Copyright 2007, 2009 by Susan Lisa Jackson. Published by Kensington Publishing Corp., New York.
I will start with a statement that this is my first Lisa Jackson mystery and possibly my last. It wasn’t horrible but I won’t go out of my way to find more of her books.
Amazon categorizes this book as a “Bentz/Montoya novel” meaning that it supposedly features Rick Bentz, ace New Orleans police detective, and his able sidekick Reuben Montoya. But they are minor characters in this episode. The main character is Rick Bentz’s daughter, Kristi Bentz, who is returning to All Saints College in Baton Rouge to continue working on her English degree. But four students have disappeared from campus. The prevailing theory is that they were all loners who departed on their own. Lost souls.
Kristi, of course, thinks that they were victims of foul play and decides to play amateur detective, ostensibly to get material for a book she wants to write (see how the English major and detective’s daughter personas merge?). Not surprisingly, she gets ensnared in the evil and nearly becomes a victim herself.
The plot has a few twists and there is a romantic thread that weaves in pretty seamlessly. There are even some cringe-worthy sex scenes with purple prose that seems to be lifted from a 1940’s pulp paperback. The theme of the plot is “vampires” – both real and literary. This does not involve the supernatural, but Kristi’s ability to sense the demise of others (she sees someone who is about to die as colorless) does. That was a bit much for me.
So not terrible. But not very good either. And quite long – 488 pages in this edition. Mediocre books should be short.
4 out of 10.