LEFT TO DIE – Lisa Jackson
The To Die Series, Book 1
Kensington
ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-0276-5
August 2008
Suspense

Grizzly Falls, in the Bitterroot Mountains, Montana – Present Day

They call him The Starcrossed Killer. He chooses a victim, lures, hunts, traps, and injures her. Then he becomes her savior, pulls her out of her wrecked car, takes her home and cares for her, heals her wounds. And just when she begins to trust him, he strips her naked, marches her through the frozen wilderness, ties her to a tree, then walks away, and she's LEFT TO DIE.

Seventy-six-year-old Ivor Hicks found the third victim's body. Ivor claims an alien named Crytor led him to the dead woman. Ivor also insists that Crytor and his alien pod snatched him away from earth back in the eighties, experimented on his body, then brought him back after leaving a chip in his brain that forces him to heed Crytor's bidding to this day. Not too many people in Grizzly Falls take much stock in Ivor's ramblings, but Sheriff Dan Grayson doesn't want the old man spilling any details about this latest crime scene to the press. And, as if Grayson doesn't already have enough trouble in his life, crazy old Grace Penchant, who sees and speaks to ghosts, is claiming that she's found a wrecked car in the woods. On top of all this, two FBI agents, Craig Halden and Stephanie Chandler, are making themselves right at home in the sheriff's office.

Detective Regan Pescoli drinks too much and smokes even more, but she's vowed to give up the cigarettes. Now, if only she could give up her obsession with her latest lover, bad boy, Nate Santana. Regan always falls for the wrong men, and Nate is no exception. Her personal relationships are a mess, but she's a great mother to her two teenagers, Jeremy and Bianca. The only spare time Regan has to herself is once a month when her ex-husband, Luke Pescoli, takes the kids back to his house with his new Barbie-doll bride, Michelle. Jeremy and Bianca need time with their father, but Regan doesn't relish the lonely hours when the house is empty, so she lets her hair down with Nate in some seedy motel room, just barely managing get to work on Monday, always hung-over and always late. But it's Regan's job that gets most of her attention, a job she loves and works hard at. She relishes the time spent with her kids, but right now, she has a killer to catch.

Detective Selena Alvarez is a woman with secrets she reveals to no one, and she's Regan's partner. Selena watches as Regan tries to self-destruct from the inside out, but she admires her partner for being a good cop and mother in the middle of the pressures that their job brings, especially now with a serial killer on the loose. Selena wants to get inside this guy's head, so she's digging through crime scene statistics trying to get a handle on whatever his twisted motives are. The press has dubbed him The Starcrossed Killer because he carves a star into the tree where he ties his victim and nails a cryptic note alongside, but leaves no other evidence behind. Selena wonders, why is he here, why pick Grizzly Falls for his dirty deeds? Pinewood County hasn't seen nary one murder in five years, and now there's suddenly three? Or worse yet, maybe more?

In Seattle, Jillian Rivers has been harassed by early morning telephone calls, taunting her, whispering that her long-dead first husband, Aaron, is alive. Someone is luring her to Montana, but why? Thinking it might be her ex-husband, Mason, who lives in Missoula, Jillian leaves her cat with a neighbor, but doesn't tell anyone where she's going, and starts the long drive that will take her through the center of the Bitterroot Mountains in Pinewood County. Three women are dead, is Jillian next?

A psychotic killer waits. As you drive around the hairpin curve, he'll shoot out your tire, sending your car plunging over the edge. And even though you're hurt, you're still alive when your car tumbles to rest on the bottom of the ravine, but your days are numbered...he will find you...and, just like all the others, you'll be LEFT TO DIE.

The Starcrossed Killer toys with Pinewood County Detectives Regan and Selena, making fools out of the entire Sheriff's office and the FBI agents assigned to this case, all the while, mingling amongst the locals. He has everyone guessing, even the reader, who will not have a clue to his identity. Yes, there will be guesses, but red herrings abound in this dynamic tale of psychosis. LEFT TO DIE is a guaranteed page turner and filled with a multitude of larger than life characters, from the major players previously mentioned, right down to the warm and fuzzy cast of pets.

I won't delve into this phenomenal novel with any more detail in fear of giving away its secrets, but I urge you not to miss it! Lisa Jackson has another hit with this new To Die series. Her newest killer is out there, living inside the evil world his sickened mind inhabits, and it's a place that makes the local crazies of Grizzly Falls, Ivor Hicks, Grace Penchant, and Henry Johansen (he reads minds) seem almost sane. And don't expect to know this serial killer's name at the end of this book. The Starcrossed Killer's story and his terrifying rampage continues into the next novel, CHOSEN TO DIE, due in August 2009. (Mark your calendars NOW so you don't forget!)

LEFT TO DIE will be flying off the shelves, so get your copy before they're gone!

Diana Risso