Series: New Orleans #5
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson delivers her most harrowing novel yet as a young woman’s determined hunt for a serial killer draws her into a twisted psychopath’s unspeakable crimes.
Twenty-seven-year-old Kristi Bentz is lucky to be alive.
Not many people her age have nearly died twice at the hands of a serial killer, and lived to tell about it. Her dad, New Orleans detective, Rick Bentz, wants Kristi to stay in New Orleans and out of danger.
But if anything, Kristi’s experiences have made her even more fascinated by the mind of the serial killer.
She hasn’t given up her dream of being a true-crime writer–of exploring the darkest recesses of evil–and now she just may get her chance.
3.5 Drink Me Potions
Lost Souls wasn’t quite as freaky as Lisa Jackson’s previous novel in the New Orleans series. This might’ve been due to the whole vampire theme that was going on. I’m not shaming vampires. I frankly still read stories on occasion that feature vampires who are very real in their fantasy world, and I was a lover of many vampire novels in the past. But when it’s set in the real world of New Orleans, people who exsanguinate others for blood just didn’t sound as scary as other serial killer types.
That being said, this novel was still weird in its own way. I love that there’s always different clues and red herrings that get pointed in our way to make it harder to easily predict the killer. The POV coming from the killer didn’t make it much easier to help narrow down the pool of suspects. I enjoyed the thought Jackson put into crafting the plot, but at times, it was just a bit slow and long to read. I felt the killer had more “screen” time than most other crime novels do, although I’m not necessarily complaining about that. I’m mostly satisfied with how it turned out and who the culprit was.
What I felt lagged a bit was the reconnection between Kristi and Jay. I liked that there was already a spark there, but it didn’t feel like it rekindled naturally. I also don’t love Kristi. Since the last novel, I already figured that she wasn’t one to listen to anyone, let alone her own survival instincts until it was too late and she’s just screaming for help and praying that someone would intervene in time. There’s no sense of safety and precaution in this girl! You’d think after at least 2 attempts on her life from SERIAL KILLERS, she’d at least be more careful when tracking down another. It’s like she doesn’t experience PTSD or learn anything from not one, but TWO, horrible dealings with killers. And I hated that she was able to persuade Jay to let her do things her way (aka not going to the police when they had some evidence of sorts ’cause she was afraid of what her daddy would do *eye rolls*) or by plainly lying by omission to Jay so he wouldn’t know what harebrained plan she had hatched up and wanted to try – without thinking the consequences through of course.
All in all, Lost Souls wasn’t bad as I’m not adverse to the whole vampirism trope that was happening here, but the personal relationships and the main character could annoy some people.
Down the Rabbit Hole 