Day Of The Dead

Walker Family #3

by J.A. Jance

* This is an updated cover of this Kindle edition. *

The Walker family survived the atrocities perpetrated by a serial killer and his crazed acolyte in both Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Bees. But can they escape the vengeance of a new killer or killers whose sights have been set on their precious daughter, Lani? Young girls are being spirited away from an orphanage deep in Colonial Mexico -- told they're traveling to a loving adoptive family in southern Arizona, their hopes are high. But the fate that waits for them is truly horrifying: when death comes, it will be a blessing....

Former Sheriff Brandon Walker is living the life of a reluctant retiree. Playing golf while his wife, Diana Ladd, continues to write her bestselling tales of true crime, he desperately misses the action and sense of usefulness from days gone by. When he’s invited to join the Last Chance Club to review and attempt to solve long-cold cases, he little imagines the first case to cross his path will be one he may have botched back 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....

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Thriller, Crime, Audiobook

498 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Judith Ann Jance is the top 10 New York Times bestselling author of the Joanna Brady series; the J. P. Beaumont series; three interrelated thrillers featuring the Walker family; and Edge of Evil, the first in a series featuring Ali Reynolds. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona.

Series:
* J.P. Beaumont
* Joanna Brady
* Ali Reynolds
* Walker Family

Reviews

[Jill.spearsgmail.com · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hated the topic. Too chopped up...literally and figuratively. Can't stand sadistic sexual plots. Realized I don't like the Walker series, whereas her others I love.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started with some promise. Brandon Walker is a former sheriff and he is now bored out of his skull having retired while his wife is still busy and often traveling, so when Brandon receives an invitation to lunch and is invited to join The Last Chance Club; he accepts before lunch even arrives. This is a group whose funding is provided by a woman whose daughter's murder was never solved. These retired police and investigators are being asked to solve long-cold cases. And the premise was promising...

The book derailed with too many weird far-fetched scenarios- Brandon's daughter having been adopted from an Indian tribe is allowed to return to the tribe so she can fast for 16 days and atone for a murder!? Like a sheriff father would put up with that!? But "hey, okay," he says. And there's the weird fusion of Christian Science with Indian chants for something or other.

Add to that the graphic and awful detail of the torture of a young Mexican girl sent to live with a sadistic missionary doctor and his accomplice wife who on other weekends live an upscale respected doctor-of-the-town life.

The book just got to weird too fast and too gruesome.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am accustomed to JA Jance's writing style and know that she can come up with some incredibly twisted stuff, but this book really pushed the envelope! Never one to shy away from graphic detail, I forged on, but I must admit that I was a bit put off by some of it from time to time.
The plot revolves around a series of murders across several decades. Teenage girls are bound and held as bdsm sex slaves by a well-known "philanthropist" couple. Once the couple tires of them, they are killed and disposed of. A retired sheriff gets involved with a private organization whose goal it is to solve cold cases. He slowly starts to put facts together from the past and begins to link a past murder to a recent one. Soon others that occured in the interim are found to be connected as well.
I do enjoy a good, exciting mystery and this one was no exception. The graphic descriptions of the girls' torture was a bit much, but the story was still quite good.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the dust jacket "Young girls are being spirited away from an orphanage deep in Colonial Mexico -- told they're traveling to a loving adoptive family in southern Arizona. But the fate that waits for them is truly horrifying.
Former Sheriff Brandon Walker is living the life of a reluctant retiree. Playing golf while his wife, Diana Ladd, continues to write her bestselling tales of true crime, he desperately misses the action and sense of usefulness from days gone by. When he’s invited to join the Last Chance Club to review and attempt to solve long-cold cases, he little imagines the first case to cross his path will be one he may have botched back 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."

One more reason to always mark your read books in Goodreads! This was my second listen to this book and I enjoyed it as much the second time as the first.

[Minerva Koenig · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get through it due to excessive torture porn. Not only that, but the first quarter of the book seems to be entirely given over to backstory, and not very well-written backstory. Won't be picking up this author again :/

[Nancy Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this much more than the first two books of the series. There are still horrific murders committed by totally evil villains, but it's not quite as graphically gruesome. Several years have passed, though not as many as between the first and second books, and there have been many changes in the Walker family. Brandon Walker is now the former sheriff working for a cold case organization, and his wife Diana is a successful author. Once again, their extended family plays a major part in the story, making for a more intricate plot with many threads which eventually come together. Since so much time is passing between books, obviously the author doesn't intend to stretch this series out as long as she has done with her other series. That suits me fine, because even though the stories are good, I'm not nearly as enamored of the Walker family as I am of her Beaumont and Brady characters.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished my latest audio book this morning on the way into work. It was my first book ever by J.A. Jance and is called, Day of the Dead. I didn't know this when I picked it off the library shelves but it is the third book in a mystery series involving an Indian reservation in Arizona. That happens quite a bit for me when I pick up an audio book from the library...I don't have the ability to research to see if it is part of a series. But usually, with mysteries it doesn't matter too much.

JA Jance, on her own website, defines the difference between a "mystery" novel and a "thriller" novel. She says in a mystery, you don't know the identity of the bad guy(s) or whodunnit until the end and the joy is in solving the mystery. In a thriller, however, the reader knows who the bad guy(s) is/are up front, even if the main characters don't. This particular novel is billed as a thriller and, indeed, we readers get to see whodunnit near the beginning so I guess it fulfills her definition. In my mind though, a "thriller" also provides "thrills" and this novel just didn't do it for me.

Apparently I am not alone in that opinion as most reviewers tend to classify this one as one of the lesser liked novels by JA Jance. She seems to have a devoted following of fans who really love her tremendous output but they say everybody has a bad book now and then and this one is one of hers. The story itself is OK and I really like the overall premise of having the TLC (The Last Chance) as a privately funded organization that looks into unsolved crimes...cold cases...that the police force just doesn't have time or resources to look into. And I liked the protagonist, a retired sheriff named Brandon Walker as he takes on the case for the TLC. But the balance between the mystery solving, the thriller aspects of the bad guys, and the subplots about the various members and relatives of the cold case murder victim was way to heavily weighted towards the subplots. The bad guys, a husband and wife team of sexual predators/perverts, seemed to me to be cardboard cutouts of a 1970s era TV show crime drama...i.e. very one dimensional and not at all the monsters they should have been. There were a couple of scenes that were fairly graphic sexually and that seems to have turned off many of Ms Jance's devoted followers..apparently she doesn't do much of that in most of her books.

I probably owe it myself to try one of her other books, in one of her other series but at this point I am not anxious to do so. So many books out there and I'm not getting any younger...

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jance's book are always three or four-star reads for me (Only 10-12 of the 1300 books I have read since I started recording on Goodreads have been 5-stars. The book has to have some intrinsic personal or societal value for me to rate it a 5). Jance's plots are always well-developed and skillfully intertwined. The characters are believable, likeable, and well-rounded. The pace of the action is brisk but not TOO brisk. This author is the most skillful flashback writer I have ever read - most authors manage to temporarily strand the reader when switching back to the present after a flashback, but I am fascinated with the number of ways Jance can devise to make that timeshift smooth and clear. The reason for my lowering of the star rating for this Jance title is the subject matter. It's just a personal-interest thing: I just cannot maintain interest when characters get into supernatural or mystic mumbo-jumbo. The Indian aspect of this series of books hold them, in my estimation, below the constant interest level of the Beaumont Series - or even the Ali Reynolds or Joanna Brady ones.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was amazing and action packed!! Gayle Striker is the most evil woman you'll ever meet. Brandon Walker is a awesome Detective and proves himself even more in this book. Full of twists, turns, and shocking events. I enjoyed the writing style of J.A. Jance and the way she intertwines her stories of each character together. This was the first book I read by her and hope Queen of the Night and the newest one: Judgement Call (2013) are just as compelling.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many others have already described the plot for this story, I just want to encourage everyone to READ THIS BOOK!!! You will be horrified by the sick crimes committed by a well respected and well to do couple. At the same time you will be thrilled with the "heroes" as well as the nail-biting ending!

J. A. Jance is an awesome author!

[Polly · Rating 2 out of 5]

The reason for the 2 stars is it had 6 little stories going instead of just the two. Also, the subject matter was sexual abuse & that's not easy for me to read about. I love JA Jance, just not this book.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love J.A. Jance's J.P. Beaumont Series. The Walker series is much darker and disturbing, which made it hard to finish the first two. This one was the best so far. This was was very dark too but the writing was better.

[Daniel O'connell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many characters to keep track of. :(

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story, but a little too gruesome for me.

[Lori Flynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sensitive subjects handled insensitively. All characters, even the good guys, discussed horrific issues in a very cavalier manner. I am outraged at the LACK OF OUTRAGE, for example, at 68% in, discussion between Ex sheriff and his teen daughter....."they dug the baby up, it's out there on the porch" referring to an exhumed coffin 9f an infant, and the responses are not at all appropriate, that's the LEAST offensive topic, BTW, in this book.
I guess desensitization is Alive and well demonstrated if the subject matter and reactions to it by the characters in this book are any indication. Horrible, and the last book by this author I'll ever pick up. Maybe the audio version was a factor, however, the words are the words written by the author, and in my opinion, the LACK of emotional response demonstrated by all involved is horrifying. And I am not referring to the stoic nature which may be attributed culturally, to some involved, this is not at all a judgement or statement surrounding that trait.
This is regarding a profoundly numb affect written in throughout this book. And in my opinion, is a sorry reflection by the author. Either the author has written too much horror and has forgotten what normal reactions should be, or the world is lost. I was actually wondering if I was overreacting to feel so disgusted. And read comments because I wondered if this is considered acceptable . Hated this book and every character in it. Nothing good to be had here.

[Abraham Sammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started off strong but halfway through, it felt like the plot came to a grinding halt and just when it was picking up the pace again, the book ends. I wanted to return to the Walker series after reading “Blessing of the Lost Girls”. I had previously read “Kiss of the Bees” and though that book was a chore to get through, the pace was consistent and Jance’s exploration of the characters and their backgrounds was interesting for the most part. Here, the novel needlessly meanders into the backgrounds of even the most minor characters and the major ones felt unnecessary in many parts. I’ve been reading Jance’s work long enough to tolerate these detours but this book really took it far. The death and funeral for one major character did not need to take up the many pages that it did. It really felt like two thirds of this book was just exposition with the main plot sparsely littered throughout. The antagonists were interesting but they only get so much focus and their demises happen so fast, if you blink, you’ll miss it. The gruesome scenes weren’t over the top as some other readers have stated but I had difficulty believing the antagonists would be have gotten away with their crimes for so long without any of the relatives or friends of their victims speaking up. I will be hesitant to read any other installments in the Walker series.

[C.J. Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Ski Croghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent book from J.A. Jance!!!

I have trouble believing that her first book was as bad as she says! Every fiction book she has written has been excellent. I've read every one them, some of them 2 or 3 times. This is one of the best. I lived in Tucson for 20 years and she really captures the feel of that wonderful city. A serial killer and her pyscotic enabling husband have gotten away with for over 30 years. But they never counted on Brandon Walker and his family and friends. When Brandon starts looking into a murder that's over 30 years old, it doesn't take long for him to suspect that they are still at it! He's no longer the sheriff of Pima County but he is still a cop at heart. Will this case finally kill him? Will he be able to bring down the bad guys? Laine is finishing up her pre-med courses but a death brings her home early. Who dies? Read this fascinating book to find out! Highly recommended.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

#3 in the Walker Family mystery series. Former Sheriff Brandon Walker is living the life of a reluctant retiree and is both restless and bored missing the action and sense of usefulness. That is until he's invited to the Last Chance Club to review and attempt to solve long-cold cases. The first case to cross his path is one he may have botched back when he was sheriff.

This is a story involving a number of people, both Native American and White, all connected in one way or another with a Native America tribe in the Tucson area. It is also a story about young girls being spirited away from an orphanage deep in Mexico and the fate that waits for them is truly horrifying which becomes intertwined with Walker's cold case investigation. It also jumps back and forth in time and between people.

[Renee Vasquez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall there were to many characters and it was difficult to keep them straight. The name Fat Crack stuck under my skin and annoyed me when the matter was serious but it kept saying Fat Crack. I did like the use/mix in of Native American words. The story was good, hard to follow at times since it was jumping around from character perspective to character perspective with no heading just a change of narrator. It got very exciting towards the end of course and the ending was bitter sweet. The subject matter of abused young girls was hard to read and graphic at moments. The point of how little attention is paid to brown girls going missing is a sad reality and this book will really make you feel it. 3.5.

[Nina Chambers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am very torn about this quartet. I think the last one: Queen of the Night is worth a read & encompasses & resolves most of the best elements. I generally like novels with a real sense of place... But am sad that both the Joanna Brady series & this quartet involve quite, even excessively, disturbing sexual violence & predation.
I much prefer the Ali Reynolds series (& have not tried the Beaumont series...)
The best parts of this quartet are the extended family & the Native traditional ways that are integrated, tho' not sure how the Tohono O'odham feel about it. I am very happy this pprbk copy is falling apart. I will be recycling it...

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good, but gory, thriller, and was my first read by Jance. I don't think it'll be my last. However, upon reading the GR blurb, at least, I'm surprised because the actual murders in the book had nothing to do with Lani, although she did experience personal growth in other areas of the story.

This is not a book that I would read after dark, and a warning for those who want to read it -- there is some fairly gruesome sexual abuse/torture that is described in detail... just putting that out there.

Would recommend to thriller aficionados and people who enjoy books by authors like Tess Gerritsen and Iris Johansen.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book brings together elements of suspense and Native American culture and lore as well family drama. Unfortunately, I didn't know that this was the third in a series when I started reading it. There's so much back story here that a "cast of characters" page was really needed to understand the complicated relationships of all these people. The passages relating to the Tohono O'odham people were interesting in themselves, but they had no discernible link to the main story. You keep waiting for the author to bring the disparate elements of her story together, but she never does. The ending is sudden and thoroughly unsatisfying.

[Elizabeth Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a tough book to enjoy because of the subject matter. Someone who does not like to read about rape and molestation should probably steer clear of this book.
The Walker family series is formatted differently from Jance's other series. In these books there is no mystery for the reader. You see into the mind of the criminal and watch as the investigators figure out the case. This series definitely deals with some real sickos when it comes to the villains. That being said, I still feel like these books are difficult to put down and I flew through this on audio in less than 24 hours.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

J.A. Jance never writes less than a good mystery. I think I have read one of the Brandon Walker series before but it was a long time ago. I like the way that people pop up from her other series (and she has four including this). Sometimes, as in this book it's pretty subtle - Ralph Ames, Beaumont's lawyer makes an appearance at the end of the telephone, while other times she will have two detectives working directly together. It didn't seem as though starting with the third one mattered, but I will try and find the earlier ones.

[Kelly Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beginning with the Joanna Brady books, Ms Jance has often included references to the native peoples that inhabit the locations that her novels encompass. The Walker Family books take that a few steps farther and create a dual focus - the mystery that is being examined and the native legends surrounding some of the actions taking place in the novel.

Day of the Dead looks at a cold case involving a young Native woman who was murdered over thirty years ago and the recent murder of a young Hispanic woman.

[Kem · Rating 3 out of 5]

The culprits in this book are 2 of the most evil I've read ever I believe. The first half was hard to understand in that it jumped from long past times to current times. It took a while to get that and put the story together. The last third of the book is better. I would have liked to have the culprits live long enough for a jail cell and public knowledge of their horrid crimes. They got off too easy.

[Suzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this in the car and the ending was pretty exciting to hear while driving. This one seemed a little more brutal but it is certainly current with today's news. I really love the characters and family relationships. I love all Jance's series and I'm glad she's a fast writer with a lot of books behind her for me to catch up with. You can tell I'm no writer, but a devoted reader / listener.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I figure out the order of books and actually read them in that order!

Worth pointing out here that this is the point in 2020 when I said "Ugh, no thanks" to perfectly good crime and mystery fiction, because I was getting super annoyed by people being shitty to other people in real-world settings.

I'll likely be back -- there's most definitely a to-read pile full of crime and mystery -- but not just yet.

[Mom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. A serial killer stalks young girls over decades and eventually a cold case is solved and the grisly pattern exposed. Set partially on an Indian reservation with characters from a tribe that I can't record since I listened to this on audio and have no idea how that name is spelled and I can't eve pronounce it several days after finishing the book. I guess this is a spoiler although there never was any suspense about who did it or whether they would get caught.