I would have given it a higher rating, but since it was a prequel it should have provided the readers with new information about Jamaica's early life. Instead it was a repeat of everything we had already learned about her in later books put together into a volume.
( )

This was an enjoyable book--interesting story, fast read. It jumped from a 3 to a 4 because I love the setting (Northern New Mexico around Taos) so much. ( )

Although this is the fourth of the Jamaica Wild mysteries to be published, the events in this story actually take place before the other three.

Jamaica Wild, a resource protection agent for the Bureau of Land Management (Taos Field Office), is out for her morning run when she sees a body on a cross falling off a cliff into the Rio Grande Gorge.

Jamaica soon makes the connection between this incident and Los Penitentes, a secret, nearly forgotten religious group she's been researching. But would the members of the sect really try to kill her in order to keep from learning about them?

Jamaica is well-realized as an introspective loner who becomes more social as the story progresses, especially when she meets handsome forest ranger Kerry Reed (who eventually becomes her significant other). But, what makes the book really outstanding is Ault's glorious descriptions of southwestern landscape and history.

*FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher, who sent me a copy of the book for review purposes. ( )

#4 in Wild Mysteries. Jamaica Wild is a Range Rider for the Bureau of Land Management in Taos, New Mexico. The book just prior to this one in the series won the Mary Higgins Clark Award.

Jamaica is out running early one morning along the rim of a rocky chasm with the Rio Grande below when she witnesses two men shove a large wooden cross over the side of the Rio Grande Bridge…with somebody attached. She watches in horror as the cross plunges the 650 feet down to the river below. This is the beginning of a great suspense novel that combines a secretive old Hispanic sect of Catholicism – Los Penitentes - with murder to weave a haunting story.

Jamaica is more involved in the subject matter than even she would have thought. She had been sketching the Los Penitentes shrines and collecting stories and general information about their rites and beliefs. She had even talked with a priest, Father Ignacio Medina, who knew a good bit about them. The incident appears to be Los Penitentes related somehow and Jamaica is the only witness. Just hours after she witnesses the cross plunging off the bridge her Jeep is broken into and...

READ the rest of the review here: http://mysterysuspence.blogspot.com/2010/02/review-wild-penance-by-sandi-ault.ht... ( )