Fantastic Mystery: Downfall by J.A. Jance (a Brady Novel)

Truly one of the best mystery/suspense series on the market are the Joanna Brady mysteries by J.A. Jance. I just finished the latest book in the series called "Down Fall."  It's the 17th in the series, and it has an extra novella at the end called "Random Acts" that was as great as the main novel. 
   It begins with the deaths of two women who appear to have fallen from a mountain, who seem un-connected, and takes you into the investigation as Joanna and her deputies join with another county sheriff's department to solve the mystery of why these women were killed (yes, they were killed, it wasn't an accident). The story will keep you guessing, and the characters really come to life. 
  
ABOUT THE BOOK: A puzzling new case has just hit Sheriff Joanna Brady’s department, demanding every resource she has at her disposal—as well as help from neighboring law enforcement agencies and the Feds. The bodies of two women have been found at the base of a nearby peak, known to Bisbee locals as Geronimo. Is this a terrible accident, a case of murder/suicide, or a double homicide?

The investigation takes a puzzling twist when Joanna discovers that one victim was a local teacher and minister’s wife, while the other was a brilliant microbiologist working toward her Ph.D.—two vastly different women with seemingly no connections to link them.

Bisbee, Arizona

As Joanna and her team methodically hunt down answers, they begin to uncover a knotty web of sordid secrets and evil lies—clues that take the valiant sheriff down a winding and dangerous road that leads shockingly close to home . . . and close to a desperate and determined killer.

WHO IS SHERIFF JOANNA BRADY?  Joanna Brady is a county Sheriff  who lives in  the small desert town of Bisbee, Arizona.

Joanna starts out as a mother of a nine-year-old Jenny and the wife of Andy Brady, who runs for Sheriff of Cochise County but is killed before the election and is then accused of being dirty. Joanna runs in his stead, clears his name, and wins the election to become Sheriff, even though she does not have much background in law enforcement. On the one hand, many of the community are not used to having a woman be in a position of power, which makes her job as Sheriff somewhat more difficult, but, on the other hand, her relative independence from the old-boy network of local law enforcement makes it easier for her to clean house there as needed.