J.A. Jance is a New York Times bestselling author of more than 40 novels. If you’re an avid reader or curious about the J.A. Jance books in order, I’ve compiled all the information you need right here. I hope this list will be helpful for your reading needs and give you some extra insight into one amazing American author’s work so far.
Who Is J.A. Jance?
American thriller and mystery author J.A. Jance is well-respected for her many contributions to the genre throughout the years. Her full name is Judith Ann Jance and she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in her field.
From the moment she read the Wizard of Oz in Second Grade she knew she wanted to be a writer.
Jance has produced several notable works throughout her career. She is a master at combining compelling story lines and character development. Her ability to connect both is what makes her a popular choice.
Her books have sold more than 23 million copies worldwide.
J.A. Jance Books in Order of Publication
Below is a comprehensive list of all J.A. Jance books in order so that you will know which book to read next.
J.P. Beaumont Series in Order
The J.P. Beaumont series is based on the detective named the same and follows his career. These novels would become Jance’s most popular and critically-acclaimed series.
- Until Proven Guilty (1985)
- Injustice For All (1986)
- Trial by Fury (1986)
- Taking the Fifth (1987)
- Improbable Cause (1988)
- A More Perfect Union (1988)
- Dismissed with Prejudice (1989)
- Minor in Possession (1990)
- Payment In Kind (1991)
- Without Due Process (1992)
- Failure to Appear (1993)
- Lying in Wait (1994)
- Name Withheld (1996)
- Breach Of Duty (1999)
- Birds of Prey (2001)
- Partner in Crime (2002) (Joanna Brady Crossover)
- Long Time Gone (2005)
- Justice Denied (2007)
- Fire and Ice (2009) (Joanna Brady Crossover)
- Betrayal of Trust (2011)
- Second Watch (2013)
- Ring In the Dead (2013) (Novella)
- Stand Down (2015) (Novella)
- Dance of the Bones (2015) (Brandon Walker Crossover)
- Still Dead (2017) (Novella)
- Proof of Life (2017)
- Sins of the Fathers (2019)
- Nothing to Lose (2022)
- Den of Iniquity (Expected: September 10, 2024)
Joanna Brady Books in Order
Joanna Brady is a mystery series set in Arizona and it features Joanna Brady as the main protagonist.
It’s not easy being elected sheriff in Cochise County. Joanna Brady promised that she would continue her husband’s good works no matter the cost after drug dealers killed her husband. This mother challenged the status quo with grit and courage, and unwavering determination.
As the newly-elected Sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona, she will have to battle prejudice and hostility from a male-dominated, mistrustful police force.
- Desert Heat (1993)
- Tombstone Courage (1995)
- Shoot Don’t Shoot (1995)
- Dead to Rights (1997)
- Skeleton Canyon (1997)
- Rattlesnake Crossing (1998)
- Outlaw Mountain (1999)
- Devil’s Claw (2001)
- Paradise Lost (2001)
- Partner in Crime (2002) (J.P. Beaumont Crossover)
- Exit Wounds (2003)
- Dead Wrong (2006)
- Damage Control (2008)
- Fire and Ice (2009) (J.P. Beaumont Crossover)
- Judgment Call (2012)
- The Old Blue Line (2014) (Novella)
- Remains of Innocence (2014)
- Random Acts (2016) (Novella) (Ali Reynolds Crossover)
- Downfall (2016)
- Field of Bones (2018)
- Missing and Endangered (2021)
- Blessing of the Lost Girls (2023) (Walker Family Crossover)
Ali Reynolds Series in Order
This thriller series by J.A. Jance, a New York Times bestseller, is high-stakes.
Ali Reynolds is a former TV journalist who was kicked off the air for a younger anchor. Ali travels from LA to her hometown in Arizona following the death of her childhood friend and starts writing a blog. Soon, however, she will realize that something dark and deadly is swirling around her life.
- Edge of Evil (2005)
- Web of Evil (2007)
- Hand of Evil (2007)
- Cruel Intent (2008)
- Trial by Fire (2009)
- Fatal Error (2011)
- Left for Dead (2012)
- Deadly Stakes (2013)
- Moving Target (2014)
- A Last Goodbye (2014) (Novella)
- Cold Betrayal (2015)
- No Honor Among Thieves (2015) (Novella)
- Clawback (2016)
- Random Acts (2016) (Novella) (Joanna Brady Crossover)
- Man Overboard (2017)
- Duel to the Death (2018)
- The A List (2019)
- Taking the Veil (2019) (Novella) (Eric Van Lustbader MatchUp)
- Credible Threat (2020)
- Unfinished Business (2021)
- Collateral Damage (2023)
Walker Family Mysteries Series
- Hour of the Hunter (1991)
- Kiss of the Bees (1993)
- Day of the Dead (2004)
- Queen of the Night (2010)
- Dance of the Bones (2015) (J.P. Beaumont Crossover)
- Blessing of the Lost Girls (2023) (Joanna Brady Crossover)
World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories Series
- The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 1 (2000)
- The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 2 (2000)
- The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3 (2002)
- The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 4 (2003)
- The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 5 (2004)
J.A. Jance Books in Order – Standalone
J.A. Jance Books in Order – Anthologies
- Midnight Louie’s Pet Detectives (1998)
- Naked Came the Phoenix (2001)
- Bark M For Murder (2006)
- No Rest for the Dead (2011)
- MatchUp (2017)
J.A. Jance Books in Order: Summary of Joanna Brady Books
Below is an overview of the Joanna Brady books in publication order. Lovers of mystery novels will enjoy reading this interesting series.
1. Desert Heat
Under the scorching Arizona sun, a cop is found dead. Police brass believe that Andy Brady was dirty and that his death was a suicide attempt.
Joanna Brady is his wife and mother to their nine-year-old daughter. She knows a cover-up when she hears it…and a murder when she sees one. But Joanna’s determined efforts to find her husband’s assassin and clear her husband’s name are putting her and her family in danger.
2. Tombstone Courage
Joanna Brady, newly-elected Sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona, must overcome prejudice and hostility from a male-dominated police force. She also has to solve a gruesome double murder that threatens the desert community.
3. Shoot Don’t Shoot
Still reeling from the loss of her husband, newly-elected Sheriff Joanna Brady has a lot to learn about the job. Which sends her to Phoenix before Thanksgiving for a police training crash course. But there she finds herself flung into the mystery of an imprisoned husband.
Her gut tells her that he did not murder his wife. However, her impromptu investigation will draw in a serial killer and put her little girl in danger.
4. Dead to Rights
A drunk driver kills a woman in Arizona on her nineteenth wedding anniversary. One year later, after a slap on the wrist for the crime, the driver dies and all suspicions point to her still-grieving husband being the murderer.
All except for those of Joanna Brady. She doesn’t rush to condemn the widower tragically. Her convictions, however, are leading her on a twisted trail through inhospitable country.
5. Skeleton Canyon
A popular, pretty teenager never returned from Skeleton Canyon after a late-night rendezvous with her boyfriend. But, perhaps Bree O’Brien discovered something more sinister, or something far more dangerous.
Sheriff Joanna Brady is disturbed by the O’Brien’s instance the boyfriend murdered their daughter. Dark secrets are leading Brady into a deadly nest of lies, greed, and deceit.
6. Rattlesnake Crossing
A gun dealer dies violently and his entire arsenal of weapons disappear. Following his death a series of brutal and blood-chilling murders paralyze the small desert town. Suspicion falls upon Alton Hosfield, an embittered rancher, but Sheriff Joanna Brady isn’t to convinced.
Brady is aware that she must defend the town she was selected to serve. But, her desperate search for a killer is leading her to terrifying places.
7. Outlaw Mountain
What monster would murder a 71-year-old woman and then leave her body to rot in Arizona’s desert?
Joanna Brady is determined to find out answers about Outlaw Mountain’s lethal shadow. But the murder of a senior citizen is just one thread of a bloody tapestry. Death follows death in terrible succession.
8. Devil’s Claw
A Native American woman has been found dead in the desert. She was an ex-con who was once sentenced to death for the murder of her husband. Now, her teenage daughter is lost in the shadows of the night-still canyons.
Sheriff Joanna Brady is on the verge of new life and happiness. But death is calling her again, calling her down a path of hate, greed, and devastating consequences to the dark heart of Dragoon Mountain.
9. Paradise Lost
A Phoenix heiress’s naked and lifeless body is found in high desert darkness, abandoned in the lonely terror and desolate beauty. The body was discovered by Sheriff Joanna Brady’s 12-year-old daughter and her friend.
Brady must now investigate this murder while trying to care for her traumatized daughter. Then the friend is murdered, and Brady’s concern for her daughter turns to terror.
10. Partner in Crime
This novel is a crossover with J.A. Jance’s J.P. Beaumont series.
A talented artist from the West Coast winds up dead on Sheriff Joanna Brady’s turf in Arizona. But the murder victim was in the Washington State Attorney General’s Witness Protection Program. So the Attorney General’s Office has sent Brady some unwelcome help: J.P. Beaumont, a seasoned detective.
11. Exit Wounds
In an airless trailer a woman is found dead, a bullet hole in her chest. Mysteriously the bullet is 85 years old. This nightmare strangely connects to two other grisly slaughters, where two women’s corpses are tied up and naked and brutally posed on rancher’s property.
Sheriff Joanna Brady must pursue this serial killer while undergoing a brutal re-election campaign and marital distractions from home.
12. Dead Wrong
Joanna Brady, Cochise County Sheriff, has balanced a family and her career for many years. But, unfortunately, her burden is only increasing with the impending birth of her second child and two horrific crimes falling under her jurisdiction.
A corpse is discovered in the Arizona desert with his fingers severed from both hands. While a female officer is savagely assaulted and left for dead on an unauthorized stakeout. Justice must be served, because enforcing the law has become more than what Brady does – it’s what she is.
13. Damage Control
A car carrying an elderly couple crashes into a mountainside and falls into oblivion. The note found in the wreckage suggested that the tragedy was a double suicide. However, an autopsy later suggests something else may be afoot.
Sheriff Joanna Brady won’t allow murder to go unpunished within her jurisdiction. Even if her path to the truth is twisting and dangerous…and leads to shocking revelations regarding those entrusted to care for the helpless.
14. Fire and Ice
This is another crossover with J.A. Jance’s J.P. Beaumont series, marking her second Brady and Beaumont book.
J.P. Beaumont, a Seattle detective, is investigating a grisly series of murders in which six young ladies were wrapped in tarps, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. The charred bodies of the victims were scattered at various dumpsites across western Washington, creating a disturbing pattern of death.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Joanna Brady is investigating the murder of an elderly caretake of an ATV park, which make me linked to a turf war or something more sinister. A breakthrough in Beaumont’s case leads him back into Brady’s jurisdiction. The two must put aside the echoes of their shared past as they are drawn into an orbit of deception.
15. Judgment Call
Sheriff Joanna Brady struggles with the conflicting roles of mother and law officer when her daughter finds the body of the principal of the local high school. The ensuing investigation uncovers secrets that no parent wants.
The deeper Brady digs, the more complications she uncovers. The quiet, upstanding principal has a hidden past full of mysterious secrets she’s successfully kept buried for years. Brady finds the fine line she walks between justice and family has never been so blurred.
Final Thoughts on J.A. Jance Books in Order
I hope you’ve enjoyed this list of the J.A. Jance books in order and, with any luck, have found a new book to read! Also, if you would like us to explore other series besides the Joanna Brady series in future blog posts or lists, let us know in the comments!
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