Decent...not my favorite Lisa Jackson book.

Share/Like this Review?

I'm a little jumbled over this one. While I liked the book and didn't ever think about stopping, I found myself tuning out. It seemed at times to go on and on and on and on....... I wasn't sure that I'd never make it to the solution of the mystery! I liked that the settings were well defined and the characters were well established, but there seemed to be more detail in places that was necessary. I wanted to shout "get on with it already!" more than once. There were several murders and many twist which came down to an ex-lover of Bentz's. This was made obvious by her talking in the first person. The rest of the story was told from a different point of view.

I liked that the villain was a woman. Most of the time that isn't the case, so that was a little bit of a twist right from the start. I couldn't wait to figure out which one she was. I just kept getting so lost in all the other stuff. It was like wading through the mud to determine what was really needed to solve this mystery.

Overall, not bad, but I waited for this book for a long time to not enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.

Share/Like this Review?

Twelve years ago Rick Bentz divorced his cheating wife Jennifer. Soon after ending his marriage, Jennifer died in a car crash. He identified the corpse. Rick left LAPD taking a job with the New Orleans police and remarried Olivia.

While driving during a storm, Rick is involved in an accident that hospitalizes him. He suddenly smells Jennifer's sweet perfume and sees her in his hospital room. After being discharged a package containing a death certificate and photos of a woman who looks like Jennifer arrives with a Culver City, California postmark. Deciding he needs to know the truth but conceals from his wife his fear that he is losing his mind, Rick heads to California wondering how she can be alive when he saw her body. At the same he arrives in the Los Angeles area, his last unsolved case at LAPD is reopened as the Twenty-one Killer apparently returns strangling identical twins on their 21st birthday. Bentz knows somehow he is the link, but not by whom or why.

The key to this action-packed suspense thriller is the viewpoint of the Bentz adversary as the audience sees a different perspective as to what happened a dozen years ago and the target of vengeance may be Bentz, but the avenue of achievement is through Olivia. The story line is action-packed from the first time Bentz's olfactory sense kicks in and never slows down as the haunting of the sleuth is by someone overflowing with MALICE towards him and his loved ones tales its' toll. (see LOST SOULS for his daughter's thriller).

Share/Like this Review?

This book is very exciting and leaves you in suspense the whole ride through. I really enjoyed reading this book and couldn't wait to see what happened next, up until the end.

Share/Like this Review?

This is one of Jacksons best! Rick BentZ, a New Orleans dective, since his accident that nearly claimed his life, has been on edge. He thinks that his mind is playing tricks, making him think he sees his first wife, Jennifer, who died in an automobile accident. His first marriage was fraught with the trauma of divorce and her sudden death in an auto accident. Now, he is thinks he is seeing his first wife. He doesn't want to tell his new wife Olivia about the sightings. He fears that he is losing his sanity. To find answers, he has to return to Los Angeles, where Jennifer died, and it's there that the murders begin...plenty of clever plot turns..the suspense is really terrific. VERY good boook

Share/Like this Review?

Before DNA testing was available, victims were identified by their belongings and looks. Rick Bentz is either seeing a ghost, or he buried the wrong woman. Now that DNA testing is available, it may be time for an exhumation.

New Orleans Detective Rick Bentz is recovering from a spinal injury so he is currently off-duty. However, he keeps seeing his ex-wife Jennifer appear everywhere. He cant believe what his eyes are showing him, as he knows he buried Jennifer twelve years ago. Either someone is playing him, or he is seeing a ghost. He doesnt tell his current wife, Olivia, about it because he is afraid she will think he is losing his mind. What he doesnt know, is that Olivia is also keeping a secret from him.

When a package arrives bearing Jennifers death certificate with a big red question mark over it, as well as pictures of Jennifer taken recently, Rick knows he wont rest until he has an answer. He confides in Olivia, and then he leaves for California to pursue the matter. One thing he does know, if Jennifer is alive, then who did he bury?

A killer has been waiting patiently for twelve years to make Rick pay for his sins. A killer who knows what happened on the night twelve years ago when Jennifer Bentzs car collided into a tree. The killer wont stop with Rick though. The killer has also made Olivia its prime target.

New York Times Bestselling author, Lisa Jackson, does it again! A return of favorite character Rick Bentz and his partner Montoya, riding shotgun, star in another thrilling bone-chilling work of suspense. As the plot unfolds, the suspense builds until you are so pulled in, you wont want to let go! Intensity at its best!

Share/Like this Review?

In this suspenseful story, New Orleans detective Rick Bentz is being haunted. His ex-wife, Jennifer, died 12 years earlier in a car crash. She pops up in his nightmares. Then, when currently dated pictures of her reach him by mail, and they are analyzed,he leaves his current wife behind and heads for Los Angeles. He knows Jennifer is gone...but who wants him to think she's alive? Is there more than one person involved in this scheme? And why are they doing it?

It's another excellent nailbiter from Lisa Jackson. Hard to get a hint of the culprit until you're more than 1/2 way into the story. The plot also takes some unexpected twists and turns, and there's even a red herring as another couple of murders get thrown into the story to throw you off the track.

The book is worth a solid 5 stars and definitely an excellent read!

Share/Like this Review?

The scent is unmistakable - gardenias, sweet and delicate, the same perfume that his beautiful first wife, Jennifer, always wore. Opening his eyes in the hospital room where he's recovering from an accident, New Orleans detective Rick Bentz sees her standing in the doorway. Then Jennifer blows him a kiss and disappears. But it couldn't have been Jennifer. She died twelve years ago.

Once out of the hospital, Bentz begins to see Jennifer everywhere, haunting ad taunting him, then vanishing without a trace. Could she still be alive ? But it was Bentz who identified Jennifer's body body after her horrible car wreck, and there had been no question in his mind that it was her crumpled form behind the wheel, her clothes, her wedding ring. He's never doubted it until now. He can't tell his new wife, Olivia, about the sightings or his secret fear that he's losing his mind, even though he knows she suspects something is wrong. But Olivia is also hiding a secret.

When a copy of Jennifer's death certificate arrives in the mail, emblazoned with a red question mark, Bentz follows the postmark trail to Los Angeles, returning to the painful memories he's tried so hard to forget, and straight into a killer's web. Reconnecting with his former LAPD colleagues, Bentz begins to piece together Jennifer's last days, but each new discovery only serves as a chilling reminder of how little he really knew about his first wife. Then the murders begin, each victim a part of Jennifer's past, each grisly corpse pointing to Bentz as the prime suspect.

Someone's been waiting patiently, silently. Someone who knows exactly what happened that night twelve years ago and has been anticipating Bentz's every move. Soon it will be Bentz's turn to suffer for his sins. But he won't be the only one made to pay the ultimate price. For a diabolical killer has now made Olivia the prime target.

-

Rick Bentz left LAPD 12 years ago after a fatal shooting where he shot a teenage in self defense and his wife's horrible car accident that left him a widower to raise his daughter.
Today he is happily married to Olivia and lives and works in New Orleans. But lately, since he woke up from a short coma, he's been seeing his dead wife. It soon becomes clear that someone, his dead wife or not, wants him to return to Los Angeles.
The situation spirals downwards when former friends of Jennifer are found killed just after Rick talked to them about his dead wife and her secrets.

-

I'm not at all familiar with Jackson's New Orleans series or the character Rick Bentz so I won't speak about character development but rather about a gripping thriller with only sometimes too much words to wrap it up. Malice for me felt very conclusive but had its moments when I thought nobody would go such difficult ways just for revenge.
Overall I found this book entertaining and finished it fast. Unfortunately the reader assumes too fast who's the culprit.

Share/Like this Review?

Psycho killer, mis-direction, life is complicated.

Share/Like this Review?