Branigan Library hosts best-selling author J.A. Jance

Thomas Branigan Memorial Library will host a Zoom author talk by award-winning J.A. Jance at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15.

A New York Times bestselling mystery writer, Jance published the first of her more than 240 books in 1985. She grew up in southeastern Arizona and graduated from the University of Arizona with a master’s degree in library science in 1970. She taught school in Tucson and was a K-12 librarian in Sells, Arizona, on the Tohono’ Odom Indian reservation.

Jance “is a strong, determined, humorous woman whose books reflect these traits in her characters,” the City of Las Cruces said in a news release about the author talk.

Jance will discuss her characters, retired Seattle Police Department Detective J. P. Beaumont, Arizona County Sheriff Joanna Brady and former Los Angeles news anchor turned mystery solver Ali Reynolds. 

“As a second-grader in Mrs. Spangler’s Greenway School class, I was introduced to Frank Baum’s ‘Wizard of Oz’ series,” Jance said on her website. “I read the first one and was hooked and knew, from that moment on, that I wanted to be a writer.”

Jance has been nominated for and has won several writing awards. She won the American Mystery Award in 1992 and 1993. Her 2014 book, “A Last Goodbye,” and 2016’s “Random Acts,” both made the New York Times best seller list.

Jance published a poetry collection, “After the Fire,” in 1984.

To be added to the Zoom invite list for the discussion, send an email to sagelibrary@las-cruces.org, with “Jance” as the subject.

Visit www.jajance.com.