A Bentz/Montoya Novel

Latest release: June 27, 2023
Series
9
Books
Absolute Fear
Book 4·Mar 2008
4.3
·
$9.49
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson comes a pulse-pounding novel featuring two of her most acclaimed characters, New Orleans detectives Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya--as a series of ritual slayings draw a psychology student back to a decaying asylum . . .
 
Eve Renner loved Cole Dennis—until the moment he tried to kill her. That was three months ago, when Eve was lured to a cabin where she found an old friend brutally murdered. Eve is almost positive it was Cole’s face she saw right before she was shot. But her memories were too shaky to stand up to trial. Cole is a free man again. And a new string of killings has begun.
 
The murders all link back to Our Lady of Virtues, the asylum where Eve’s father worked as a doctor. She wandered those hallways as a child, exploring hidden rooms and chambers, too young to understand what was happening there. Now, with every victim found, each body tattooed with a number, the pieces of a deadly puzzle fall into place—and all point back to Eve and the ruins of the once-grand hospital.
 
Detective Reuben Montoya and his partner, Rick Bentz, once convinced of Cole’s guilt, now suspect a deeper evil at work. Eve knows she has little choice but to return to Our Lady of Virtues—and to trust Cole in her search for answers. But as Eve’s memories gradually return, they only lead her closer to danger, toward the final, meticulously planned act of a killer obsessed with vengeance—and with her.

 
Lost Souls
Book 5·Feb 2009
4.3
·
$9.49
The suspense is relentless in #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson’s gripping thriller, set on a college campus and featuring the daughter of New Orleans Detective Rick Bentz—a resilient young woman whose two-time survival of a serial killer has left her fascinated with the criminal mind, determined to become a true-crime writer—and drawn her once more her into a twisted psychopath’s unspeakable crimes. Stunningly repackaged, this is the fifth novel in the New Orleans series. Will appeal to all fans of thrillers and suspense fiction, and readers of Sandra Brown and Iris Johansen.

All twenty-seven-year-old Kristi Bentz needs to fulfill her writing dreams is one case that will take her to the top. When she learns that four girls have disappeared from All Saints College in two years, Kristi decides to enroll and re-trace their steps. The once-stodgy Catholic school now boasts edgy professors and provocative classes, and there are whispers of a campus inner-circle whose members engage in dark rituals to which only the elite have access . . .
 
All four girls were “lost souls”—troubled, vulnerable, with no one to care or come looking for them when they disappeared. The police think they’re runaways, but Kristi senses there’s something that links them—something terrifying.
 
As Kristi delves deeper into her investigation, she gets the feeling she’s being watched, followed—studied, even. Then the bodies start turning up in ways that frighten even hardened cops like Bentz and his partner, Reuben Montoya. And Kristi realizes she is playing a game with a killer who has selected her for membership in a cult of death from which there will be no escape . . .
 
“Solidifies Jackson’s status as the queen of the modern-day suspense thriller.”The Providence Journal

“Expect the unexpected.” —The Clarion Ledger
 
“Dark and disturbing.” —The Roanoke Times
Malice
Book 6·Mar 2010
4.5
·
In this twisted thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, featuring New Orleans detectives Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya, the past comes back to haunt Bentz, and it’s deadlier and closer to home than ever.
 
The scent is unmistakable—gardenias, sweet and delicate, the same perfume that his beautiful first wife, Jennifer, always wore. Opening his eyes in the hospital room where he’s recovering from an accident, New Orleans detective Rick Bentz sees her standing in the doorway. Then Jennifer blows him a kiss and disappears. But it couldn’t have been Jennifer. She died twelve years ago . . .
 
Once out of the hospital, Bentz begins to see Jennifer everywhere, haunting and taunting him, then vanishing without a trace. Could she still be alive? He can’t tell his new wife, Olivia, about the sightings or his secret fear that he’s losing his mind—though he knows she suspects something is wrong. But Olivia is also hiding a secret . . .
 
When a copy of Jennifer’s death certificate arrives in the mail, emblazoned with a red question mark, Bentz follows the postmark trail to Los Angeles. Then the murders begin, each victim a part of Jennifer’s past, each grisly corpse pointing to Bentz as the prime suspect. Someone’s been waiting patiently, silently, anticipating Bentz’s every move. Soon it will be Bentz’s turn to suffer for his sins. But he won’t be the only one made to pay the ultimate price. For a diabolical killer has now made Olivia the prime target . . .