Fatal Error by J A Jance

She's the oldest person at the police academy, but she's determined to succeed.  And succeed she does.  But she also loses her job before she even starts it; budget cuts mean no money for her position...

Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster, has provided me with eGalley of this book which will be published in hardcover next month (thank you).

Ms. Jance does a very nice job of developing Ali's character and letting you see how smart and strong she is, even if the men don't expect it.

The story gets off to slow start and I found a couple of repetitions in the early chapters (just a sentence or two).  Ms. Jance usually writes fast paced stories with strong characters.  It took a bit for me to get into the story and follow her plot - the characters didn't seem to have a lot in common in the beginning.

The farther the story goes, however, you see how they all tie together.  The killer is a totally heartless guilt-free person who is sadistic and enjoys watching them die.  Ali sees a connection between murders in different counties and states, and tries to tie the information together in a form that the police will accept as evidence.  She becomes friends with a cop who can get information she can't and they work together.  He's a wounded warrior because his wife has just left him, and he's not sure this "wannabe" cop knows as much as she thinks she does.

This is a much different story line than I have read by Ms. Jance before.  I liked it after I got into it.  I hope the next one reads a bit smoother, but you can be sure I'll watch for it.  It will be fun to watch her two mis-matched characters grow into the people they can be.

Check your local bookstore for a copy in February.  It's a good read.