And sleep eludes me still

So it is now 7:06 am and I have been up for over an hour in spite of the sleeping pills that I took at 1am. It has snowed overnight, something I am none too pleased about, although it does give me an excuse to make some hot chocolate with vanilla mint sugar or one of my many new tea purchases. My cat is sleeping behind me, probably soaking in the space heater as much as I am (the other is sleeping in my spot on the bed - lucky her!). 

I so do not want to be awake at this moment. I would have been happier sleeping until at least 9 - I do have some catching up to do and it would be well appreciated to sleep the night through, oh powers that be. 

I started reading Hot Blooded by Lisa Jackson. This is the first of her New Orleans books and I wanted to go back to the beginning after enjoying Lost Souls so much. Reading order according to her website, if you are interested, is as follows:

Hot Blooded

Cold Blooded

The Night Before

Shiver

Absolute Fear

Lost Souls

Malice (forthcoming)

In Hot Blooded, a serial killer is stalking hookers in the Big Easy. His method is specific but his message has yet to be teased out by detectives. Meanwhile, celebrity radio talk show host Dr. Samantha Leeds returns from a trip to Mexico to find a threatening message on her machine and a mangled photo of herself in the mail. She begins to think that someone may be watching her home and following her around town. The police investigate, but so far have determined that it is a prank. Threatening calls to her show and more "messages" follow but Sam still can't figure out what this person wants from her. She becomes suspicious of everyone, including the hot new neighbor who has a hidden agenda of his own. Rick Bentz happens to be in on both the serial case and Sam's harassment case and suspects that there might be a link, but he's on shaky ground with the department already. Will they unravel the mystery before it's too late?

Relentlessly paced and absorbing, Hot Blooded will definitely make you a fan if you aren't already. Jackson's a new discovery for me - yes, I'd already heard of her but had not read her before - and has a ton of backlist for me to catch up on, and I love her treatment of my home state. I can't wait to finish so that I can move on to the next one. I want to be totally caught up by the time Malice is released - Bentz has some demons that are hinted at and I am dying to know!

And, here's a link to my other Jackson post about her latest new series that started with Left to Die which would be a perfect read for our first snow here in CO!