Judith Ann Jance (born October 27, 1944) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author of mystery

Mystery fiction

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

 and horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s. She writes at least three series of novels, centering on retired Seattle

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

 Police Department officer J. P. Beaumont, Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

 county sheriff Joanna Brady

Joanna Brady

Joanna Brady is the protagonist of a series of mystery novels by author J. A. Jance, centered on the small desert town of Bisbee, Arizona.Joanna starts out as the mother of nine-year-old Jenny and the wife of Andy Brady, who runs for Sheriff of Cochise County but gets murdered before the election...

, and Ali Reynolds. The Beaumont and Brady series intersect in the novel Partner in Crime, which is both the 16th Beaumount mystery and the 10th Brady mystery. They intersect again in Fire and Ice.

Jance was born in South Dakota

South Dakota

South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

 and raised in Bisbee, Arizona

Bisbee, Arizona

Bisbee is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, 82 miles southeast of Tucson. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 6,177...

 (the setting for her Joanna Brady series of novels). She is a graduate of the University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

. Before becoming an author, she worked as a school librarian on a Native American reservation, as a teacher, and selling insurance.
She lives part of the year in Arizona and part of the year in Seattle.

J. P. Beaumont

• Until Proven Guilty (1985) ISBN 0-380-89638-9
• Injustice for All (1986) ISBN 0-360-89641-9
• Trial by Fury (1986) ISBN 0-380-75138-0
• Taking the Fifth (1987) ISBN 0-380-75139-9
• Improbable Cause (1987) ISBN 0-380-75412-6
• A More Perfect Union (1988) ISBN 0-380-75413-4
• Dismissed with Prejudice (1989) ISBN 0-380-75547-5
• Minor in Possession (1990) ISBN 0-380-75546-7
• Payment in Kind (1991) ISBN 0-380-75836-9
• Without Due Process (1993) ISBN 0-380-75837-7
• Failure to Appear (1994) ISBN 0-380-75839-3
• Lying in Wait (1995) ISBN 0-380-71841-3
• Name Withheld (1997) ISBN 0-380-71842-1
• Breach of Duty (1999) ISBN 0-380-71483-X
• Birds of Prey (2002) ISBN 0-380-71654-2
• Partner in Crime (2003) ISBN 0-380-80470-0
• Long Time Gone (2005) ISBN 0-688-13824-1
• Justice Denied (2007) ISBN 0-006-05492-3
• Fire and Ice (2009) ISBN 978-0061239229
• Betrayal of Trust (2011) ISBN 978-0061731150

Joanna Brady series

• Desert Heat (1993) ISBN 0-380-76545-4
• Tombstone Courage (1995) ISBN 0-380-76546-2
• Shoot/Don't Shoot (1996) ISBN 0-380-76548-9
• Dead to Rights (1997) ISBN 0-380-97394-4
• Skeleton Canyon (1998) ISBN 0-380-97395-2
• Rattlesnake Crossing (1998) ISBN 0-380-79247-8
• Outlaw Mountain (2000) ISBN 0-380-79248-6
• Devil’s Claw (2001) ISBN 0-380-79249-4
• Paradise Lost (2002) ISBN 0-380-80469-7
• Partner in Crime (2003) ISBN 0-380-80470-0
• Exit Wounds (2004) ISBN 0-380-80471-9
• Dead Wrong (2006) ISBN 0-060-54090-7
• Damage Control (2008) ISBN 0-060-74676-9
• Fire and Ice (2009) ISBN 978-0061239229

Ali Reynolds books

• Edge of Evil (2006) ISBN 0727863827
• Web of Evil (2007) ISBN 9781416537731
• Hand of Evil (2007) ISBN 1416537538
• Cruel Intent (2008) ISBN 1416563792
• Trial By Fire (2009) ISBN 1416563806
• Fatal Error (2011) ISBN 1416563814

Walker Family Mysteries

• Hour of the Hunter (1991) ISBN 0-380-71107-9
• Kiss of the Bees (2001) ISBN 0-380-80599-5
• Day of the Dead (2005) ISBN 0-380-82434-0
• Queen of the Night (2010) ISBN 9780061239243

Trivia

• Jance uses her initials for her pen name
  Pen name
  A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
  
  because a publisher told her that disclosing her gender would be a liability for a book about a male detective.
• At signings, Jance asks bookstores to donate a percentage of their earnings from her appearances to various causes. Over the past 10 years, she has raised more than $250,000 for charity.

External links

• Official Web site