determined to bring him to justice. I am thrilled with the direction Jance is going with the character of Joanna Brady's oldest daughter, Jenny. Jenny has grown from a young girl crazy about her horse and barrel racing to a young woman about to graduate from college with a degree in criminal justice. When she realizes that she knows Rosa Rios, she doesn't hesitate to contact Dan Pardee with what she knows. She's also careful about how she helps with Pardee's investigation because she doesn't want to get her mother the sheriff in hot water.

The characters in this book are intelligent, and I enjoyed how they worked together to find a killer who'd been flying beneath the radar for years. Pardee, field officer with the newly formed Missing and Murdered Indigenous People's Task Force (MIP), is a strong presence who works hard to find the killer. I definitely want to see more of him.

This is also a book that celebrates diversity and blended families. One character faces moving into assisted living. The adjustments people had to make due to Covid are mentioned. These characters, these families, come from different cultures, different races, different physical abilities, and different ages, and they've blended into strong families that readers will feel a part of.

If you're worried about reading Blessing of the Lost Girls because you haven't read previous books about Joanna Brady or the Walker family, don't be. Jance does a skillful job of bringing everyone up to speed. Not to be missed are the two Afterwards at the end in which Jance explains her inclusion of Tohono O'odham stories in the book and her inspiration for one of the characters.

Character, story, setting... by all means, pick up a copy of this book. You will find yourself in the hands of a master... while I'm in the unenviable position of being forced to wait for more.

Though I've read all of the J.A. Jance Walker Family series and found them to be the least satisfying of her series, this cross-pollination effort with the Sheriff Joanna Brady series was MOST satisfying...I absolutely loved it...There is just something about Native America mysticism that intrigues me and I've fallen in love with the Hillerman's, Craig Johnson's Longmire, Margaret Coel's Wind River and William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Conner series....In "Blessing of the Lost Girls," we're introduced to Brandon Walker and Diana Ladd’s son-in-law, Dan Pardee...Pardee is with a new Federal agency, MIP: Missing Indigenous Persons. An entire agency devoted to the scourge of many Native American reservations, missing Native American women...Like John Sanford's intro of Lucas Davenport's daughter Letty into her own series, I think this is a portal for Jance to create a series for Joanna Brady's daughter, Jenny and Brandon Pardee...Again, LOVED IT!!!

From the beginning we know the book is about a serial killer. Fine. It also state only it is a Brady - Walker Book, well it is Really a Dan Pardee book, who was connected to the Walker Family. Joanna Brady was a background character. Jenny Brady had more presence. Had the story stayed with the murder hunt, it probably would have been a short book. So interspersed are a lot of other stories. While background stories provide interesting facts, some of these just do not flow.

The main story of the book was great - finding missing Native American girls. But the book took so much time with background of each character, introduced several side stories and providing ancient Indian story at headings of each chapter that the book became too busy with unimportant stuff. I have red sheriff BRADY books before but this one was a disappointment.

Too many characters.

I always looked forward to the Brady books, but this was just too hard to keep track of the storyline. It was a disappointing read.

Not my favorite Jance novel.

I liked the story, but got tired of all the interruptions for the native folklore.
I probably won't buy another book in this series.

I've been a fan of J. A. Jance since I first discovered her Ali Reynolds and Joanna Brady novels. However, I had never read the Walker Family Mysteries. I will be going back and finding them to read now because events are referenced in this book that occurred in the Walker Family Mysteries. However, reading the Walker Family novels is not essential to understanding the characters herein as explanations are plentiful.

Blessing of the Lost Girls brings together characters from the Joanna Brady novels and the Walker Family Mysteries. Newly introduced, and I suspect the star of a new series, is Dan Pardee, a field officer for the newly formed MIP (Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Task Force). MIP's main purpose was to investigate and put right how law enforcement agencies all over the country had dealt with both solved and unsolved cases involving the deaths and disappearances of Native American victims.

Three years after her charred remains were discovered, Rosa Ríos is finally identified and Dan Pardee is assigned her case. Rosa was once a barrel racer and Sheriff Joanna Brady's daughter, Jenny, remembers her from the junior rodeo circuit. She puts together Rosa's murder with a more recent attempted murder after a rodeo and sets Dan Pardee and the MIP on a whole new path in their investigation that leads them to the killer.

Woven throughout are facts about various Indian tribes as well as "winter tales" of the Tohono O'odham tribe. It took me a while to realize the relevance of these tales to the storyline.

And like many, I usually ignore the afterwords and acknowledgement but I'm glad I didn't this time as I discovered that one of the more interesting, though lesser, characters was based on someone the author personally knew.

The book was well written. I love the characters but I didn't enjoy the side story/

Thrilled to see a new Joanna Brady, and even tho, she wasn't a big part of the story, it was still a great read. Was so interesting in the afterword to learn about Harold Bell Wright. What a masterful storyteller he was, and I found an even better story in the after-afterward.

This was a great book the inspiration behind the story is beautiful. Loved that the author was able to help readers connect with each character in the book and also included native tales. Then ending had me hooked!

Wonderful detective work in a story that matters!!!!!

This starred mostly Brandon Walker and Joanna Brady’s oldest daughter. Girls are found in the desert of Arizona. The connections between the girls and a serial killer are made by Jennie Brady. The capture of the serial killer is Walker’s quest. Connection to rodeos and DNA eventually reveals the identity of the killer, now to locate the killer.

Blessing of the Lost Girls by J A Jance is a story featuring Brandon Walker and Diana Ladd’s son-in-law, Dan Pardee, who has left the border patrol to work with a new Federal agency, MIP: Missing Indigenous Persons. An entire agency seemed to be called for as local police rarely seemed to take notice, often not even filing a report when an indigenous person was reported missing. He had been working on the case of Rosa Rios. She had been “taken” from a rodeo in Tucson. In his discussions with her mother, he had discovered that she had never turned over Rosa’s dental records to the authorities. These same dental records turned out to match a burned out skeleton found in the desert and started the journey that would lead Dan Pardee to capturing her killer.

Jance’s writing style leads one through the investigation, one clue at a time. These clues often come from various sources and would never have seen the light of day if not for someone like Pardee. Jance believes people, most people, are good and willing to help where they can. Skills make a difference and not everyone has the necessary ones. It was a complex plot, chasing a serial killer over years and through many states, while at the same time his wife, Lani, was dealing with her mother who had fallen apart after her husband’s death during the pandemic as well as the death of her son. Fortunately she was capable and believed in what he was doing and lent counsel and support, mostly over the telephone, as Dan chased this murderer. It was a comfortable novel for Jance fans with many characters reappearing that we’ve read before. People get older and they change or not. Fascinating way her mind works.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of The Blessing of the Lost Girls by William Morrow, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #WilliamMorrow #JAJance #BlessingOfTheLostGirls

This was my first book by this author, I was able to follow the story easily though I’m sure I’m missing a lot of backstories.
I didn’t get why the little story was there? I kept thinking it would be somehow linked to the main story but it had nothing to do with it. No disrespect to the native culture but even the author said you can skip it in the afterwords. So why was it there???

This was an easy read but because it was not spectacularly written. There was zero suspense in the story of a serial killer. And the whole case was solved and wrapped up way too easily. The characters had no depth. It was just ok.

Human remains have been found in Cochise County, Arizona, which means it’s a case for Sheriff Joanna Brady. It takes a while, but the remains are eventually identified as those of a missing Apache woman. Dan Pardee, the son-in-law of retired Sheriff Brandon Walker, is assigned to investigate the cause of death. Dan is a member of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Task Force and is determined to get justice for this young woman. He could never have predicted how complex this case would get and how so many people would come together to help solve it.

Blessing of the Lost Girls combines characters from two of the author’s series, the Sheriff Joanna Brady series and the Walker Family Novels. I’ve read almost all of the Joanna Brady books but have only read one book in the Walker series, so it took me a bit to get caught up on who was who among the characters from that series. Otherwise, it works well as a standalone. In this book, Joanna actually plays less of a role than her daughter, Jenny, who is about to graduate from college with a degree in criminal justice. It was nice seeing the valuable contributions Jenny makes to the investigation, even if it was somewhat unrealistic that a student could outthink all of the seasoned members of law enforcement involved with the case.

I enjoyed the character of Dan Pardee, who is smart and dedicated to both his job and his family. It is refreshing that Dan has a supportive boss who backs his decisions and requests so the case can progress. The plot is interesting, seeing how the investigation unfolds. There are chapters told from the killer’s point-of-view, and his name is given near the beginning, so this isn’t a “whodunnit” but instead a cat-and-mouse chase between a predator and law enforcement. I also enjoyed the Arizona setting. I was familiar with some of the places, but the author’s descriptions are so vivid I could clearly picture even those I have never seen.

The author took a unique approach to the book by including some ancient stories from Arizona’s Tohono O’odham (translated as Desert People) Nation at the beginning of some of the chapters. The author gives interesting background information about these stories in the back of the book. She said she hoped readers wouldn’t skip over them to get to the main story, and I am glad I didn’t. In fact, one of the stories about “Beautiful Girl” and her brother “Hunter” was so good I actually wanted the chapters with only the main plot to move faster so I could find out what happened next with Beautiful Girl. The book as a whole comes to a satisfying conclusion, and I would be interested in reading more books featuring Dan Pardee.

~ Christine

I always read whatever the author has to say at the end of a book. I think Blessing of the Lost Girls might be the first time I've read "An After-Afterword" and certainly the first time an explanation from the author brought tears to my eyes.

I suspect the Brady name was invoked on the cover of

I'm not upset that Joanna Brady is not front and center as I've never been a great fan of hers. I often find Joanna supremely annoying and saved by the minor characters that surround her. Ditto for Ali Reynolds, yet I haven’t stopped reading either of them!

The criminal part of 'Blessing of the Lost Girls', the procedural, is interesting albeit with a lot of lucky breaks for the investigation. The criminal unwinds his own story, both present and past, as Dan Pardee's investigation moves forward. I thought the criminal's story ending to be disappointingly lazy.

While I didn't always understand the meaning of the stories and legends at the beginning of chapters, I thoroughly enjoyed reading them and eventually came to understand some. I thought the story about the fragrant night blooming desert flower, cereus, to be quite beautiful.

Yes, it was hard to remember the minutia of the last Walker family book, which I read in 2016, but the tidbits and crumbs of reminders in 'Blessing of the Lost Girls' brought it all back. I'm hoping for more of them, not the least of which is because the Indigenous people aspect seems close the Jance's heart, but also because it's clear that Jennifer Brady's future may soon to be entwined with Dan Pardee's resulting in another "Brady and Walker Family Novel".

4.5 Stars for