Arizona native Ali Reynolds has been a reporter, a news anchor and a police officer. After her second husband’s death Ali became an independently wealthy woman. (Technically she is a widow, although Reynolds was in the process of divorcing her husband when he died.) Ali enjoys helping her friends. After learning that Deputy Sheriff Jose Reyes, a classmate from the police academy, has been shot while on duty, she drives to Tucson to look after Reyes’ pregnant wife and two small children.
At Physicians’ Medical Center in Tucson, Ali is surprised to see her close friend Sister Anselm. The Taser toting nun is a patient advocate for a young woman who has been raped, severely beaten and left for dead in the Arizona desert. The border patrol officer who finds the girl and takes her to the hospital assumes that she is an illegal alien. This is also believed by the authorities at the hospital. When the young lady wakes up, however, Sister Anselm discovers that she speaks very little Spanish. She turns out to be a runaway by the name of Rose Ventana whose desperate parents have been searching for her for years.
Ali Reynolds and Sister Anselm work together and determine that a serial killer is behind Rose’s attack. The two women also join forces to find out who shot Deputy Reyes. Besides being wounded, Jose is accused of being a drug dealer. Drugs have been found in both his patrol car and his house.
Reyes’ wife Teresa is adamant about the fact that her husband is not a criminal. Mrs. Reyes has a great deal to cope with. Besides her spouse’s problems, she has two little girls to take care of. She certainly doesn’t need the mother of her first husband threatening to obtain custody of the two toddlers. As well Teresa is nine months pregnant. Is it any wonder that the young wife and mother is forced to have an emergency C-section?
The superhero team of Ali Reynolds and Sister Anselm solve both cases as well as take care of Teresa’s little girls and reunite Rose with her family. In a lesser writer’s hands this might seem like an implausible story. J.A. Jance’s skill at developing both an exciting plotline and fascinating characters turns “Left for Dead” into an enjoyable and believable mystery. Ali Reynolds is an excellent protagonist. She uses what she learned as an investigative reporter and police officer along with her many community contacts to protect all her friends and relatives in Arizona. I can only hope that J.A. Jance writes many more Ali Reynolds thrillers.
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