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Shoot Don't Shoot
Shoot Don't Shoot
Shoot Don't Shoot
Audiobook9 hours

Shoot Don't Shoot

Written by J. A. Jance

Narrated by Hillary Huber

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

A prisoner languishes in a Phoenix jail cell, accused of brutally slaying his estranged wife. No one believes the man is innocent, except the new female sheriff of Cochise County, in town for a crash course in police training. Joanna Brady is out of her jurisdiction—and possibly in over her head. For a human monster is on the prowl, hiding the grisly evidence of his horrific crimes in the vast emptiness of the Arizona desert. And an impromptu investigation, with no official sanction and no back up, is drawing a cold, ingenious serial killer much too close to Brady for comfort—and, worse still, closer to her little girl.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateDec 15, 2009
ISBN9780061953910
Author

J. A. Jance

J. A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the J. P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, the Ali Reynolds series, six thrillers about the Walker Family, and one volume of poetry. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, she lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington.

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Reviews for Shoot Don't Shoot

Rating: 3.8770950837988822 out of 5 stars
4/5

179 ratings7 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This woman has had life or death situations come up for every few weeks. That seems like a bit much, but hey. I hope she ends up with Butch.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Check the check for a check in and see
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Newly elected Cochise County, Arizona, sheriff Joanna Brady reluctantly leaves her 13-year-old daughter and comfortable hometown of Bisbee for Phoenix, where she enrolls in a recommended law-enforcement course. Recently Phoenix has been besieged by several brutal domestic-violence crimes, which turn out to be the work of a serial killer. Joanna finds herself drawn into the case of a suspect she believes has been falsely accused.

    Shoot/Don't Shoot has a very convoluted structure, and there are several plot lines running in parallel.
    The mysteries in the book aren't that complex. There are also some odd details about the Police Training Facility that seemed fairly obvious but the author does a fairly good job using them to enhance the suspense. In her last adventure, Joanna's balance of toughness and vulnerability was utterly believable, as were her struggles with her domineering mother and troubled daughter. But Jance goes a little overboard here with a couple of the personal plot lines.

    This tale is a little different since it takes place in Phoenix, Arizona instead of Bisbee. I live in the Phoenix area and have to say that Jance's descriptions were extremely accurate. This wasn't my favorite of the three Joanna Brady books I've read but I enjoyed it and plan to continue the series.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Newly sworn in Sheriff Joanna Brady, heads off to academy training to learn how to be a cop and be better able to do her job. Just before leaving she’s requested to look into the murder of a woman’s ex-daughter-in-law. Her son is in jail, being accused of the murder which took place near the area where Joanna will be going for training, and of course his mother doesn’t believe he’s guilty.Did she make a mistake going to the academy? That’s her thought on her first day. There’s only one other female in the class and the instructor, while well thought of by veteran officers, is a boring, condescending-to-women jerk. And it appears he’s going to do everything he can to make them look bad. While asking around about the murder, it becomes apparent to Joanna that he didn’t do it. A number of women have been killed recently via domestic violence and it’s not until Joanna sees commonality between them that she and the local police understand that they’re looking at a serial killer who picks victims whose deaths could be blamed on others.We’re not missing too many series characters in this out-of-town story. The academy training starts just before Thanksgiving and the elder Brady’s are bringing Jenny so they can spend the long weekend together. And what’s a story without Joanna’s mother, who decides to come along at the last minute, bringing a surprise with her. It’s a surprise all right. And Joanna keeps in touch with what’s going on at the station, so we also get what’s going on in Bisbee, adding some humor to the story.Interesting story and characters. Not only do we get more on police procedure and philosophy, but domestic violence as seen thru the eyes of the cops. Joanna is no superhero and she still as a great deal to learn. But she’s capable and determined. She and Jenny are still dealing with the death of Andy; it’s only been 2 months. The problems and scenarios both are facing because of it are realistic. And due to a threat near the end of the story, expect to need some tissues.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Joanna is in her law enforcement training course in Phoenix when she becomes aware of a serial killer on the prowl and coming dangerously close to her.I didn't care for this book as much as the previous two. Joanna came across as a spoiled and ungracious brat at the holiday season. As far as the mystery, again, it isn't so much a mystery as a blank reveal at the end. I felt cheated out of a better thought out villain. However, where Jance shines is her characters, which were very interesting and make me want to keep reading. I must say, the hullabaloo in the hotel lobby was very distracting to me, a hotel worker. All I could think about were the poor hotel agents who would be blamed for everything and have to hand out discounts left and right even though it was in no way their fault. I can just hear the guest's complaining.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was pretty good. Here we have a woman acting with sense. Her husband is a cop killed in the line of duty. So she runs for the office of county Sheriff and wins. She then goes off to a 6-week training course in Phoenix. She has to leave her kid, but will see her over Thanksgiving. Here she meets another woman cop and they become tentative friends. Through this new friend and a plea from a man’s mother, Joanna gets involved in the murder of Sheila Grehalva. It’s obvious that her husband killed her. Too obvious. And the same has been happening to a lot of women around the state and in other states. The women killed have all sworn out complaints against abusive husbands. So of course those men are looked at as suspects and no one looks very hard for anyone else who might have killed them. Enter Carol Strong, the investigating officer of the Grehalva case. Eventually, Joanna convinces her to look elsewhere for suspects and Carol admits to having assumed the case closed because the husband hit his wife once.Eventually, through the help of bartender Butch, they get onto a man who did some work as a process server. He’s also left some physical evidence behind and soon they’re on his trail. But of course, because Joanna’s kid and Grehalva’s kid is on the scene, they get used as pawns to help the killer get away. He almost does. Joanna shoots him in the leg as he tries to run away. Instead of giving up, he throws himself in front of a train and dies. The last thing he tells her is that there isn’t all the time in the world to find the kids.Butch remembers that the police training compound has a bomb shelter. But he doesn’t know exactly where it is. Eventually they find it and the girls. They also find the corpse of the killer’s mother. His first victim. His last was Joanna’s new friend and fellow student at the school.I liked how Butch and Joanna didn’t fling themselves into bed the moment sparks flew. She was sensible and he was understanding. I also liked the fact that she wasn’t portrayed as some vengeful wife, using her new job as a way to get back at criminals for the death of her husband.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Perhaps I was expecting more from a book with "Novel of Suspense" on the cover, or perhaps I've read too much freakish suspense like Stephen King for this book to be suspenseful for me. It read like a standard mystery, with a reluctant heroine trying to find the answers to someone else's problem. Its well written, though the final villan is not at all expected. The twist at the end I didn't care for, since I didn't feel mislead, I felt blindsided. I'm willing to say, because this is only the third book in the series, that perhaps I need to read more before I condemn the line, but right now, I'm not that filled with suspense by this book.