J. A. Jance Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

J. A. Jance writes several long-running mystery series that overlap more than many readers initially expect. Her principal characters are Seattle investigator J. P. Beaumont, Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady, former television journalist Ali Reynolds, and members of the Walker family.

The cleanest approach is to read each series in publication order. A few crossover novels belong to more than one sequence, especially Partner in Crime, Fire and Ice, Dance of the Bones, and Blessing of the Lost Girls. Those should be counted once as novels even though they appear in multiple character reading lists.

As of September 10, 2026, Jance has also announced The Taken Ones, the twenty-seventh J. P. Beaumont novel, for November 2026. Smoke and Mirrors, Ali Reynolds book nineteen, is scheduled for March 2027.

Where to Begin with J. A. Jance

1. J. P. Beaumont: begin with Until Proven Guilty for Seattle homicide investigations and Jance’s longest-running detective.
2. Joanna Brady: begin with Desert Heat for Cochise County, Arizona, and Joanna’s transformation from sheriff’s widow to law-enforcement leader.
3. Ali Reynolds: begin with Edge of Evil for a former television anchor rebuilding her life while becoming involved in increasingly complex crimes.
4. Walker Family: begin with Hour of the Hunter for the Arizona family history, Native American traditions, and crimes that echo across generations.

J. P. Beaumont Books in Order

J. P. Beaumont begins as a Seattle homicide detective and gradually moves through different stages of police, investigative, and private life. His personal relationships and career changes accumulate across the series, so publication order is the safest choice.

1. Until Proven Guilty (1985): Seattle detective Beaumont investigates the murder of a young girl and becomes personally entangled with people connected to the case, establishing the emotional and ethical complications that follow him throughout the series.
2. Injustice for All (1986): A suspicious death draws Beau into a case involving power, influence, and the uncomfortable possibility that the justice system can protect the wrong people.
3. Trial by Fury (1986): The murder of a high-school coach forces Beaumont to examine school politics, personal grudges, and a community where public respectability conceals private hostility.
4. Taking the Fifth (1987): Beau investigates violence surrounding the entertainment world and discovers that fame and money can make witnesses as difficult to trust as suspects.
5. Improbable Cause (1988): A dentist’s murder leads Beaumont through professional rivalries, secrets, and apparently unlikely motives that become more plausible as the investigation deepens.
6. A More Perfect Union (1988): A body connected with Seattle’s maritime world sends Beau into a case where unions, money, and old conflicts complicate a seemingly straightforward homicide.
7. Dismissed with Prejudice (1989): Beaumont investigates a killing linked to a woman whose legal and personal history challenges assumptions about victimhood, guilt, and motive.
8. Minor in Possession (1990): Beau’s own problems place him in an Arizona treatment setting where he becomes involved in another investigation despite being far from his usual Seattle territory.
9. Payment in Kind (1991): The murders of people connected to Seattle’s school system lead Beaumont through infidelity, revenge, and relationships whose real costs emerge only after death.
10. Without Due Process (1992): The slaughter of a police officer’s family makes the case intensely personal for Seattle law enforcement and forces Beau to work through grief, anger, and dangerous assumptions.
11. Failure to Appear (1993): Beaumont follows a personal concern outside Seattle and becomes involved in a murder connected with theater, family, and a community full of competing secrets.
12. Lying in Wait (1994): A gruesome death aboard a fishing vessel opens an investigation into revenge and events whose origins reach far into the past.
13. Name Withheld (1996): An unidentified victim and the secrets surrounding his life force Beaumont to reconstruct a case from relationships that people would prefer remain hidden.
14. Breach of Duty (1999): Beau’s professional responsibilities collide with personal loss while a homicide case tests his ability to keep working through grief.
15. Birds of Prey (2001): A supposedly relaxing cruise turns into an investigation when deaths aboard ship suggest that one of the passengers may be a killer.
16. Partner in Crime (2002): Beaumont travels to Arizona and works with Sheriff Joanna Brady after a murdered artist creates a case involving both jurisdictions and both major Jance protagonists.
17. Long Time Gone (2005): An elderly woman’s recovered childhood memory of a murder sends Beau into a decades-old case while another current threat develops around people close to him.
18. Justice Denied (2007): Beaumont examines old and new crimes while working within a special investigative setting where supposedly closed cases can reveal present-day danger.
19. Fire and Ice (2009): Beaumont and Joanna Brady investigate separate murders in Washington and Arizona that gradually prove connected, creating another full crossover between the two series.
20. Betrayal of Trust (2011): Beau becomes involved in a case tied to political influence and a disturbing video, where protecting powerful families threatens to obstruct the truth.
21. Ring in the Dead (2013, novella): A younger Beaumont remembers an early case from his police career, giving readers a look at the detective before many of the personal changes in the main novels.
22. Second Watch (2013): Recovering from surgery, Beau revisits an unsolved case from his early career while memories of his Vietnam service force him to confront another unresolved part of his past.
23. Stand Down (2015, novella): A shorter Beaumont case fills another gap in his professional history and works best after readers already understand the character’s career.
24. Dance of the Bones (2015): Beaumont joins Brandon Walker in a case that connects a modern murder investigation with Arizona history and an old conviction that may have put the wrong man behind bars.
25. Still Dead (2017, novella): A shorter investigation revisits Beaumont and the consequences of cases that never remain as closed as they first appear.
26. Proof of Life (2017): An old acquaintance dies in a fire that Beau refuses to accept as accidental, pushing him into an unofficial investigation after retirement.
27. Sins of the Fathers (2019): Beaumont’s past returns through a family problem and a murder investigation that forces him to consider how decisions made decades earlier continue into the next generation.
28. Nothing to Lose (2022): Beau travels north after a plea for help connects him with a missing person, dangerous weather, old relationships, and a case that reaches into Alaska.
29. Girls’ Night Out (2024, short work): A shorter Beaumont-related story adds another case without replacing the numbered novels in the main sequence.
30. Den of Iniquity (2024): Beau is pulled into a financially driven conspiracy after a young man’s death raises questions about fraud, hidden money, and people willing to kill to protect a profitable secret.
31. The Taken Ones (expected November 2026): Beaumont helps mechanic Twinkle Winkleman investigate young women disappearing after traveling from Anchorage to Seattle for supposed internships, uncovering a wider kidnapping scheme.

Current status: The Taken Ones is scheduled as J. P. Beaumont book twenty-seven and had not yet been published as of September 10, 2026.

Joanna Brady’s Cochise County Sequence

Joanna Brady begins the series as a young Arizona woman whose husband is running for sheriff. His death transforms both her personal life and her relationship with law enforcement. She eventually runs for the same office and grows into the role across more than two decades of mysteries.

1. Desert Heat (1993): After her husband Andy is shot and accused of corruption, Joanna refuses to accept the official story and investigates the conspiracy that destroyed her family.
2. Tombstone Courage (1994): Newly elected Sheriff Brady confronts murder, political resistance, and the difficulties of leading a department where not everyone accepts her authority.
3. Shoot, Don’t Shoot (1995): Joanna attends law-enforcement training and becomes involved in a homicide that tests her instincts away from the department she is still learning to command.
4. Dead to Rights (1996): A local murder involving an unpopular victim forces Joanna to investigate people who may have many reasons to believe the death was deserved.
5. Skeleton Canyon (1997): The death of a teenager from a prominent family exposes class tensions, secrets, and relationships hidden beneath the surface of Cochise County life.
6. Rattlesnake Crossing (1998): Joanna investigates a series of killings while balancing family responsibilities with the demands of running a rural sheriff’s department.
7. Outlaw Mountain (1999): The death of an elderly woman and questions surrounding her estate lead Joanna into a case involving family greed and long-standing resentments.
8. Devil’s Claw (2000): Joanna’s personal life moves toward a new stage while a murder investigation uncovers secrets around a family and the harsh Arizona landscape.
9. Paradise Lost (2001): A community event and a violent crime force Joanna to separate public appearances from hidden relationships and motives.
10. Partner in Crime (2002): Joanna works with J. P. Beaumont after an Arizona murder connects with Seattle, making this both Joanna Brady book ten and a Beaumont crossover.
11. Exit Wounds (2003): An apparently isolated death opens a disturbing case involving neglected animals, hidden victims, and a household whose secrets have accumulated over years.
12. Dead Wrong (2006): Joanna investigates a murder while preparing for major changes in her own family, forcing her to handle physical vulnerability and professional responsibility at the same time.
13. Damage Control (2008): A fatal fall and another suspicious death create competing investigations as Joanna’s family also faces serious personal concerns.
14. Fire and Ice (2009): Joanna and Beaumont work cases in Arizona and Washington that eventually converge, linking two of Jance’s largest series.
15. Judgment Call (2012): The murder of a school principal becomes personal when Joanna’s daughter is connected with the discovery and investigation.
16. Remains of Innocence (2014): A death in Arizona and a disturbing discovery in another state gradually expose a history of family abuse, money, and secrets.
17. The Old Blue Line (2014, novella): This shorter story provides additional background connected with Joanna’s family and law-enforcement world.
18. Random Acts (2016, novella): Joanna and people close to her are affected by apparently random violence whose consequences prove more personal than expected.
19. Downfall (2016): Two women fall from a cliff, and Joanna must determine whether the deaths were an accident, suicide, or a carefully concealed double murder.
20. Field of Bones (2018): Human remains discovered in the desert reveal a predator who has been abducting and killing women, while Joanna faces a major transition at home.
21. Missing and Endangered (2021): Joanna’s daughter contacts her from college after a disturbing incident, while a separate investigation draws the sheriff into another dangerous family situation.
22. Blessing of the Lost Girls (2023): Joanna joins a case involving missing and murdered Indigenous women, bringing the Brady and Walker family worlds together.
23. The Girl from Devil’s Lake (2025): A young woman’s death and questions surrounding her identity lead Joanna into another Cochise County investigation where old secrets complicate the evidence.

A twenty-second Joanna Brady novel was being written in 2026, but Jance had not announced its title or publication date by September 10, 2026.

The Walker Family Mysteries

The Walker books are more generational than the Beaumont, Brady, or Reynolds series. They combine crime with Arizona history, Tohono O’odham traditions, family memory, trauma, and recurring characters whose lives change across decades.

1. Hour of the Hunter (1991): Diana Ladd and her family are threatened by the return of a killer whose earlier crime connects violence, survival, and the cultural traditions surrounding the Arizona setting.
2. Kiss of the Bees (2000): The Walker family again faces danger when old violence returns through a new generation and a predator seeks revenge.
3. Day of the Dead (2004): Former sheriff Brandon Walker investigates human remains and a history of missing women whose deaths were ignored or forgotten.
4. Queen of the Night (2010): A massacre in the desert brings several generations and storylines together while an old family history becomes relevant to a new crime.
5. Dance of the Bones (2015): Brandon Walker works with J. P. Beaumont to examine whether a man convicted years earlier was responsible for the murder attributed to him.
6. Blessing of the Lost Girls (2023): Walker family characters join Joanna Brady in an investigation centered on missing and murdered Indigenous women across the Southwest.

Crossover warning: Dance of the Bones also belongs in Beaumont order, while Blessing of the Lost Girls also belongs in Joanna Brady order.

Ali Reynolds Books from Edge of Evil Forward

Ali Reynolds begins as a successful television journalist whose career suddenly collapses. She returns to Arizona and rebuilds her life while becoming increasingly involved with investigations, technology entrepreneur B. Simpson, and the cybersecurity world surrounding High Noon Enterprises.

1. Edge of Evil (2005): After losing her television job, Ali returns home and becomes involved in a suspicious death that pushes her from media observer into active investigator.
2. Web of Evil (2007): Ali travels to Los Angeles for a legal proceeding and becomes connected with a murder that places her own former relationships under scrutiny.
3. Hand of Evil (2007): Ali becomes involved in several dangerous situations involving vulnerable people, abuse, and crimes whose consequences reach into her own circle.
4. Cruel Intent (2008): A home-remodeling project turns sinister when a worker becomes a suspect in a murder and Ali begins questioning whether the obvious explanation is correct.
5. Trial by Fire (2009): Ali takes on a new public role connected with law enforcement and becomes involved in the investigation of an arson case with political consequences.
6. Fatal Error (2011): A former colleague’s problems draw Ali into a case involving deception, obsession, and online identities that are easier to create than to verify.
7. Left for Dead (2012): Ali encounters two damaged victims whose stories converge around violence, survival, and a crime someone expected them not to live through.
8. Deadly Stakes (2013): Two deaths and competing stories about motive force Ali to look beyond appearances and determine which supposedly innocent people are manipulating the investigation.
9. Moving Target (2014): Ali and B. Simpson become involved in an international case where cybercrime, family danger, and events in Britain expand the series beyond Arizona.
10. A Last Goodbye (2014, novella): A shorter Ali Reynolds story adds a personal and investigative episode between the numbered novels.
11. Cold Betrayal (2015): Ali is drawn into a case involving a young woman escaping a controlling religious community while another threat develops close to home.
12. No Honor Among Thieves (2015, novella): Ali and people from her investigative circle confront a smaller crime story that fits naturally before the next full-length novel.
13. Clawback (2016): A financial disaster devastates investors and leads to murder, forcing Ali and her allies to uncover fraud hidden behind a supposedly respectable business operation.
14. Man Overboard (2017): A suspicious death involving advanced technology and a powerful company brings cybersecurity and artificial intelligence more directly into the series.
15. Duel to the Death (2018): Ali’s world collides with a dangerous technological conflict involving Frigg, the artificial intelligence connected with High Noon Enterprises.
16. The A List (2019): A disgraced television personality from Ali’s past pursues revenge, creating a threat rooted in old professional conflicts and carefully preserved resentment.
17. Credible Threat (2020): Ali and her associates investigate a danger surrounding a religious leader after evidence suggests that an apparent act of violence is part of something larger.
18. Unfinished Business (2021): Ali becomes involved with people whose attempts to rebuild their lives are threatened by crimes and secrets that were never truly left behind.
19. Collateral Damage (2023): A homicide and a campaign of revenge place Ali and High Noon Enterprises against an adversary willing to hurt people far beyond the original target.
20. OverKill (2025): Ali investigates the murder of her husband B. Simpson’s former business partner and uncovers betrayals extending from Seattle and Sedona to Los Angeles and London.
21. Smoke and Mirrors (expected March 2027): The nineteenth Ali Reynolds mystery is complete and scheduled for 2027 rather than 2026, continuing Ali’s investigative life after OverKill.

Why Some Jance Books Appear in Two Series

Jance has increasingly allowed her fictional worlds to overlap.

• Partner in Crime: J. P. Beaumont and Joanna Brady work the same case.
• Fire and Ice: Beaumont and Brady investigate apparently separate crimes that connect.
• Dance of the Bones: Beaumont joins Brandon Walker, making it both a Beau and Walker Family novel.
• Blessing of the Lost Girls: Joanna Brady and Walker family characters share the investigation.

You do not need to buy duplicate copies. Place the crossover where it occurs in the series you are currently reading.

Jance’s Shorter Works and Collections

1. After the Fire (2001): A volume of poetry rooted in Jance’s personal experience and emotional recovery rather than one of her fictional mystery series.
2. Bark M for Murder (2006, with other writers): A multi-author mystery collection featuring dog-centered crime stories rather than another Jance novel.
3. The J. A. Jance Casebook (2011): A collection of ten shorter pieces, including fiction and non-fiction and a J. P. Beaumont story.
4. Taking the Veil (2017/2018, with Eric Van Lustbader): A crossover contribution to the MatchUp project rather than an installment in Jance’s four principal series.

What Is New in the Jance Catalogue in 2026?

The newest already published major Jance mystery in the principal series remains The Girl from Devil’s Lake from 2025, while OverKill is the latest Ali Reynolds novel.

The next release is The Taken Ones, J. P. Beaumont book twenty-seven, scheduled for November 2026. It takes Beau into a case involving young women disappearing after traveling from Alaska to Seattle.

Ali Reynolds book nineteen, Smoke and Mirrors, was moved to March 2027. Jance was also writing Joanna Brady book twenty-two during 2026, but had not announced a title or firm publication date by September 10.

Questions Readers Usually Have About J. A. Jance

Which J. A. Jance series should I read first?

Start with J. P. Beaumont for urban police mysteries, Joanna Brady for Arizona sheriff investigations, Ali Reynolds for modern technology and private-investigation stories, or the Walker Family books for generational Southwestern crime fiction.

Do the J. P. Beaumont books need to be read in order?

Yes, publication order is recommended because Beau’s career, family, relationships, and retirement develop continuously.

What is the first Joanna Brady book?

Desert Heat is book one and explains the events that eventually lead Joanna into the sheriff’s office.

What is the first Ali Reynolds book?

Edge of Evil begins Ali’s story after the collapse of her television career.

Are the Walker Family books connected to Joanna Brady?

Yes. Their worlds overlap most clearly in Blessing of the Lost Girls.

What J. A. Jance book is coming next?

The Taken Ones, the twenty-seventh J. P. Beaumont novel, is scheduled for November 2026.

When is Smoke and Mirrors published?

The nineteenth Ali Reynolds novel is scheduled for March 2027.

A Sensible J. A. Jance Reading Plan

Choose one protagonist and stay with that series until a crossover appears. Publication order preserves the personal changes that make Jance’s long-running characters more than interchangeable detectives.

For the broadest view of her interconnected universe, J. P. Beaumont is the strongest starting point because his series began first and later intersects with both Joanna Brady and Brandon Walker.

If Arizona is the main attraction, read the Walker Family books and Joanna Brady alongside one another. Ali Reynolds can remain largely separate until you are ready for Jance’s more technology-focused mysteries.