Review: Missing and Endangered: A Brady Novel of Suspense by J.A. Jance

It is the first week of December as Missing and Endangered: A Brady Novel of Suspense by J.A. Jance begins. Things are fairly routine as the paperwork keeps coming. Jenny is making plans to be home as soon as finals are over. Butch is out of town on a book tour. As always, Sheriff Brady needs more deputies and a budgetary increase for staff and equipment. Everything is pretty much normal until she gets reports of an officer involved shooting.

 

Deputy Armando Ruiz was out on a call to deliver a no contact order to Leon Hogan. Things escalated and Leon Hogan did not survive. Deputy Ruiz, gravely wounded, was able to call for help. Mr. Hogan’s wife, Madison was there at his house when the incident happened as were their kids, Kendall, age 7, and Peter, 5. Why Madison and their kids were at his house just hours after she requested a no contact order is one of the many questions that Sheriff Brady wants answered.

 

The officer shooting case becomes the primary story line. What happened with the kids in the past and present becomes one of the two secondary storylines in the book. Their world, from their pov, is provided in heartbreaking detail. These sections are all too real and often very hard to read.

 

The other secondary story line involves Jenny and her roommate, Beth Rankin. Sheltered and very naive, Beth is extremely vulnerable to the predators of the online world. In a very predictable story line, her trust is used against her. Things escalate which puts herself as well as Jenny in danger.

 

As has been the case the last few books, much of this book is spent discussing relationships and family. Family often goes far beyond the biological. The consistent and caring people in your life often become your real family. A point driven home again and again in this entertaining read. 

 

  

Missing and Endangered: A Brady Novel of Suspense

J. A. Jance

http://www.jajance.com

Harper Collins Publishers

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/missing-and-endangered-j-a-jance?variant=32126586159138

February 2021

ASIN: B0831PD377

eBook (also available in hardback, audio, and large print paperback

378 Pages 

 

 

I was able to read this book in eBook format because my son, Scott, could make the Libby App with the Dallas Public Library System work. It is the way of his people. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2021