Desert Wives A Lena Jones Mystery

Polygamy can be murder! That’s what private detective Lena Jones learns when she helps 13 year old Rebecca escape from Purity, a polygamy compound hidden in a desolate area near straddling Utah/Arizona border. When Rebecca’s mother is arrested for the murder of Prophet Solomon Royal, Rebecca’s intended husband, Lena enters Purity masquerading as a polygamist wife to uncover the real murderer. In doing so, Lena finds out more than she bargained for—the shocking secret the cult’s Circle of Elders will kill to keep. During her investigations, Lena also discovers more about her own past. At the age of four she was found lying unconscious by the side of an Arizona highway, a bullet robbing her of her memories. Raised in a series of foster homes, Lena does not remember her real name nor the names of her parents. She thinks she has put the past behind her, but the sins of Purity’s polygamous mothers and fathers force her to reexamine the few memories she has of her own mother—the woman who shot her...

Now in its second edition, Betty Webb's Desert Wives is a startling, real look into the polygamous communities of Northern Arizona. When private detective Lena Jones helps thirteen-year-old Rebecca escape from Purity, a polygamy compound hidden in a desolate area straddling the Utah/Arizona border, she uncovers more than she bargained for. Rebecca's mother has now been arrested for the murder of Prophet Solomon Royal, Rebecca's intended husband. So Lena enters Purity masquerading as a polygamist wife to uncover the real murderer. What secrets are the Circle of Elders so desperate to protect? Lena thinks she's put her own past behind her, but the sins of Purity's mothers and fathers force her to reexamine the scant memories of her early childhood. At the age of four she was found lying unconscious by the side of an Arizona highway, a bullet in her head. Raised in a series of foster homes, Lena does not remember her real name or the names of her parents. Are Lena's past and this new case somehow connected?

“Say what you will about serial killers, some of them can really write.” Some books have money written all over them. Not just books by authors like the Death Row inmate at the Arizona State prison complex, but books like Recreational Explosives and How to Build Them. Or Finding Your Patriot Ancestors Through DNA Testing. Or Losing America. Yes, Patriot’s Blood has gone racist, its list making money from books that play into the worst elements of society and its darkest behaviors. It’s no surprise there are plenty of suspects when Patriot’s Blood publisher Gloriana Alden-Taylor is poisoned at the annual Southwestern Book Publishers Expo (SOBOP). But the hammer falls on just one: Owen Sisiwan, a Pima Indian. Scottsdale PI Lena Jones enlists in Owen’s defense. To her horror, Lena finds herself rubbing elbows not just with greedy Gloriana’s family and employees, but with disgruntled authors and extremists of all sorts. Like that serial killer—he had been dying to get published by Patriot’s Blood. What changed his mind? While working the case, Lena, a survivor of a childhood spent in foster care, is further pained by her sessions with a therapist for anger management. Soon her flashbacks to the time just before her mother shot her four-year-old self accelerate and move her closer to the mystery of her own identity.

At the age of four, Lena Jones was found lying unconscious by the side of an Arizona Highway, a bullet robbing her of any memories. Now a private detective and scarred survivor of a dozen foster homes, Lena has vowed to find the truth about her childhood. But Lena’s quest is interrupted when her friend, art dealer Clarice Kobe, is beaten to death in her Western Heart Art Gallery on Scottsdale’s Main Street. Lena and her Pima Indian partner Jimmy Sisiwan first suspect Clarice’s abusive husband, but their investigation soon reveals that domestic violence was far from the only problem in the dead woman’s life. For all her money and beauty, Clarice had far more enemies than friends. Among them are a fiery Apache artist whose graphic work she once banned from her gallery and the daughter of an elderly Hispanic woman whose death was directly attributable to the gallery owner’s greed. And Clarice’s land developer parents are oddly untroubled by their daughter’s murder. Lena’s search for the killer brings violence back into her own life but does it bring her closer to solving her own personal mystery?

Winner of the Best Mysteries of 2009 of Library Journal. While running surveillance in an industrial section of Scottsdale, P.I. Lena Jones discovers the body of a woman connected to Second Zion, an infamous polygamy cult based in northern Arizona. With the help of a former "sister wife," Lena discovers a shocking secret: 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 by turning these teens into Arizona's "lost boys." While searching for the dead woman's lost son, Lena is surprised by a visit from Madeline, the beloved foster mother from whom she'd been forcibly parted at the age of nine. Madeline's presence renews Lena's memories of her own damaged childhood and brings new clues to the identity of her biological parents, who seemingly abandoned her when she was four years old. But their joyful reunion is interrupted when Lena learns that her close friend, television star Angel Grey, is being stalked by an increasingly violent mental patient. When Lena flies to Angel's aid, she finds that danger has followed her to Hollywood. Arizona polygamy and its discarded sons, the deceptively insulated world of Beverly Hills, and Lena's lost past converge in a case fraught with danger.

Some books have money written all over them. Books like Recreational Explosives and How to Build Them. Or Finding Your Patriot Ancestors Through DNA Testing. Or Losing America. Yes, Patriot's Blood Press has gone racist, making money from books that play into the worst elements of society and its darkest behaviors. It's no surprise there are plenty of suspects when Patriot's Blood publisher Gloriana Alden-Taylor is poisoned, but the hammer falls on just one: Owen Sisiwan, a Pima Indian. Scottsdale PI Lena Jones enlists in Owen's defense. To her horror, Lena finds herself rubbing elbows not just with greedy Gloriana's family and employees, but with disgruntled authors and extremists of all sorts. Lena, a survivor of a childhood spent in foster care, is further pained by her sessions with a therapist for anger management. Soon her flashbacks to the time just before her mother shot her four-year-old self accelerate and move her closer to the mystery of her own identity.

Survival in the upscale Scottsdale art scene depends on how well a private eye does her footwork... At the age of four, private detective Lena Jones had been found lying unconscious by the side of an Arizona highway, a bullet robbing her of her memories. Now the scarred survivor of a dozen foster homes, Lena has vowed to find the truth about her origins—no matter how terrible that truth might be. In Desert Noir, the first of the Lena Jones mysteries, Lena’s quest is interrupted when her friend, heiress Clarice Kobe, is beaten to death in the Western Heart Art Gallery. Lena and her Pima Indian partner Jimmy Sisiwan at first suspect the art dealer’s abusive husband, but their investigations soon reveal that domestic violence was hardly the only problem in the victim’s troubled life. Clarice, for all her money and beauty, had a dark side; her enemies far outnumbered her friends. Among those who wished her dead are George Haozous, the fiery Apache artist whose graphic work she once banned from her gallery. Another enemy is Dulya Albundo, the daughter of an elderly Hispanic woman whose death was directly attributable to the art dealer’s greed. Even Clarice’s parents—wealthy land developers whose housing tracts have ravaged the beautiful Sonoran Desert—appear to be oddly untroubled by their daughter’s death. Lena’s search for Clarice’s killer brings violence back into her own life, yet it also brings her closer to the solution of her own mystery—her real identity. Set against the backdrop of the posh Scottsdale, Arizona art scene and the nearby Indian reservations, Desert Noir heralds the debut of a detective as wounded as her clients, a woman battling her owndemons while trying to rescue others from theirs.

Traveling to Philadelphia to see a concert, Stella Crown and her friends find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation after the lead singer of the band is murdered and Stella's friend Jordan Granger is accused of the crime.