WHERE IS HE, GIRL? WHEREʼS ANDY?

Life is good for Joanna Brady in the small desert community of Bisbee. She has Jenny, her adored nine-year-old daughter, and solid, honest, and loving husband, Andy, a local lawman who’s running for Sheriff of Cochise County. But her good life explodes when a bullet destroys Andy Brady’s future and leaves him dying beneath the blistering Arizona sun.

The police brass claim that Andy was dirty–up to his neck in drugs and smuggling–and that the shooting was a suicide attempt. Joanna knows a cover-up when she hears one . . . and murder when she sees it. But her determined efforts to track down an assassin and clear her husband’s name are placing herself and Jenny in serious jeopardy. Because, in the desert, the truth can be far more lethal than a rattler’s bite.

I wasn’t allowed in the creative writing classes at the University of Arizona, but I was smart enough to figure out that I needed to write what I know. I know southeastern Arizona. I spent my childhood there, taking Sunday afternoon rides with my family and scrambling barefoot over the mesquite and bear-grass studded hills, making forts in stands of Embry’s scrub oak, and tearing down hilly streets in a kid crammed Radio Flyer.

I know the insurance business. My father spent twenty years selling life insurance. Following in his footsteps, I spent ten. I was divorced for a year and a half before my former husband died, so I know what it’s like to be left alone with a child to raise. I have half a century’s experience at being the daughter of a strong-willed mother and almost thirty years’ experience at playing the strong-willed mother with a headstrong daughter. In addition I know how small towns work–the small unasked kindnesses and the entrenched gossiping that result from everyone knowing everybody else’s business.

Is Joanna Brady autobiographical? In some ways, yes. To a certain extent, every character is. From selling insurance to being a Girl Scout to liking Malt-o-Meal, Joanna Brady’s experience is certainly a reflection of mine. But she is also very much her own woman.

JAJ