Review – Fire and Ice by J.A. Jance

I have liked all of J.A. Jance’s Beaumont series and have come to enjoy her Joanna Brady series as well. Fire and Ice is by far the worst novel she has produced. First, it fails as a mystery because there is none. We know from the start who is behind the murders in Washington State and there are very few details left for the reader to figure out. Further, there is little suspense since the author creates very little tension in the novel.

Secondly, while I like the format of alternating between Beaumont and Brady as they follow their respective leads, the Brady parts of the book are filled with cutout characters and there is little or no development of Joanna herself. Further, the Brady portions of the book seemed to be chocked with filler and even the nursing home sub plot was weak and had very little substance. The Beaumont portions of the book were better. There were some interesting characters, such as Momma Rose and her man Tom. Beaumont’s character did have some more depth and created much more interest in the reader than Joanna Brady did.

However, the weak plot; lack of character development; no real mystery in a mystery book; and padding with throw away characters was not the worst part of the book. The worst part of the book was the ending or should I say a lack thereof. The book just ends with nothing really resolved. The reader is left to assume the bad guys get caught and justice is done. Jance could have at least put in an epilogue wrapping up all the cases, but she just ended the book with no resolutions to the murders in Washington State, the nursing home subplot or the throw away sub plot, the murder at the ATV Park