Hand of Evil (Ali Reynolds Series #3)

For fans of the taut suspense of Mary Higgins Clark and P.J. Tracey

Arabella Ashcroft was partially responsible for Ari Reynolds receiving a scholarship that allowed her to go to college. Arabella summons Ari to her home she tells her that the nephew Billy she never met wants money or he will have her committed. She is afraid having been confined in a facility before. She gives a diary to Ari that states Billy¿s father sexually assaulted her. With Ari¿s help her plan is to blackmail the blackmailer into leaving her alone.------------ If that is not enough to disturb Ari¿s equilibrium, her friend Dave Holman has a daughter Crystal, a sexually abused teen, who runs away from her mother¿s home to be with her father. Ari has to take care of her since her father, a police officer, is working a case. Crystal lies at every opportunity and runs way in between fabrications. Crystal saw someone beaten almost to death and Ari finds and follows followed the criminal but lost him. He tracks Ali down at the hospital where plans to finish his victim off. Ali is taken hostage by this insane person who holds a gun on her. Help comes from people she barely knows risking their lives though the outcome remains in doubt. Later on Ali is taken hostage by someone she trusts.--------------- Fans of the taut suspense of Mary Higgins Clark and P.J. Tracey will want to read HANDS OF EVIL, a tale that keeps the tension in the stratosphere. The story line never takes a respite as action occurs in every chapter. What the heroine goes through would put many people in an institution suffering from battle fatigue syndrome yet Ali displays courage and tenacity as she handles a series of devastating mental blows while maintaining her sanity.------------ Harriet Klausner

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Terrific

I really love the way this Author writes. I feel after reading all of this particular series, that i know this woman, Ali Reynolds. Terrific story line and mystery. I highly recommend this book.

Great Book!

This was a great read. Kept you guessing the entire time. I really enjoyed it!

Hand of Evil...keeps you on the edge of your seat

J.A. Jance's "Hand of Evil" was given to me as a birthday gift, as I began reading it I couldn't put it down. Every page kept me on the edge of my seat! Good Read.

Hand of Evil by J.A. Jance

Another good book in her series of Southwestern adventures. Ali Reynolds, the main character keeps busy handling multiple plots with a man friend who gradually becomes more than just a friend.
I'll look forward to J.A. Jance's next book.

Read This .......

First let me say this author -- in my opinion -- is truly amazing. Second I want to speak to other reviewers....PLEASE quit writing so much detail of the book and plot --you are ruining it for other readers -- just give a brief 'I like it....good read' type review -- nobody is going to wade through all of that anyway.

Roto-Rooter

This is a likeable enough book good enough for a casual read, but author Jance seems to have been insecure about having enough to capture the reader. She throws subplot on subplot to add to the mystery, but surely she could have at least spared the poor Roto-Rooter guy.

Surely Jance Didn't Write This Mess

I did not care for the first two Ali Reynolds books, and this third one takes the cake in poor plot and character development. Her theme of the horrible effects of child sex abuse plays out in two plotlines, one dealing with a 13 year old girl, and the other with a seventy year old woman. Each plot, though, is disjointed. In the first one, a sociopath who had murdered the girl's molester is developed in only a few pages and then quickly dropped midway through the book. The second plotline meanders through an old woman's past that reveals her to be a multiple murderer. Both the woman and the plot are irritating, playing out more as a gossip column than an intriguing story. I also found the editing to be sloppy: a relative who is cited as a step-brother is later referred to as a blood relation. And the house the old woman lives in was purchases by her mother on one page and later built by her mother on another page. I also found Ali's italicized thoughts to be an amateurish writing device. Then there are the dribbling rabbit trails such as Ali's stupid blog, her aiding a woman with cancer, and issues with her son's girlfriend. It's like she had to provide filler to get to her alotted 368 pages. Finally, in order to bring closure to the 13 year old girl plot, yet another evil person---a stereotypical hypocrite preacher--- is introduced and dispatched in the space of a couple of pages at the end of the book. I have read Jance for years because of her readable, tightly developed Beaumont and Brady series and her other individual novels. I just wonder if she is training someone new to take over her writing duties.

Murder and evil

Even though this is a fictional story, it depicts what can happen when a child is molested at a young age. Ali Reynolds is grieving for a wandering eyed husband. The wealthy family that offered her a college scholarship wants to see her but a friend¿s daughter goes missing just as the meeting was requested. Ali steps in to help her friend find his daughter and gets entangled in a web of evil that is more than a quarter of a century old. The daughter witnesses a brutal murder and is afraid to go to the police because of what she was doing at the time. Ali¿s parent¿s have a friend who has gone missing as well. Is all of this tied to the wealthy family in some way? Murder and child molestation are involved but in what way? Karen Ziemba reads HAND OF EVIL and has a clear and easy voice to listen to. You are able to tell who is talking with her various inflections.

A missing teen and an Attack on a friend

Ali Reynolds has had a tough year. She's struggling with grief and depression. In the midst of this, she has to help her friend Dave Homan locate his missing teen daughter, Crystal. She assists in bringing Crystal home and finds herself babysitting more often than not. She soon learns that Crystal has been sexually active. Ali also realizes Crystal witnessed an attack and someone is after her. The person who was attacked was a good friend of Ali's dad. In the meantime, Arabella Ashcroft summons Ali to her house. Arabella and her mother provided Ali with a scholarship to college years ago, so Ali feels compelled to appear. Turns out Arabella wants Ali to read her diary from many years ago explaining about the abuse she endured by her stepbrother. His son has recently threatened to bring these acts to light in order to extort money from her. Even though Ali is reluctant to get involved, she feels obligated to help out. In the course of the investigation, Ali also finds out that she has been out of touch with her son and needs to catch up. Can Ali help uncover the killer and the attacker without putting herself and others in harm's way? I really enjoy this series. I like Ali and feel the author has done a great job of creating a character that the reader cares about. I did find the subject matter of this book to be a little harder to read, being the mother of a teenager. But I know there are so many people who have had these subjects touch their lives, that I know it needs to be discussed. I thought the author did a good job of getting the information out there without making it too graphic. I thought Crystal was a well-written character. She came across as a stubborn teenager but when you removed the layers, you found she was just a scared and confused girl. I felt she was very believable. I see that others have complained that Ali didn't have enough of a reason to be involved in these mysteries. I disagree. I think Dave put her in the middle of Crystal's situation, and Arabella did the same. I like how the author weaves the stories together and intertwines some of the people. Even though I found the subject matter a little tough to read, I really enjoyed this book and HIGHLY RECOMMEND it.

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