Hand of Evil

By: J.A. Jance

Narrated by: Karen Ziemba

New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance returns with her “compelling…satisfying” (USA TODAY) third novel in the gripping suspense series featuring ex-television journalist Ali Reynolds.

With his hand trapped in the door of a speeding car, a man struggles to remain upright as he’s dragged along a deserted stretch of San Juan Road in Phoenix’s South Mountain Preserve. It’s the perfect place to drive a man to his grave—literally. Starting with a crime so gruesome even prowling coyotes keep their distance from the remains, a killer begins crisscrossing the Southwest on a spree of grisly murders.

A hundred miles away, Ali Reynolds is grieving. The news-casting job she once delighted in is gone—and so is the philandering husband she once loved and thought she knew. When a member of the family who gave Ali a generous scholarship decades earlier suddenly asks her for a meeting, Ali wonders what it can mean. Before she can satisfy her curiosity, though, Ali receives another startling call: a friend’s teenage daughter has disappeared. Ali offers to help. But in doing so, she unknowingly begins a quest that will reveal a deadly ring of secrets, at the center of which stand two undiscriminating killers.

Hand of Evil is Jance at her best, weaving a masterful “literary jigsaw puzzle” (The Tennessean, Nashville) and story of suspense that travels over generations, exposing two very different women with the same horrifying secret. Will Ali become a victim herself, or will she escape from a deadly deceit that no amount of security—financial or emotional—can cover up?©2007 J. A. Jance; (P)2007 Simon and Schuster, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Jance starts her books fast...and keeps things moving with cinematic panache...engaging and entertaining." -- Los Angeles Times

"Jance delivers a devilish page-turner." -- People

Story for today

Story was easy to follow. Characters were every day types. The author knows her readers.

Another great book from JA Jance but...

The narration of the book is too quick and unnatural. Words are said too fast in sequence. Slow down your narrators. I want to be read to. It is ok if it takes longer

packed with excitement

From the very start, this book keeps a rapid pace with not one or two, but several stories, intertwining within each other, right up until the end.

Complex

While a good book, there were too many storylines making it more difficult to remember that things in the first half got forgotten. I could connect with several characters but it needed to have more remembrances of early characters in the latter half.

A wonderful book.

I love that Ali is over 40 and has her own life and adventures.