I like J.A. Jance books for light reading, mostly as “palate cleansers.” *heh* The J.P. Beaumont books rank a wee tad higher on the “mystery” end of the scale of her books, while the “Arizona books” (centered around two different female protagonists) are slightly less appealing to me, not because of the central characters, but just because they offer less for me to solve before the characters do.
Still, Jance is a competent writer, and her stories read easily–just the thing for light palate cleansers. They’re also–thankfully!–pretty well line- and content edited, so my own copies don’t get marked up a lot. 😉
And then there are the little things, like a minor character (in a putative “mystery-cozy thriller, if there is such a genre *heh*) recruited to do security work named. . . Joe Friday. Oh. Funny, J.A. Real funny. *heh* I wanted him to walk up to the client and say, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”