Below is the complete list of J.A. Jance’s Joanna Brady books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Joanna Brady Books
- Desert Heat (1993)
Desert Heat was published in 1993 and is listed as book #1 in the Joanna Brady series. - Tombstone Courage (1995)
Published in 1995, Tombstone Courage is listed as book #2 in the Joanna Brady series. - Shoot Don’t Shoot (1995)
Shoot Don't Shoot is a 1995 release and appears as book #3 in the Joanna Brady series. - Dead to Rights (1997)
In the Joanna Brady series, Dead to Rights is book #4 and was published in 1997. - Skeleton Canyon (1997)
Skeleton Canyon was first published in 1997; within the Joanna Brady series, it is listed as book #5. - Rattlesnake Crossing (1998)
Rattlesnake Crossing was published in 1998 and is listed as book #6 in the Joanna Brady series. - Outlaw Mountain (1999)
Published in 1999, Outlaw Mountain is listed as book #7 in the Joanna Brady series. - Devil’s Claw (2001)
Devil's Claw is a 2001 release and appears as book #8 in the Joanna Brady series. - Paradise Lost (2001)
In the Joanna Brady series, Paradise Lost is book #9 and was published in 2001. - Partner in Crime (2002)
Partner in Crime was first published in 2002; within the Joanna Brady series, it is listed as book #10. - Exit Wounds (2003)
Exit Wounds was published in 2003 and is listed as book #11 in the Joanna Brady series. - Dead Wrong (2006)
Published in 2006, Dead Wrong is listed as book #12 in the Joanna Brady series. - Damage Control (2008)
Damage Control is a 2008 release and appears as book #13 in the Joanna Brady series. - Fire and Ice (2009)
In the Joanna Brady series, Fire and Ice is book #14 and was published in 2009. - Judgment Call (2012)
Judgment Call was first published in 2012; within the Joanna Brady series, it is listed as book #15. - The Old Blue Line (2014)
The Old Blue Line was published in 2014 and is listed as book #16 in the Joanna Brady series. - Remains of Innocence (2014)
Published in 2014, Remains of Innocence is listed as book #17 in the Joanna Brady series. - No Honor Among Thieves (2015)
No Honor Among Thieves is a 2015 release and appears as book #18 in the Joanna Brady series. - Random Acts (2016)
In the Joanna Brady series, Random Acts is book #19 and was published in 2016. - Downfall (2016)
Downfall was first published in 2016; within the Joanna Brady series, it is listed as book #20. - Field of Bones (2018)
Field of Bones was published in 2018 and is listed as book #21 in the Joanna Brady series. - Missing and Endangered (2021)
Published in 2021, Missing and Endangered is listed as book #22 in the Joanna Brady series. - Blessing of the Lost Girls (2023)
Blessing of the Lost Girls is a 2023 release and appears as book #23 in the Joanna Brady series. - The Girl from Devil’s Lake (2025)
In the Joanna Brady series, The Girl from Devil's Lake is book #24 and was published in 2025.
About Joanna Brady
J.A. Jance’s Joanna Brady books are one of the strongest examples of a long-running crime series built not just around cases, but around a life. Joanna begins as a woman in Cochise County, Arizona, whose personal world is shattered by violence, and from that point forward the series becomes about much more than police work alone. It is about duty, grief, motherhood, public responsibility, and the pressure of growing into authority while everyone around you is watching. That broader emotional frame is what gives the Joanna Brady books their identity. These are crime novels, but they are also the story of one woman’s long evolution.
What makes Joanna such a compelling lead is that she is never written as a fixed detective figure dropped into interchangeable investigations. She changes. Her role changes. Her family life changes. Her relationship to the badge and to the community deepens over time. Jance has written openly about wanting Joanna to reflect the complicated reality of women’s lives rather than the more isolated lives often given to fictional sleuths, and that intention can be felt throughout the series. Joanna is a law officer, but she is also a mother, a widow, a wife, a public official, and a woman carrying private burdens into very public situations. The series works because none of those parts are treated as decorative.
The Arizona setting matters just as much. Cochise County and Bisbee are not generic backdrops for murder plots. They give the series its climate, geography, and social texture. The books feel shaped by borderland realities, desert distances, local loyalties, and the kind of community memory that makes every public decision personal. Joanna is not policing an anonymous city where one case can be cleanly replaced by the next. She is working in a place where history lingers and where her own position inside the community is part of the drama.
Publication order matters here more than it does in many procedural series because Joanna’s development is one of the major rewards. The early books establish her under extreme emotional strain, but the later books gain strength from everything that has already happened to her. Relationships deepen, family responsibilities grow more layered, and the office she holds becomes more than a title. Read in order, the series preserves that progression. Joanna becomes not simply a recurring sheriff, but a fully lived-in character whose authority has been earned across time.
That long arc also distinguishes the series from Jance’s J.P. Beaumont novels. Beaumont operates in a more urban, often rougher procedural tradition, while Joanna’s books feel more rooted in community, family, and the complicated overlap between private life and public service. They are still suspenseful and often dark, but they carry a steadier emotional center. Joanna’s strength is not flashy. It comes from endurance, judgment, and the ability to keep functioning when personal pain would justify collapse.
One of the pleasures of the series is that Jance never lets Joanna become too idealized. She is capable, but not infallible. She is decent, but not untouched by anger, grief, or exhaustion. That human scale is what keeps such a long-running series alive. Readers do not return only for the mystery machinery. They return because Joanna Brady feels like someone whose life continues when the case is over.
Taken as a whole, the Joanna Brady books are best understood as J.A. Jance’s long-form character series about a woman growing into power under pressure. The mysteries matter, but the deeper reward lies in watching Joanna build a life, a family, and a public identity in a world that rarely allows any of those things to remain simple.