Injoy's Blogs + Book Reviews

I received a free kindle copy of Desert Rage by Betty Webb, published by Poisoned Pen Press from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. I gave this page turner five stars.

Desert Rage is a Lena Jones mystery. She is a Scottsdale P.I. partnered with Jimmy Sisiwan, a Pima Indian. She meets the Honorable Juliana Thorsson, a U.S. Congresswoman at her home in Scottsdale, AZ. She was requested not to drive the company jeep because it was too well known. When she arrived the Congresswoman asked her to exchange the sunshield to something neutral instead of Jimmy's which read "Paleface Go Home."

She researched Lena's past & told her some information that had been sealed by the court. Lena maintained forced control.

She has been called there about the Cameron house murders where an entire family, a doctor, his wife & a ten year old son had been killed by Kyle Gibbs, the boyfriend of the surviving daughter, Alison, who was supposed to be the criminal mastermind of this crime. Even the family pet was injured. They were charged separately.

Juliana in her youth was an egg donor & was the biological mother of Alison Cameron. Her first egg donation had been to her sister & that resulted in her 'niece' Ilsa.

Lena went to Alison's attorney's office, Stephen Zeller, Esq. & looked up to see the Superstition Mountains. Curtis Racine is Kyle's attorney.

While Lena was looking at the brutal crime scene photos, her partner, Jimmy said: “Don’t let the fact that she showed mercy to the dog fool you.”

“We all practice selective compassion, except for, maybe, the Dalai Lama. He pities everyone.”

After seeing the crime scene photos Lena was depressed so she went to the Olive Garden in search of comfort food.

"Even worse, a party nearby was celebrating a young woman’s birthday, their merriment reminding me that I didn’t know my own birth date. How could I? I had been found at the age of four—at least that’s the age the admitting physician estimated—lying beside a Phoenix street, the bullet in my head wiping out all memories of birthdays. When I emerged from my coma, I couldn’t remember who my parents were or who had shot me."

She experiences post traumatic stress syndrome including screaming nightmares.

After Lena met Felix Phelps who was slowly killing himself with food & drink she thought. "Were we damaged children programmed to love our mothers, regardless?....Somehow, despite all evidence to the contrary, love continued to flow both ways through the polluted maternal stream. Genetic mysteries being beyond my capacity to solve."

There are many suspects in the murders & enough & twists & turns to keep me guessing. How can they narrow the suspect list to find the guilty party? Does the Congresswoman have a separate agenda? How would the hit & run of a prison guard tie in with the other murders? Can Lena recover from her beating in time to help solve this mystery?

Link to purchase: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NVC0AGS?ie=UTF8&creativeASIN=B00NVC0AGS&tag=injoslifethin-20