The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Blessing of the Lost Girls: A Brady and Walker Family Novel by J. A Jance

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

Blessing of the Lost Girls: A Brady and Walker Family Novel by J. A Jance https://amzn.to/3tzcdDo From J. A. Jance’s New York Times bestselling Brady and Walker novels, federal investigator Dan Pardee, Brandon Walker’s son-in-law, crosses paths with Sheriff Joanna Brady as he traces the bloody path of a merciless serial killer across the Southwest in this intense thriller. Driven by a compulsion that challenges his self-control, the man calling himself Charles Milton prowls the rodeo circuit, hunting young women. He chooses those he believes are the most vulnerable, wandering alone and distracted, before he strikes. For years, he has been meticulous in his methods, abducting, murdering, and disposing of his victims while leaving no evidence of his crimes—or their identities—behind. Indigenous women have become his target of choice, knowing law enforcement’s history of ignoring their disappearances. A cold case has just been assigned to Dan Pardee, a field officer with the newly formed Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Task Force. Rosa Rios, a young woman of Apache descent and one-time rodeo star, vanished three years ago. Human remains, a homicide victim burned beyond recognition, were discovered in Cochise County around the time she went missing. They have finally been confirmed to be Rosa. With Sheriff Joanna Brady’s help, Dan is determined to reopen the case and bring long-awaited justice to Rosa’s family. As the orphaned son of a murdered indigenous woman, he feels an even greater, personal obligation to capture this killer. Joanna’s daughter Jennifer is also taking a personal interest in this case, having known Rosa from her own amateur rodeo days. Now a criminal justice major, she’s unofficially joining the investigation. And as it becomes clear that Rosa was just one victim of a serial killer, both Jennifer and Dan know they’re running out of time to catch an elusive predator who’s proven capable of getting away with murder. About the author J.A. Jance is the New York Times best selling author of 46 contemporary mysteries in four different series. A voracious reader, J. A. Jance knew she wanted to be a writer from the moment she read her first Wizard of Oz book in second grade. Always drawn to mysteries, from Nancy Drew right through John D. McDonald's Travis Magee series, it was only natural that when she tried her hand at writing her first book, it would be a mystery as well. J. A. Jance went on to become the New York Times bestselling author of the J. P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, three interrelated thrillers featuring the Walker family, and Edge of Evil. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona. Jance is an avid crusader for many causes, including the American Cancer Society, Gilda's Club, the Humane Society, the YMCA, and the Girl Scouts. A lover of animals, she has a rescued Dachshund named Bella.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com.

chrisvossshow.com. The Opera Singer. The show is just getting more classier as we bring on opera singers and everything else. We're just going to, I don't know, maybe we'll do ballet on the show next. As always, we have the most amazing guests on the show. And they brighten your minds, make you smarter, make you sexier. They give you what we call the Chris Voss Show Glow, where you basically glow people, walk around and go,

why are you so smart? You're like, I read all the amazing books and people who come on the show and everything else. And we have another great for you today. J.A. Jantz joins us on the show again. This is her fourth returning episode with us. She's been with us four times going back to

2021. So it's always an honor to have her and her amazing book writing. In the meantime, refer to show your family, friends, and relatives. Go to goodreads.com for just Chris Voss, linkedin.com for just Chris Voss, youtube.com for just Chris Voss, and also see us on TikTok on Chris Voss One. She is an amazing New York Times bestselling author of, uh, uh, just so many books we'll get to in a second as how many she is. I'm pretty sure her author page here on Amazon isn't fully updated. Um, but she writes contemporary mysteries, uh, in four different series. She's a voracious reader. Uh, she knew she wanted to be a writer from the moment she read her first

wizard of Oz book in the second grade. She's always been drawn to mysteries from Nancy Drew right through to John D. McDonald's Travis McGee series. And it was only naturally she tried her hand at writing her first book. And she's told us about her wonderful journey over the years of what it took to finally get published, get her books going. And now she's just prolific at what she's been doing. Welcome to the show, Ms. Jantz. How are you? I'm fine. I had to laugh when you said I write contemporary mysteries, and that's true. The problem with that is I've been writing contemporary mysteries for 40 years. Yeah. So the first Beaumont books books which were written in the early and mid 80s are actually historical fiction now so there you go you've been doing it for so long and your

newest book is out called blessing of the lost girls a brady and walker family novel so there you go your newest one september 19th, 2023, just came out. Congratulations on the new book. Thank you. I'm really thrilled to have this book out. The Walker family books come from the years I was a K-12 librarian on the Tohono O'odham Reservation of Massachusetts. Tohono means desert and Adam means people. So the desert people have lived in that part of the Sonoran Desert for thousands of years. And the Milgon, the Anglos, are actually the newcomers there. But I spent five years as a K-12 librarian. And for four and a half of the five years, I told 26 stories a week in K-6 classrooms.

And I told the stories we all grew up with, the little engine that could, Rapunzel, Cinderella, and all those. But I learned the stories and legends of the tohono autumn as well and on storytelling day i often wore a bright green dress it was a cable knit sheath with a slightly long sleeves slightly flared skirt i don't know if you're old enough to remember Peter Pan, peanut butter, radio commercials, but the lady said, look for me in that bright green, my bright green dress. And I had that bright green dress, sort of this bright green, the bright green of my blouse. And so I often wore that green outfit when I told stories on the reservation. And you can't tell it when I'm sitting down, but I'm 6'1". told stories on the reservation, and you can't tell it when I'm sitting down,

but I'm 6'1". The people on the reservation were not 6'1". And so years later, one of the men who had been in the third grade when I started telling stories told me that when I used to come to the classroom, the kids called me the Jolly Green Giant. So I've worn this blouse on the road for this tour. So the Jolly Green Giant is on the road again. There you go. What number of books is this? I think you're in the 60s or 70s, are you, the books?

This is book number 66 there you go when i was writing book number 65 that one gave me a lot of trouble and took a whole year to write generally since since i've been writing i started writing my first beaumont book in March of 1983. So if you do the math, 66 books, that means I've been writing books at a pace of 1.6 books a year for 40 years. That came to a halt when I was working on the Most Reason Alley book. That book took a whole year to write, and I thought, I'll never write another book. This is going to be the last

one I ever write. I've lost my mojo. And then it was time to write Blessing, and that book was inspired by something a Lakota warrior

told me. He said, write more Walker books. There aren't enough Indian heroes. And I sat down to write Blessing. I wrote that book in two months flat. Now, this is book 20 of the series of the joanna brady mysteries it's the thing is it's a walker brady crossover so yes okay i'm but i'm counting it as a walker book because brandon walker's son-in-law dan pardee is front and center in this book but joanna brady and her

especially her daughter jenny play important roles in this. But in order to keep from driving myself crazy and counting books as half one or the other, I'm counting this as Walker number six. And by the way, I have already written and have J.P. Beaumont number number 26, written in New York. So now I'm all caught up. There you go. But this is a book about murdered and missing indigenous people, not just girls, because there are plenty of men in that awful toll as well. And I've been aware of this for a long time.

Now it's headline news everywhere. But this is a serial killer whose favorite victims to target are young barrel racers on the rodeo circuit. Oh, wow. Since Jenny has been participating in barrel racing since she was doing junior rodeos, she is very much a part of both the victimology in this story, but also she's part of the solution. Ah, so she helps solve the thing, the mystery or works on it?

Yes. She, she is an integral part of solving this, this mystery. We first met Jenny in the first Joanna Brady book, Desert Heat, when she was nine years old. Now, all these books later, she is a senior at Northern Arizona University

majoring in criminal justice. Why wouldn't she be after being raised by her mother and so she is she is she's drawn into this investigation but she wants to be part of it on her own terms she doesn't want to be drawn into it because she's her mother's daughter or she wants it to be because the information she is supplying is important, and it actually is vitally important. There you go. And so give us some deeper run down through it. You have Dan Pardee, a field officer.

Has he appeared in the books prior? That name sounds familiar. Well, Dan Pardee showed up for the first time in Queen of the Night, the fourth walk. He subsequently married Brandon Walker's daughter. He is the main character in this book, but he is, and he lives on the Tejano Adam, but he's actually half Anglo and half Apache. So among the Tejano Adam, in their language, the word for Oab means both Apache and enemy simultaneously.

Oh, really? And the interesting thing is, if you look at the languages of other tribes in that geographical area, the same thing is true. Of course, it's a different word because they're different languages, but Apache and enemy are always synonymous. So he has lived on the Tohono O'odham.

He married into it, but he feels he's an outsider. However, his mother was a beautiful young woman from the San Carlos Apache. She left home after high school graduation. She went to Hollywood thinking she would become a movie star. She ended up marrying a stuntman. And when Dan Pardee was four years old, his mother was murdered by his father. Oh, wow. So Dan is uniquely qualified to be a member of MIP,

my fictional missing indigenous people task force, because he has some real skin in this game. I think, so the book starts with charred remains found in Cochise County. I didn't do it. Pardon? I didn't do it. It wasn't me. You didn't do it? Oh, good. Thank you. I feel guilty all of a sudden. I don't know why, but it wasn't me. I just want to make it clear.

Charred remains are found in Joanna Brady's jurisdiction. And when they are identified and they turn out to be the remains of a young woman named Rosa Rios, Joanna soon realizes that Rosa was one of the rodeo contestants Jenny competed against years ago. So there's that connection. But what I think is really interesting, at the time I was writing this book, which would have been September and October of last year, it was not possible to get a DNA profile from charred human remains.

Oh, really? In the aftermath of the fires on Maui, it is possible. And that's how fast forensics changes in a matter of just a few months. Wow. I'm going to have to move that body then now. So that's, that's how this book starts with those chart remains being identified. And because Dan is the agent in charge for Arizona,

it's part of his, his book of business. What drew you to write that sort of framework in this book? Why did you decide to go that route? Because I think if the same kinds of forensic efforts, investigative efforts, were applied to many of these cases that have long gone cold. They could be solved, and that's what happens in this book. Once there's a connection, and the connection is barrel racers, then they look at barrel racing cases from all over the country.

And sure enough, it's there. That means it's got to be the same guy. those kinds of efforts could be applied to those long, cold cases, and they'd be solved. But nobody cares enough to bother applying them. Yeah, that's unfortunate. But I know it's a big thing, and it's kind of those things that more people need to look into. But people love the mysteries of it.

So tell us more about the protagonist. For people that maybe haven't caught up to your books or this series, tell us about the protagonist in this story some more and how and why she does what she does. Well, the Walker family books go out of my time on the reservation. I don't know if you remember the story, The King and I, where the woman says, if you become a teacher by your pupils, you'll be taught. I think I learned far more on the reservation than I taught on the reservation. And in the Walker books, I've tried to bring reservation life alive

to people who would never come to Arizona, much less visit a reservation. So in the background of the Walker family books, I have woven in those stories and legends of the winter telling tales of the desert people as part of the fabric of the book. This is book number six in the Walker family series. You don't have to have read any of the books before to try this one. But if you look on the first few pages, you'll find a family tree of the people involved in those families from book one on. And that family tree was actually provided by a fan of mine.

Oh, wow. And it's printed with her permission. Oh, that's pretty cool. Yes. You got some fan based, uh, uh,

integration. As well. The, um, in the nineties, there was a serial killer who roamed the West. It wasn't me. Pushing native American people under moving trains.

Oh my God. He became known as the boxcar killer. He's serving life without parole at a prison in Wyoming, I believe on five counts of homicide. But in the 90s, he went through a community in a small city in central Oregon and pushed a Lakota named James under the train. It was a mile and a half before they were able to stop, the engineer could stop the train. It was a mile and a half before they were able to stop. The engineer could stop the train. Law enforcement was summoned. They pronounced him dead,

zipped him into a body bag, transported him to the morgue, which was in the basement of the local hospital. It was a small city. The indigenous population was even smaller. And it happened that a nurse who worked in that hospital knew James. So when her shift was over that night, she went down to the morgue to wash his hair, which is a time-honored Lakota custom. She unzipped the body bag.

His arm came out because he wasn't dead. He wasn't dead? He wasn't dead. Holy crap. He went from the morgue to the OR for the first of countless operations that it took to sort of put him back together. He emerged as a paraplegic. He lost the use of his right hand.

He had to learn to speak again. He had to learn to read again. And while that was happening, a friend and fan of mine who was volunteering in that hospital went to his room and read my books to him. Oh, wow. And he loved the Walker family books. So he recovered enough that he was able to live relatively independently

for the next 20 years. Wow. He counseled disaffected Indian urban youth in the Portland area, trying to get them back on the right path. Shortly before his death in 2021, he called Loretta, my friend, and said, tell your friend to write more Walker books. There aren't enough Indian heroes. Wow. That is powerful. When you read Blessing of the Lost Girls, you'll encounter a guy named John Wheeler. He's a paraplegic.

Oh, you put him in? He's on a moving train. Uh-huh. Been counseling disaffected urban youth in Tucson. Somebody wrote to me, and he said, you know, you're the only author I know who could name a character, John Wheeler, put him into a wheelchair, call him, call him a pair, make him a paraplegic, and then have everybody call him chair man And not have it seem derogatory. Wow.

There you go. Well, that's an incredible basis for the story and influence on this new book. The thing is, James said there aren't enough Indian heroes. And when you meet John Wheeler, you'll know that now James is one. There you go. I dedicated this book to James and his Iron Pony. That's what he called

his electric wheelchair. Wow. The Iron Pony. I love that. That's inspiring. That's motivating. Doing the best with the thing. Was he able to identify the killer because he lived? No, the killer was identified by law enforcement.

They kept his charge open. And his death is attributable to the guy in Wyoming. But since he's already doing life without parole, there was no sense in taking it to court. Ah, I see. Wow, that is wild, man. What's the old line? Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes.

But I really felt that writing that book was a sacred charge from him by the way when james died he didn't go from portland back to the reservation in south dak in a casket. He was transported, wrapped in a buffalo rope. Oh, wow. He was an important guy. Yes, he was. Yeah. I imagine that's another tradition.

I'm sorry. My dog is outside. She's barking at me. I imagine that's another tradition, wrapping yourself in the bear. That's an amazing story. That just adds more fuel to the fire to want to read the book and pick it up. What else can we tease about, about what's inside the book or some of the things that happen? Well, I take little pieces of my life and they end up in the background of the books

I once murdered a washing machine when my son's one of my son's marbles got stuck in the gears. Oh, boy. When Dan Pardee has trouble with his washing machine, you know that's a piece of my own story that has gone into the book. You never know when something bad that happened to you might not be useful. Isn't it interesting how life can work? The lessons that when we have them happen at the time, they're like, this is the worst. And then hopefully you learn something from that.

And then it ends up being like, well, that actually kind of helped. I mean, most of the stories from my life or some of the things that I thought at the time were awful, but not too bad. No, I look back. In my life, my first husband was allowed in a creative writing program that was closed to me. The professor at the University of Arizona, the creative writing professor there, when I tried to enroll in his class, he said, you're a girl. I said, so? He said, girls become teachers or nurses, boys become writers, and he wouldn't let me into his class, which at the time was devastating. But you know what? When I wrote the first Walker family book, Hour of the Hunter in 1989, the main character, Diana Ladd, was a teacher on the reservation,

but she really wanted to be a writer. Like me, she had a husband who was allowed in the creative writing program that was closed to her. Her husband is dead at the beginning of the book. Is that something maybe you wanted for your first husband then? And the crazed killer turned out to be a former professor of creative writing from the University of Arizona. Oh, revenge is sweet as a mystery writer. That was an exercise in writerly revenge, and it was lots of fun to write that book.

Writerly revenge. Note to self, never piss off Miss Chance. I don't know, maybe I should. I'd end up in one of your books, maybe. That might be an upside there. I don't know. Maybe I should. I'd end up in one of your books, maybe. That might be an upside there. You'd have me probably killed in an awful sort of manner. I'm currently gunning for a certain position, but I'm not

going to tell you any details on that. But I'm thinking about it. I don't know if a podcaster ever turns up in one of your mystery books getting murdered i'll be like wow okay uh there you go i think one of the things that is so gratifying about writing mysteries and reading mysteries is that good and evil are out there on display. Charlie in Blessing is this snow sort of mysterious snowbird the ladies in the RV park can't figure out if he is a Norwegian bachelor farmer if he's gay if, if he's divorced, does he have kids? Nobody quite knows what he is. When in actual fact, under that smooth facade, he's actually a serial killer.

And there's only one entity in that whole RV park who really understands how evil he is. And that's the neighbor's obnoxious little dog. It's always the dog that tips you off. That's what my dogs do. Dogs know. They do. Dogs know. Yeah.

And when Dan Pardee hears about that dog, he pays attention. Because when he was serving in the Middle East, his dog Bozo was that dog that knew when something bad was going on. Your dogs know something is evil in the background when they can hear the marking. I'm sorry. Maybe it's the postman. They're outside. I did the best I could. No, you're fine.

You're fine. I just wanted to get that joke in there because, you know, maybe they know the postman's evil. evil well when they hear when i go on a zoom event as soon as they hear strange voices in the house they are certain we're being invaded and um there's their dachshunds so there's no amount of telling them to be quiet maybe they think i'm evil they They could be right. I don't know. We were talking a moment ago about things that are really tough at the time that turn out to be a good thing. Yes. My first husband was, in terms of husband material, he was a very bad bet he uh he he told me once he knew he was an alcoholic by the time he was 15. he didn't mention that to me but he died of chronic alcoholism at age 42 a year and a half after i divorced him wow

when i started writing the the Beaumont books, those books are told in the first person. And he was a homicide cop, but he couldn't be at work all the time. So I had him, I needed him to have something to do when he wasn't at work. I wasn't allowed in the creative writing program,

but I was smart enough to figure out you write what you know. And I happen to know a lot about drinking. So Bo did the kind of drinking I had lived with for all of those years. I was signing the fourth book down in Portland and a lady came up to the table and she said, you know, Bo drinks every day. He has a drink of choice. It's starting to interfere with his work. Does J.P. Beaumont have a problem?

And I said, you know, these are books. But six other people asked me the same question. And I finally realized they were right. I had modeled Bo's character after a problem drinker, and I had done so with absolute accuracy, which is how Beau goes into treatment. And he has his first blackout in, well, the first one he has to acknowledge in book seven.

He goes into treatment in book eight. The book I just wrote, the next Beaumont Den of In book seven, he goes into treatment. In book eight, the book I just wrote, the next Beaumont Den of Iniquity, is book number 26. So he has been sober or in recovery for a lot longer than he was drinking. I still have readers who liked him better when he was drunk. I worry about them. Maybe he was funner. But I've heard from people who have told me that watching Beaumont deal with his drinking problem helped them deal with theirs. That's one of the hidden powers of fiction. It can somehow worm its way around people's conscious denial

and speak to them in a way that having your wife or your best buddy or something tell you that you have a problem. Yeah, sometimes that's just what it takes. Hey, you have a problem. Yeah, sometimes that's just what it takes. Hey, you have a problem. But it's funny, your readers kind of like him when he had a problem. Well, I think it was interesting that they pointed it out to me

before I figured it out on my own. That's pretty amazing. It is interesting how intuitive readers are and everything else. What are your future? You said you've got some other books that are written in your series. You still have just four series now, right?

Well, yes, four series. That's as many as I can juggle. So the next book I'll need to write is the next Alley book. I have no idea what it's going to be. I don't know what it's going to be about. I don't know what the title is. But I do know it has to be in New York by the end of March of next year, so I best get my rear

in gear. Well, it sounds like you're back on your mojo. You said the last book gave you some issues, but it sounds like you're back on your mojo and you're rocking them out now. I think so. Well, final thoughts as we go out. Final people to pitch on the book to pick it up wherever fine books are sold. You should be able to find it anywhere books are sold.

It's in Better Bus Depot is everywhere. There you go. There you go. So you have a website, don't you, too? We should get a plug in for that. I have a website, jajazz.com. I also have a weekly blog, which is a window on my world for that week. And this week, it's about the events on the book tour,

on that last week of the book tour. But the one, the incident that really got to me this week was an email from a man who said six months ago he received a dire medical diagnosis the treatments are not working as anticipated in the past six months he's read 60 of my 66 books because reading my books helped save his sanity and that's the ancient sacred charge of the storyteller to beguile the time and i'm so touched that my stories were able to take him away from his tough prognosis right now and take him to a different place. That is so awesome that you have the impact on people's lives.

And I'm sure you've done it with so many. I mean, would you say 67 books? 66 so far, but 67 is written. So yes. There you go. There you go. Well, congratulations, Ms. Chance. It's always wonderful to have you on.

Thank you very much for coming on and plugging your new book and we want everyone to go pick it up. Thank you and I'll see you next year. Please come back as much as you want. This is your fourth time so we'll look forward to having you on more and more. Order the book up folks wherever fine books are sold called Blessing of the Lost

Girls, a Brady and Walker family novel. Coming out September 19th, 2023. And check out all of her series and all of her books. I expect you guys to all read 67 of her books before she comes on again. So everyone needs to check it out. Yes, there will be a pop quiz the next time I show up. There will be a test, yes.

There you go. Well, thank you, Ms. Janz, for coming on the show. Thanks to our audience for being here. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortress Christmas, LinkedIn. Well, thank you, Ms. Janz, for coming on the show. Thanks to our audience for being here. Go to Goodreads.com, FortressGrisvoss, LinkedIn.com, FortressGrisvoss, YouTube.com, FortressGrisvoss, and ChrisVoss1 on the TikTok. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. And we'll see you guys next time.