#1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson delivers a gripping, edge-of-your-seat tale of deception and betrayal as New Orleans detective Rick Bentz is forced to confront the ghosts of his past—and a killer’s twisted vengeance...
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 and taunting him, then vanishing without a trace. Could she still be alive? But it was Bentz who identified Jennifer’s 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...
Lisa Jackson can’t keep away from murderers, especially serial killers. She’s been killing people everywhere from Savannah and New Orleans to San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest -— and it’s been worth it. Her readers come back again and again, and her novels are fixtures on national bestseller lists. In fact, her book Fatal Burn was a number one New York Times paperback bestseller, and the first two of her novels to be published in hardcover, Shiver and Absolute Fear, were in the top five on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Next, readers will be looking for LOST SOULS, being published in hardcover by Kensington Books to go on sale March 25th.
Having made serial killing her business -— sort of -— she has put her characters through the wringer. They have been up to their necks in danger and stared death, usually a pretty gory one, right in the face. She continues to be fascinated by the minds and motives of both her killers and their pursuers—the personal, the professional and downright twisted. As she builds the puzzle of relationships, actions, clues, lies and personal histories that haunt her protagonists, she must also confront the fear and terror faced by her victims, and the harsh and enduring truth that, in the real world, terror and madness touch far too many lives and families.
Lisa began writing at the urging of her sister, novelist Nancy Bush. Inspired by the success of authors she admired and the burgeoning market for romance fiction at the time, Nancy was convinced they could work together and succeed. They sat down, determined to write and to be published.
They did and they were.
Initially they wrote together. Later, they moved in different directions. Lisa brought more and more suspense to her work and began writing much darker stories. Nancy’s writing expanded to include not just her own novels, including her highly praised Jane Kelly Mysteries, such as the recently published Ultraviolet. She also spent several years writing for one of television’s leading soap operas, even transplanting herself for a time from the sister’s Pacific Northwest roots to Manhattan. This year, they plan to work together again on a thriller set for publication in 2009.
Meanwhile, for Lisa the killing continues as this mother, daughter, workaholic and amazing writer continues her habit of making the hair stand up on the back of readers’ necks, and landing her books on The New York Times, the USA Today, and the Publishers Weekly national bestseller lists.
Lisa Jackson’s novels include the upcoming LOST SOULS and the best sellers Absolute Fear, which will be published in paperback for the first time in March, Hot Blooded, Cold Blooded, The Night Before, The Morning After, Deep Freeze, Fatal Burn, and Almost Dead. Last year, Most Likely to Die was written by Lisa, Beverly Barton and Wendy Corsi Staub was published and became a number three New York Times paperback bestseller. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the International Thriller Writers and the Romance Writers of America.
An Interview with Lisa Jackson
By Holly Hewson for The Romance Studio
HH: Lisa, thank you so much for talking with us at The Romance Studio. What can you tell us about your new release, Malice?
LJ: Hey, thanks for having me! MALICE is a book that percolated in my head for a long time. I wanted to write a ghost story--whether the ghost was real or imagined--about a character who could really "haunt" my hero or heroine. Detective Rick Bentz of the fictitious New Orleans Police Department quickly came to mind. Bentz is one of my fans' favorite characters (and mine as well!) I thought he'd be perfect for MALICE. Why? Because he has a murky past; one we haven't explored. Bentz, along with his partner Reuben Montoya were first introduced in HOT BLOODED. Bentz got "his" story in COLD BLOODED and has been a major force in SHIVER, ABSOLUTE FEAR and LOST SOULS, which all lead up to MALICE, but never once was his dark past with the LA Police Department and first wife, Jennifer fully explained. The readers do know that beautiful, seductive Jennifer was far from a perfect wife, that she cheated on Bentz, but they never got to meet her or understand her relationship with Rick. What a good way to explore her character by introducing her as a ghost. It also adds to the Rick/Olivia story. Olivia is his current wife, the heroine of COLD BLOODED, and I thought it would be nice to show the readers where his relationship has gone.
HH: This is a complex and thrilling story with mystery, secrets, hauntings, and more. Where did you get the idea for this tale?
LJ: As I said, it had been brewing in my brain for a long time. Everyone of us has an old lover/flame/boyfriend/girlfriend/whatever who still enters our subconscious whether we want them to or not. These are the people who at one time or another inspired great passion in us. I kept wondering about that. And I found Jennifer, the mother of Rick's daughter Kristi, a fascinating character. So at the end of LOST SOULS, when Rick is battling for his life, I introduced the enigmatic Jennifer as either a ghost or a hallucination. Again, I thought it would be a great love triangle. Rick, Olivia and dead or undead Jennifer.
HH: Your a best-selling author and one of today's top stars of suspense. As an author, what sort of challenges does that sort of success bring with it?
LJ: I think the biggest challenge is to write a better book than the last, to give the fans what they want, to write a compelling, edge-of-your-seat thriller with characters fans can trust and care about. I walk a thin line between suspense and romance and that part can get tricky, but I love it. In the end, I write by gut instinct and try to make it the kind of book I want to read!
HH: What can you tell us about your recent collaboration with Nancy Bush, Wicked Game?
IJ: How fun was that? Nancy's a great author in her own right (the Jane Kelly Mystery series [CANDY APPLE RED, ELECTRIC BLUE and ULTRAVIOLET] is incredible) and yes, Nancy is also my sister. We wrote our first ever manuscript with each other and another woman and oops, it was rejected all over New York. That was over 25 years ago and the manuscript was named STORMY SURRENDER. Since that first book, we've both written all kinds of things, so to be able to collaborate has been something we've always wanted to do. Was it easy? Oh, no. Two different people writing one book. Was it fun? You bet. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat and I've already signed up to do so. WICKED GAME, which is the first of "The Colony" series, is backdropped by a secret cult on the Oregon Coast where many of the people who live there are blessed (or cursed) with paranormal abilities. Nancy's book UNSEEN, is the second book in the series and it's available in April 2009!
HH: What was it like working with your sister again?
LJ: We didn't kill each other---doesn't that say a lot? No, I'm joking. We had a lot of fun, doing research on the Oregon and Washington coasts and then coming up with the characters and an intense backstory that we hope we'll be able to put up on our websites: www.lisajackson.com and www.nancybush.net soon. We started working with the anscestors of the current characters to make the story hold together. It was a lot of work, but really interesting. It doesn't hurt that Nancy and I are best friends and though we've not written books "together" we've read and edited each other's work since the get-go. We spend hours drinking coffee, eating Peanut M&Ms or Hot Tamales, sitting by the fire or walking on the beach and discussing the twisted lives of our characters. Oh, yeah, there is an occasional glass of wine or margarita in the mix!
HH: You also saw the release in February of Lost Souls. What can you tell us about that novel?
LJ: LOST SOULS is my take on the whole vampire phenomenon. It's Kristi Bentz's story. She made a major appearance in COLD BLOODED as a self-involved freshman at All Saints College in Baton Rouge. Now, years later, she's all grown up and trying to find herself. She is back at school, writing a true crime book, and finding out that one of her professors is the boy she dumped years ago (in COLD BLOODED). Jay McKnight is no longer a gawky schoolboy, but now a hunky forensic science teacher. And he hasn't forgotten Kristi, nor really gotten over her, though he told himself he had. Kristi's life is further complicated when girls on campus start disappearing. They all seem to be linked to a secretive vampire society which intrigues Kristi, the writer. She starts nosing around and the more Kristi investigates, the stranger things become. Soon bodies of coeds begin to turn up, just as Kristi becomes the focus of a deadly and bizarre serial killer with a taste for blood.
HH: What draws you to write about murderers, serial killers, and the heroes who confront them?
LJ: Truly, I'm not sick or twisted. I just love a good mystery. I grew up reading Nancy Drew and Mary Stewart. I love to be scared and to try and figure out a puzzle of a mystery. I like to watch the same in television or movies. It's just my thing and always has been.
HH: And it's wonderful. <g> How do you balance a successful writing career with the rest of your life?
LJ: With great difficulty. Since I'm not a "nine-to-five" writer, it's sometimes hard to have a real life, especially when I'm on a deadline and work around the clock. However, I make time and I'm trying to make more and more time for family and friends---it's one of my Thanksgiving Resolutions!
HH: Looking at your career, what are you most proud of?
LJ: That I could support my family. I needed to do that. It was my driving force and what a blessing it's been that things have turned out so well. The other stuff is great (accolades and such), but really, I just needed to take care of me and the kids.
HH: What would you most like to tell your readers and fans?
LJ: I guess that whatever your dreams are, pursue them and don't give up. That doesn't mean to quit your day job, but always dream and work hard for that dream. You may have to adapt, the dream might evolve, but keep at it. And, oh, yeah--keep reading!
