New Orleans 05 - Lost Souls

"Solidifies Jackson's status as the queen of the modern-day suspense thriller." --The Providence Journal

Kristi Bentz wants to write true crime. All she needs is that one case that will take her to the top. She finds it when she enrolls at All Saints College after learning that four girls have disappeared in less than two years.

"Expect the unexpected." --The Clarion Ledger

All four girls were "lost souls" troubled, vulnerable girls with no one to care about them, no one to come looking for them if they disappeared. The only person that believes Kristi is her ex-lover, Jay McKnight, a professor on campus. The police think they're runaways, but Kristi senses there's something that links them something terrifying. . .

"Jackson creates relentless suspense. . .builds the tension to an unbearable and satisfying pitch." --Booklist

As Kristi gets deeper into her investigation, she gets the feeling she's being watched and followed studied, even. Then the bodies start turning up, and Kristi realizes she is playing a game with a killer who has selected her for membership in a special club from which there will be no escaping death...

"Dark and disturbing." --The Roanoke Times

Kristi Bentz, having recovered from her last encounter with a sadistic monster in bestseller Jackson's Absolute Evil, faces an equally terrifying ordeal in this frantic paranormal thriller. Four female students associated with a vampire cult have gone missing at Baton Rouge's All Saints College, where Kristi is pursuing a journalism degree and plans to write about true crime. Kristi by chance rents an apartment once tenanted by one of the missing girls and begins investigating the case, thinking it might make a great first book. Kristi's old college sweetheart, Jay McKnight, provides an unexpected surprise (and protection) when he shows up as the fill-in for one of Kristi's professors. Not too surprisingly, Vlad, the mysterious serial killer, sets his sights on Kristi. Adding hot sauce to the blood bath is Kristi's new supernatural ability to detect anyone marked for a life-or-death struggle when she sees a person go from living color to deadly gray or black-and-white. Jackson peppers the action with insights into the challenges faced by law enforcement agencies trying to solve crimes in post-Katrina Louisiana. (Apr.)
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After recovering from her own experience with a killer, Kristi Bentz is determined to pursue her dream of becoming a true-crime writer. To that end, she enrolls at All Saints College in Baton Rouge, away from her overprotective detective father. Kristi yearns for a big case to write about, and All Saints provides one when four coeds go missing. No one seems to believe anything sinister has happened to them, but Kristi finds clues she can’t ignore: all were English majors and had taken the same classes as Kristi. Unbelievable rumors of a vampire cult on campus add to her belief that something nefarious is afoot. Kristi is intrepid and stubborn in her need to solve this mystery without involving the police, especially her father. Fortunately, an old boyfriend she unceremoniously dumped is one of her teachers, and she reluctantly allows him to help her. From beginning to end, Jackson creates a world of little romance and relentless suspense, where every nuance, from the weather to a too-long stare, builds the tension to an unbearable and satisfying pitch. --Maria Hatton