Elation of Discovery!

If you read regularly, you can tell that I am a big fan of debut authors. I love finding new fantastic additions to the industry that I can then add to my must buy list.

Just as fun is discovering an author who's been around, but I have yet to read. Course, for me this comes with a bit of a d'oh feeling as well, like I should have been reading this person all along! I know I can't possibly read everything out there, but still...

This happened to me with Lisa Jackson. As a former bookseller, Jackson's name is not one that I am unfamiliar with. I've looked at her books before, just never picked one up and read it. Shame on me!

I had the chance to review Lost Souls just a few months ago and was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that I really, really liked it. The book takes place in Baton Rouge (Jackson has a long-running "series" that takes place in New Orleans). Now, being from Louisiana, there's always some amount of trepidation when it comes to reading something that takes place there. The question is, has the author been there and do they love it as much as we do or are they going to support the continued, and incorrect, view that we are all straight out of Deliverance?

Lost Souls does feature a fictional version of Baton Rouge, to some extent, which made it a bit easier. I felt that she stayed true to the setting while still manipulating it to fit her needs. Even better, I discovered that I love Lisa Jackson's work! Since she's been around for a while, this means I have a whole slew of backlist to work my way through. And, since Lost Souls is technically part of her New Orleans series, I have a lot of background to cover before her newest hardcover, Malice, comes out next year!

If you're like me and you haven't read Jackson yet, next week you'll have the perfect opportunity to hop on board! Left to Die is the first title in a brand new series by Jackson. It takes place in snowy Montana just weeks before Christmas. Detectives Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli are faced with the biggest case of their careers. A serial killer is targeting women in the area and his MO is chilling, to say the least. Each victim is first involved in a car accident of the killer's making. He waits until they are in a secluded area, shoots out a tire, and then "rescues" them. After a few days taking care of them, earning their trust, and healing them from their "accident," he leads them out into the woods where he strips them naked and ties them to a tree, leaving them to die. Creepy, right? The book is full of strange characters and almost everyone is a potential suspect.

Like I said, a great place to start and a welcome relief in the heat of the summer! I found myself totally engrossed in this book to the point that it was jarring to leave the cold, blizzard-y Montana setting and return to our 90+ degree real world! To top it off, it has a total cliffhanger ending that will leave you on edge until next summer. To tide you over, you'll just have to do what I did and run out and buy her earlier books. I'll be continuing (or starting) with Hot Blooded, the first in the New Orleans series I mentioned above.