Was up at 0430 last Saturday - old habits die hard - sitting on the back porch with black coffee while Ranger did his morning patrol of the fence line. Austin was still dark and quiet, and I figured I'd burn through a few chapters of Downfall before Linda woke up and the day got away from me. Eleven hours later, I had... mixed feelings.
Let me cut to the chase: this is a competent procedural wrapped in about four hours of domestic subplot that tested my patience.
Two Bodies, One Peak, and a Whole Lot of Paperwork
The setup grabbed me - two women dead at the base of a local formation called Geronimo, and nobody can figure out if it's murder-suicide or a double homicide. That's a solid tactical problem. Joanna Brady is Cochise County Sheriff, and Jance clearly knows how a rural sheriff's department actually operates. The jurisdictional headaches, the resource constraints, the politics of a re-election year pressing against an active investigation - all of that rang true. I've worked with enough county-level law enforcement in my consulting gigs to know that Jance did her homework on the bureaucratic reality of small-department policing.
But here's where it lost me. For every chapter pushing the investigation forward, there's another one about Joanna's pregnancy, her daughter leaving for college, family deaths to process, and the general domestic orbit of her life. Now look - I get that this is book seventeen in a series. These characters have lives. Readers who've been along for the full ride probably care deeply about Jenny heading off to school. But I came in cold, and the pacing suffered for it. The book bills itself as suspense, and the actual suspense portions are good. The problem is they keep getting interrupted by what amounts to a family drama.
Hillary Huber and the Art of the Low Simmer
Huber's narration is... interesting. She's won enough awards to fill a shelf, and I can hear why - her voice has this calm authority to it that works well for a protagonist who's both a law enforcement professional and a woman managing a full life. She doesn't do dramatic voices or theatrical swings between characters. Instead, she makes subtle tonal adjustments - a slight shift in register for different speakers, nothing that pulls you out of the story.
The downside? At 1.25x, she was fine. At normal speed, I can absolutely see how some listeners would feel like the energy drops. There were stretches - particularly during the domestic scenes - where the combination of slower pacing in the text and Huber's even-keel delivery had me reaching for my phone to bump the speed up another notch. She's soothing. Almost too soothing for what's supposed to be a crime thriller. Like having a lullaby play over a firefight.
I've heard some folks say they wish the series had a different narrator entirely. I wouldn't go that far. Huber's approach fits Joanna Brady as a character - measured, professional, competent. The narrator matches the protagonist. But if you're coming to this expecting the kind of white-knuckle narration you'd get from, say, Scott Brick doing a Vince Flynn novel, recalibrate your expectations.
The Arizona of It All
One thing Jance absolutely nails is place. The Bisbee setting, the desert landscape, the small-town dynamics where everybody knows everybody's business and the sheriff can't grab lunch without getting an earful about county politics - that felt lived-in and real. The Southwest backdrop isn't just wallpaper. It shapes the investigation in practical ways, from terrain challenges at the crime scene to the kind of community pressure that comes from a tight-knit border town. I've spent enough time in Arizona to know she's not faking it.
Who Gets the Green Light, Who Gets Waved Off
If you're already invested in the Joanna Brady series, this is probably a solid entry - the family storylines will land differently when you've got sixteen books of context. If you're a fan of procedurals where the investigation unfolds methodically and you don't mind substantial domestic subplot mixed in, you'll be satisfied.
If you're looking for a standalone thriller with relentless pacing and constant tension? This isn't your mission. The mystery itself is good but not great, and it takes its time getting where it's going. Dead Girl in 2A scratched a similar itch for me - procedural bones, some emotional weight layered on top, and a mystery that earns its resolution without overstaying its welcome.
Bottom of the Coffee Cup
Worth your time? Here's the debrief: Downfall is a solid 3.5 - competent, professionally produced, with an author who knows her setting and her characters inside out. The investigation kept me engaged when it was center stage. But the pacing issues are real, and Huber's calm delivery amplifies rather than counteracts the slower stretches. I finished it. I don't regret the time. But Ranger fell asleep twice, and honestly, I can't blame him.
Bump it to 1.25x minimum. Trust me on this one.
