Dance of the Bones by J.A. Jance

I'm a huge fan of Jance's JP Beaumont series so was excited to see there was a new one out. But when I got it from the library I realized it was mostly a Brandon Walker novel with a little JP thrown in.
Since I haven't read any of the Brandon Walker novels, I had no idea who all these characters were and no knowledge of the events they kept referring to. Needless to say, this was not my favorite Jance novel.

The basic story involves a woman who gets away with murder for decades while the wrong man is languishing in jail. The original murder took place in Arizona, where Walker lives. But then a related murder, possibly tied to the same woman, took place in Seattle, which is JP's stomping grounds, and that is how he is briefly brought into the story. I have a feeling this is the direction Jance intends to take the JP series, in which case she may lose me as a reader.