I like this whole series; I re-read several of them over the past couple weeks before selling/donating them, because (chant along with me now) "The library has this book. The library has this whole series. Every library in Maryland has this series."

Good book and the start of what looks to be a great series. New to me anyway. Looking forward to reading the next and seeing what happens after Joanna becomes sheriff!

Interesting mystery & series opener with a sympathetic lead.

Take notes, Rian Johnson. This is how you subvert expectations. Going into this short mystery/procedural, I was expecting that the wife of the deceased main character would be the one discovering all the secrets and single-handedly solving what happened to her husband. As it turns out, the real hero of the story is the girlfriend/victim of the assassin, Angie. Without her, the corruption wouldn't have been uncovered, and the death of Joanna's husband would have remained a mystery. This novel bounces back and forth between our protagonist Joanna, the girlfriend Angie, and Tony, the assassin. The swap in perspectives keeps the story interesting and the plot moving, and Angie's perspective injected something fresh into this (sometimes) tired genre.
The writing style might have been a bit simple at times, but occasionally that's what's needed in a novel like this, because the focus is on the plot. Joanna acted as I believe someone in her position and her background warranted. We tend to forget that each person deals with grief differently, and we project our own judgments and emotions onto characters- and in this case then we wouldn't have a story.
I would have liked to see the author go a bit deeper into character development on Joanna, her family, and some of the other residents of the town, but I suspect that is coming in the future novels. I'm honestly okay with Joanna running for sheriff, because I believe that will bring more interesting stories and believable situations in the future. I also hope that we see Angie again- I really liked her and appreciated her perspective.
If you're looking for a quick little murder mystery set in Arizona with some pursuit and danger baked in, this is it. I had a lot of fun with it, and I'm going to dive right into book two of the series.