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Twenty years ago, a darkness rose up out of the blistering heat of the Arizona desert and descended upon the Walker family of Tucson. A personified evil, a serial killer named Andrew Carlisle, brought blood and terror into their world, nearly murdering Diana Ladd Walker and her young son, Davy. Now much has changed. The family has grown larger. There's Lani, the beloved adopted daughter-a beautiful Native American teenager "kissed by the bees" and destined, according to Tohono 0'othham lore, to become a woman of great spiritual power. And now that the psychopath Carlisle has died in prison, Brandon and Diana Walker believe that their long nightmare is finally over. They are wrong. The monster is dead, but his malevolence lives on . . . in another.… (more)
User reviews
Book 2 .…. All suspense, the mystery is in the timing. Will Brandon and Diana figure it out in time, will Davy understand what he is seeing in time, will Fat Crack (Gabe) get there in time, will Lani know what to do at the right time. We know from the start what kind of evil is coming for the family. The interactions between the family is defined by flash backs of previous events that give a better frame to the family. Liked the inclusion of Brian, even Quentin and Tommy help to show the dynamics of the family structure. Felt Brandon as a character so much more than Diana, but liked how strong Lani was. Interested to see the next one, Day of the Dead.
This story jumps ahead 20 years from the first book, Hour of the Hunter. The first part of the
Jance continues to introduce each chapter with a bit of Papago Indian folklore. This helps cement a sense of place within the desert of Southern Arizona amongst the Tohono O'Odham people.
I'm a fan of Jance's writing but I'm becoming particularly fond of this series. The plots in her other works are always interesting and have plenty of twists, but the characters are a bit shallow. In this series, she's taking the time to thoroughly develop her characters. Quite a bit of this story is internal dialogue and you get to experience the growth of some characters and better understand their viewpoint as a Native American. There are quite a few interesting heroes being developed for future works in this series and I'm looking forward to diving into the next book, Day of the Dead.
For me, the Tohono O'odham cultural elements, specifically, and southern Arizona, in general, make this book special. This is about THE WALKER FAMILY and being long they all kind of got on my nerves. Lani Walker, the 16 year old daughter, was the focus. Did I mention that the book was long? Yeah, Lani could be quite boring as well, but ultimately her story ends on a high note. The stepson Brian Fellows was the most enjoyable for me even though his time on the pages was on the short side.
Anyway, another J.A. Jance worth reading.