Betty Webb – författare

"In Jones''s electrifying 10th...Scottsdale, Arizona, PI Lena is approached by Harold Slow Horse, one of Arizona''s leading artists...[and] gets on a trail that leads her at long last to answers about her troubled past..." —Publishers Weekly

At the age of four, Scottsdale private eye Lena Jones was shot in the head and left to die on a Phoenix street. After her rescue, she spent years in the abusive foster care system, never knowing who her parents were and why they didn''t claim her. When Desert Redemption begins, she still doesn''t know her real name.

Lena''s rough childhood—and the suspicion that her parents may have been members of a cult—keeps her hackles raised. So when Chelsea, the ex-wife of Harold Slow Horse, a close friend, joins a "new thought" organization called Kanati, Lena begins to investigate. She soon learns that two communes—polar opposites of each other—have sprung up nearby in the Arizona desert. The participants at EarthWay follow a rigorous dietary regime that could threaten the health of its back-to-the-land inhabitants, while the more pleasure-loving folk at Kanati are dining on sumptuous French cuisine.

On an early morning horseback ride across the Pima Indian Reservation, Lena finds an emaciated woman''s body in the desert. "Reservation Woman" lies in a spot close to EarthWay, clad in a dress similar to the ones worn by its women. But there is something about her face that reminds Lena of the Kanatians.

While investigating, Lena''s memory is jolted back to that horrible night when her father and younger brother were among those murdered by a cult leader named Abraham, who then vanished. Lena begins to wonder if either EarthWay or Kanati could be linked to that night, and to her own near-death. Could leaders of one or both shed light on what had happened to Lena''s mother, who vanished at the same time as Abraham?

All these mysteries are resolved in Desert Redemption, the tenth and final Lena Jones case, which can also be enjoyed on its own.

Arizona is still a wicked frontier.

While scouting locations for a film documentary on Arizona''s Apache Wars, private investigator Lena Jones and Oscar-winning director Warren Quinn discover the mutilated body of a young girl. The gruesome manner of the child''s death evokes memories of Lena''s own rough childhood.

Clashing with the local law, Lena''s investigation uncovers a small town with a big secret, for Los Perdidos is not the Eden it first appears to be. Founded by the descendants of pioneers who fought Geronimo, the townspeople have now armed themselves against the hordes of illegal immigrants streaming across the Arizona-Mexico border. A significant population of documented foreign-born residents also lives and works in Los Perdedos at a modern plant. Lena senses a sinister force at work in the town—but where?

Then two more girls disappear from Los Perdidos, and as the death toll mounts, Lena is tempted to implement some frontier justice of her own. When she finally unmasks the killer, she discovers a chain of horrific crimes responsible for subjugating millions of girls and women around the globe.

In Desert Cut, the still vivid memory of Geronimo''s war mixes with the modern immigration war, the hard life on the Arizona-Mexico border contrasts with Hollywood''s slick production meetings, and the cruelty of an ancient practice is tempered by a growing underground railroad fighting to save its young victims.

While running surveillance in an industrial section of Scottsdale, Arizona, PI Lena Jones discovers the body of a woman connected to the infamous polygamy cult Second Zion. Lena joins forces with a former polygamist “sister wife” to find the victim’s killer and discovers a shocking secret: that in a society where one man can have ten wives, nine men will have none. Second Zion makes certain these possible rivals don’t stick around.

In the midst of Lena’s search for the dead woman’s lost son, memories from her own damaged childhood surface when she is surprised by a visit from her beloved foster mother, whom she’d been forcibly parted from at the age of nine. The reunion is interrupted when Lena learns that a friend in Hollywood is being stalked by a mental patient. Lena flies to her aid, only to find that danger has followed her.

If Lucy, the pregnant giant anteater from Belize, didn''t kill the man found dead in her enclosure, who did? California zookeeper Teddy Bentley must find the real murderer before her furry friend is shipped off to another zoo in disgrace. Then another human bites the dust, the monkeys riot, and the wolves go nuts. Things get worse when the snooty folks at Gunn Landing Harbor attempt to evict Teddy from the Merilee, her beloved houseboat.And that''s just the beginning.

Teddy''s father, on the lam from the feds for embezzling millions, gets targeted by a local gangster. Her socialite mother, Caro, a former beauty queen who loathes Teddy''s dangerous job, starts introducing her to "eligible bachelors." But Teddy has already given her heart to Sheriff Joe Rejas, a migrant worker''s son. Caro is not pleased.

Zoo life, animal lore, and the leaky ups and downs of California central-coast houseboat living create a thrilling backdrop for murder.

When zoo keeper Theodora "Teddy" Bentley fishes the body of Koala Kate out of Gunn Landing Harbor, she discovers that her fellow zoo keeper didn''t drown—she was strangled. The clues to Koala Kate''s killer implicate other animal keepers at the Gunn Zoo, including Outback Bill, marsupial keeper and Kate''s Aussie ex-boyfriend; and Robin Chase, the big cat keeper who''s got it in for Teddy. Also displaying suspicious behavior are Speaks-to-Souls, a shady "animal psychic," and Caro, Teddy''s much-married, ex-beauty queen mother. But murderers aren''t all Teddy has to worry about. Her embezzling father is still on the run from the Feds, and the motor on her beloved houseboat is failing. To pay for the repairs, Teddy agrees to appear on a weekly live television broadcast featuring misbehaving animals that range from a cuddly koala to a panicky wallaby—and all hell breaks loose in the studio. To add to Teddy''s woes, the killer zeroes in on her with near-fatal results.

The Koala of Death returns to Gunn Zoo and the social-climbing humans and eccentric animals that made the prizewinning The Anteater of Death so popular. Listeners will enjoy this behind-the-scenes peek at zoo life and learn that poor little rich girls like Teddy lead much more complicated lives that they''d ever imagine—especially when they''re tracking killers.

PI Lena Jones learns that old sins never die; they’re still taking lives.

When PI Lena Jones’ partner, Pima Indian Jimmy Sisiwan, is arrested in the remote town of Walapai Flats in northern Arizona, Lena closes the Desert Investigations office and rushes to his aid. What she finds is a town up in arms over a new uranium mine located only ten miles from the magnificent Grand Canyon. Jimmy’s sister-in-law, founder of Victims of Uranium Mining, has been murdered, but the opposing side has taken hits, too. Ike Donohue, the mine’s public relations man, is found shot to death, which casts suspicion on Jimmy and his entire family.

During her investigation, Lena finds not only a community decimated by dangerous mining practices but also a connection to actor John Wayne and the mysterious deaths resulting from the 1953 filming of The Conqueror. Gabe Boone, a wrangler on that doomed film, is still alive, but the only person the aged man will confide in is John Wayne’s ghost. It’s up to Lena to penetrate Gabe’s defenses and uncover the decades-old tragedy that no one in Walapai Flats wants to talk about. By delving into the area’s history, Lena discovers the reason that high-ranking government officials want those crimes to remain under wraps.

Desert Wind, like the others in Betty Webb’s Lena Jones mystery series, is based on the facts of true-crime cases.

Things are never easy for Scottsdale private eye Lena Jones. Her partner in Desert Investigations, Jimmy Sisiwan, is leaving for a moneyed wife and a job at Southwest Microsystems, and her old captain at the Scottsdale Police Department is off to his home in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, she''s doing security for Warren Quinn, director of a documentary film about the American World War II camp for German POWs at Arizona''s Papago Park, from which some prisoners once escaped.

One surviving escapee, Käpitan zur See Erik Ernst, a man now in his nineties and confined to a wheelchair after a boating accident, has just been murdered. What''s more, the man''s Ethiopian caregiver begs Lena to clear him as a suspect in the murder.

Lena, experienced in probing the past for answers to the central mystery of her own life—who is she?—learns that after their daring Christmas Eve escape Ernst and two other POWs had hid out in Arizona''s rugged Superstition Mountains. Nearby on Christmas night, a farm family, the Bollingers, had been slaughtered. A jury didn''t convict the only survivor, the teenage son, despite some suggestive evidence. What might Chess Bollinger know about Ernst—and vice versa? And how much can Lena trust filmmaker Warren Quinn, either as a client, a witness, or a lover?

In this complex, stunning case based on real Arizona history, Betty Webb spins another evocative, haunting story in her Lena Jones mystery series.

Theodora "Teddy" Bentley, zookeeper at the Gunn Zoo, takes the zoos llama, Alejandro, to a Renaissance fair in the Monterey Bay area. That is where Teddy discovers the still-warm body of the Reverend Victor Emerson, owner of the local wedding chapel, dressed in his costume as Henry the Eighth. At first it appears that Alejandro stomped the man to death, but a closer look shows a crossbow dart in the man''s back.

Teddy''s investigation reveals that Reverend Victor wasn''t really a reverend at all but an escaped convict, which means that every marriage he performed in the past twenty years is null and void.

Teddy''s mother, Caro, a spoiled ex–beauty queen, becomes the chief murder suspect and is immediately jailed when she causes a riot in the courtroom. The "reverend" had twice married Caro to wealthy men, and when both marriages failed, Caro received large financial settlements that she may now have to give back—certainly a motive for murder.

But Caro wasn''t the only person gunning for Victor. The child of the man that Victor the convict once murdered may have wanted to kill him too. Then even Teddy herself is handcuffed and jailed. Even worse, Teddy''s embezzling father flies in from exile in Costa Rica to help spring Caro from jail, putting his own freedom in jeopardy.

As Teddy continues her investigation, she finds herself up to her ears in Renaissance fair actors and stuntmen, assorted animals, squabbling boat live-aboarders, and gang members.

Ferociously ambitious US senatorial candidate Juliana Thorsson has been keeping a secret. The horrific slaughter of a prominent doctor, his wife, and their ten-year-old son inside their Scottsdale home brings Thorsson to private investigator Lena Jones. The slain family''s fourteen-year-old, Alison, and her boyfriend, Kyle, have confessed to the murders. Thorsson wants to hire Lena to discover if Alison is telling the truth, but before accepting the job, Lena demands to know why a rising political star wants to involve herself with the fate of a girl she''s never met. Desperate for Lena''s help, Thorsson reveals her explosive secret—that Alison is the candidate''s biological daughter, a fact she''s kept hidden for years. But that''s not all. Thorsson then confides something even more unusual than a mere hidden pregnancy—something that could ruin her political plans forever.

Suspecting that Alison''s parents had secrets of their own that could have led to the murders, Lena finally accepts Thorsson''s assignment. But interviewing those who knew the family well soon puts Lena—now a strong defender of the two teens—in danger of her life.

Fast paced, probing, and filled with the trademark twists of the Lena Jones series, Desert Rage once again displays that Betty Webb is unsparing of her characters yet writes their stories with wit and compassion.

The next book in A Gunn Zoo Mystery Series finds zookeeper Theodora "Teddy" Bentley taking on dangerous secrets, kooky animals, and new family members

California zookeeper Theodora Bentley is now happily married to Sheriff Joe Rejas. The Gunn Zoo is celebrating the arrival of Poonya, an adorable red panda, who forms a strong bond with Teddy. All appears fairytale blissful in the small Monterey Bay village of Gunn Landing until Teddy''s mother-in-law discovers through DNA testing that Joe has sired a son he knew nothing about. Dylan Coyle, 18, arrives to meet his biological family… and then is arrested for murder. But Teddy—with her animal companions—hops onboard the case.

Panda of Death, the new addition to the acclaimed series, finds Teddy facing down zookeeper''s secrets, wild rumors, and death itself. She''ll do everything in her power to protect her family—humans and animals alike.

This humorous, quick-paced mystery is:

An exotic trip to Iceland puts Teddy the zookeeper in the middle of the murder case of a wealthy bird watcher.

California zookeeper Theodora Bentley travels to Iceland to pick up an orphaned polar bear cub destined for the Gunn Zoo’s newly installed Northern Climes exhibit. The trip is intended to be a combination of work and play. But on day two, while horseback riding near a picturesque seaside village, Teddy discovers a man lying atop a puffin burrow, shot through the head.

The victim is identified as American bird watcher Simon Parr, winner of the largest Powerball payout in history. Is Teddy a witness—or a suspect? Others include not only Parr’s wife, a famed suspense novelist, but fellow members of the birding club Parr had generously treated to their lavish Icelandic expedition. Hardly your average birders, several of them have had serious brushes with the law back in the states.

Guessing that an American would best understand other Americans, police detective Thorvaald Haraldsson grudgingly concedes her innocence and allows Teddy to tag along with the group to volcanoes, glaciers, and deep continental rifts in quest of rare bird species. But once another member of the club is murdered and a rockfall barely misses Teddy’s head, Haraldsson forbids her to continue. She ignores him and, in a stunning, solitary face-off with the killer in Iceland’s wild interior, concludes an investigation at once exotic, thrilling, and rich in animal lore.

When the man who raped Scottsdale private investigator Lena Jones when she was a nine-year-old foster child is released from prison, Lena is waiting for him in the parking lot—with a big knife. “Papa” Brian Wycoff survives their meeting, but the next day, his wife, who knew about his crimes but did nothing to stop him—in fact enabled him—is found dead in their Apache Junction home, shot through both eyes. Terrified he will be next, Wycoff violates his parole and flees north to the small town of Black Canyon City, taking shelter in an RV on his brother-in-law’s small ranch. A couple of days later, he is found tortured to death, eight horizontal marks burned into his flesh. One for each of his victims?

Suspicion first falls upon Lena, who has trailed Wycoff to Black Canyon City to make sure he doesn’t come near any other children. When the local authorities arrive to question her, she admits to having been tempted to kill her former foster father but that someone beat her to the punch. Suspicion then falls on Wycoff’s other victims, the now-grown men and women he abused when they were still in his care, and on the mothers of the children who went missing before his arrest.

When Lena takes up the case, more to protect one of the mothers who has been arrested than to find the real killer, her conscience is torn. Does a serial child rapist, a pedophile also implicated in the disappearance of several children, really deserve justice? That choice might not be left up to Lena when members of a local group, Parents of Missing Children, start working to prevent her investigation from succeeding. How far will they go to make sure she fails?