Shiver

This book was so gripping! You think you have it figured out in the beginning but by the end of the book you are in shock! Absolutely loved it!

This book was great! Abby Chastain feels she is following in her mother's footsteps, only that's not a good thing. Her mother was put in an asylum at a young age, the same age that Abby is now. Recently divorced, Abby's ex husband, a radio dj, blasts her on the airwaves and now he's dead. Now, all signs point to Abby. Only Det. Montoya believes that Abby is a target and not the killer. When murders start happening in pairs, all evidence leads Abby to the very asylum that held her mother. This is a fantastic story, it held my attention, and I can't wait to read another Montoya novel!

I was in my local library when I started reading it and couldn't put it down loved Abby and Montoya and their relationship very well written story to me and I almost missed a dinner engagement I wanted to read to the end I loved the book so much I went out and bought it haven't regretted it. I think Lisa Jackson is one of the best suspense/romance writers I put her up there with Julie Garwood and Sandra Brown Bravo Ms Jackson BRAVO :) Mary Arizona

This is my first Lisa Jackson -- it defintely won't be my last. Loved it -- the characters were well drawn; the plot suspensful and believable. I am adding her to my list of must read authors. Beth Renton,WA

Bringing Lisa Jackson out as a hardback is long overdue. She is one of those authors with the ability to balance compelling characters, a plot that dials up the thrill index, just the right mix of romance and a setting that makes a difference. In this case New Orleans and an insane asylum provide the backdrop for Abby Chastain's accelerating terror as Det. Montoya, a recurring character, grapples with an accumulating set of victims that point toward Abby. Jackson's novels have been pegged Romantic Suspense, but the intensity here seems more like a Thriller. Recently I read, SHADOW OF DEATH, by Patricia Gussin. The jacket blurbs all said Medical Suspense because the author is a M.D., but I found it more a mix of Romantic Suspense and can't-put-it-down Thriller. Personally, I like this genre-mix that Lisa Jackson and Patricia Gussin have been able to exploit.

Lisa Jackson has written a number of intriguing series titles built around attractive but realistic characters who are experiencing unusual but believable adventures in exotic settings. Perhaps Jackson's greatest strength is her ability to balance the romantic with the suspenseful, providing enough elements of both genres to attract the respective fans of each and molding them into a storyline that holds the attention of both sets of readers. Her eagerly anticipated SHIVER meets all expectations and is a prime example of how a talented writer can broaden the horizons and appeal of disparate audiences. SHIVER marks the return of Police Detective Reuben Montoya to pre-Katrina New Orleans, where he is thrust into the middle of a high-profile murder investigation. It begins when the bodies of Luke Gierman, a local radio shock jock, and a young college student are found. Initially thought to be a murder-suicide, the bizarre staging of the killing and the lack of a cohesive link between the two individuals quickly lead the police to believe that both were homicide victims. The investigation brings Montoya into contact with Abby Chastain, Gierman's ex-wife. Chastain, the subject of an on-air rant by Gierman shortly before his death, is a logical but unlikely suspect. When a local munitions manufacturer and the head of a social organization are found murdered under somewhat similar circumstances, with a further link to Chastain, Montoya begins to understand the pattern of the killings, even as he becomes more emotionally enamored with Chastain. It also becomes clear to the reader that the unknown murderer is growing more obsessed with Chastain and that the key to it all may be the closed, but not-quite-abandoned, mental hospital where Chastain's mother fell to her death decades before; this may hold the key to her own fate as well. As always, Jackson paints with an atmospheric brush dipped in subtle darkness. The novel is focused more on Chastain than Montoya, yet Montoya is a brooding, attractive presence as he draws in the killer --- even as he and Chastain pirouette around each other as they're pulled slowly yet inexorably closer, and Chastain becomes the penultimate target of a killer who is as mysterious and brutal as he is clever and cunning. SHIVER is fully deserving of its status as the first of Jackson's works to be published initially in hardcover. And while it has a definite ending, SHIVER gives promise to new beginnings in its conclusions --- not only for Montoya, but also for Chastain. This is one novel that Jackson fans will not want to miss. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub