Customer Reviews

Almost Dead (Comfort View)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Lately Cissy Cahill has been asking herself if life could get any worse. While in the middle of divorcing her husband, her psycho mom escapes from prison. Just when Cissy thinks nothing else could possibly go wrong, she finds the body of her grandmother, dead from what looks like a fall down the stairs. When more members of her family are murdered, the Police are sure it is Marla Cahill, her mother. Even though she knows her mother is crazy, Cissy can't believe that she could murder members of her own family.

Jack Holt will do anything to get Cissy back in his life. When her mother escapes and her grandmother turns up dead, Jack insists on moving back home to protect Cissy and their 18 month old son, BJ. In between fighting over what went wrong and protecting the family he loves, Jack tries to convince Cissy that she made a terrible mistake in giving up on their marriage.

This is a great addition to my Lisa Jackson collection. While the mystery is strong in this book, Jackson has gone back toward her romance roots. Romance suspense fans should be happy with this latest Jackson release.

Heiress Cissy Cahill-Holt's murderous mom Marla Cahill has escaped from prison and suddenly members of Cissy's family are being murdered. Her estranged husband moves back in with her to provide protection and hopefully get back into her good graces, while the police put a tail on her - not so much to protect her but to make sure she isn't in cahoots since she is the few beneficiaries of the Cahill estate. Cissy's worst nightmare comes true when the killer targets her 18 month old son, BJ.

You really need to read the precursor to this story, "If She Only Knew," as readers might be confused. Unlike most writers, Jackson doesn't rehash and summarize her previous story, so very little about Marla and her crimes comes to light. I found little chemistry between Jack and Cissy (and Cissy was a bit whiny and annoying after awhile), in fact, I was hoping the story would veer off in the route Jackson was steering. One thing I thought odd was that the "heroine" from the previous novel is never referred to by name. She is always "Nick's wife." The writing is good, but the plotting is below average, and the plot, particularly the revelation of the killer is far too familiar to its predecessor. On the whole, it's merely an average story, which was a huge disappointment considering what it could have been.

Although there were several plot twists, I found the characters to be lacking depth and it was hard to finish the book when I really didn't care what happened to them. This book is NOT horror but instead a romance novel with a murder mystery. The sex scenes really weren't necessary and only added a trashy element.
I found the "heroine" Cissy to be dense and annoying, and her young son was a spoiled brat. I found myself getting a headache as the child threw fit after fit and everyone thought it was just so cute, and they bent over backwards to accomodate him. I found myself hoping that he's become a victim and fast. Cissy comes from a rich, high society family, but little else is explained besides her mother being a convicted killer. She takes everything for granted and whines constantly to herself about her traumatic life and her cheating husband who she just can't resist. The good point of the book is that you are kept guessing until the end, but some of that is due to huge plot holes. The story is told in such a way that the killer occasionally narrates, and it skips ahead to the future or present in an anonymous hospital patient's entry. You get more details and clues as the story progresses, but many of these are false clues. It was never explained why the killer called her mysterious boyfriend by his son's name rather than his own name in a cheap effort to mislead you. Had the boyfirend's identity really been his son rather than him, would have made much more sense and would have made for a much better story. Minus several stars for going for the obscure and misleading ending.

There is one murder, made to look so simple, and then another and another and the killer is incognito. We don't learn who is doing the killings until the very end when everything is neatly wrapped up and the primary characters (family) live happily ever after. I'm sorry, but this just doesn't come together, it is just implausible. I read the book until the end because I wanted to know who was dying in the hospital bed and who exactly "Jack" and "Elyse" were. Very unsatisfying yet it does hold your interest because it is a guessing game and a semi-challenge. Read it for entertainment, not because you like a good, well-plotted mystery thriller because this isn't it. Sorry, Lisa. Try again.

This review is for the audio version of this book - unabridged.

It wasn't until I read another review just now that I realized this book was one of a series. The previous one being a book which explained, I supppose, what the evil Marla did to be sent to prison. In this book, Marla has escaped, with the help of someone else, and all sorts of mayhem is being caused.

The "heroine" of the story is Cissy, Marla's daughter. Cissy is a whiny, stupid, annoying character. Example: in the beginning of the book, she's whining about how her rotten soon-to-be-ex husband is such a louse and she's had such a terrible life - yes, heiresses to 2 huge fortunes with healty and beauty have such terrible lives - when she stumbles upon the corpse of her grandmother. Who has been murdered, only it looks like she just fell. Well, while she's all shocky, Cissy loses her kid. It took no less than 15 minutes of annoying "oh where is he? I can't have lost him!" kind of postulating in my headphones for her to find the toddler. I found it INCREDIBLY exasperating. The book continued in this manner and I found myself ready to shout at the stupid thing - get on with it already!!

In fact, around chapter 4, I decided to "skip to the end". I did. Went right to the second to last chapter, and finished the stupid thing. I understood everything about the resolution of the story. It had the makings of a fine plot, but daggoneit, I could not wade through the tripe.

I've given this two stars, because it does have a decent plot and probably would have been more tolerable if I had read it, as I could have skipped through the stuff that I couldn't skip, in the audio version. Benefit of the doubt. But I won't be picking up a Lisa Jackson audio again. Ever.

(*)>

Even with all the red herrings sprinkled throughout the story, I was guessing until almost the very end.

Only a couple of tiny nitpicks. I expected to learn somewhere before the book ended just who Marla had killed ten years earlier, landing her in prison, but I guess I'll have to read the earlier book to find out.

And Highway 1 is only called the Pacific Coast Highway in southern California. In the San Francisco area, it is either the Cabrillo Highway, or a named (or numbered) street.

After reading this book, I found out that it was a sequel to a previous book, "If She Only Knew." This book did fine as a stand alone though. We learn that the main character, Cissy's mother is (or was) serving time in prison for murder and was crazy. This book picks up 10 years later after her mother has just escaped from prison.

The murders soon begin piling up and the clues could lead anywhere. The book moves quickly and at times is reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. It was full of surprises, twists and turns. All in all, a good, fast read.

The premise of this book was interesting, but there were just too many holes to make it truly enjoyable. Perhaps many of my questions were answered in the previous book, but it would have been nbice to get more background on the main characters... what did Marla do to end up in jail? What was Cissy's background and relationship with her parents? How was she related to her half brother? And, most imnportantly, what were the events leading up to the ultimate break-up with her husband Jack?? I kept hoping for more clarity and answers which ended up making me frustrated with the book.

I have read a lot of Lisa Jackson's books and have liked them a lot. This book was much too long and not very clear. There were a few unexpected surprises, but for the most part the book was boring and predictable. She tries to keep you guessing by adding a cast of characters that could be the villain, but each character seems to be only half formed. You never get a clear view of who is who and easily get them mixed up. By the end of the book I just wanted it to be over. It seems as though the same scenes were visited over and over again. It was not a very good follow up to If She Only Knew at all. It jumps right in to the present day with little explanation of the years that had passed in Cissy's life. There was little mention of her ½ brother or her Uncle Nick that were such a big part of her life in If She Only Knew. This would have been a much better book had it been a couple hundred pages shorter. It was almost as is the author was trying to stretch it out as long as possible.

At no point on the cover, spine, or back of this book did it indicate that it was a sequel. I kept waiting for answers about Marla's mysterious past any I never received any. That made for a very frustrating read.

I would have never known about "If She Only Knew" except that I came here to put in a bad review. And, despite my new knowledge, my 2 stars stand. I enjoyed the middle part of the book, especially in trying to see who the mystery lover of the murderess would turn out to be. In the end, the author tried to add some suspense with a bait-and-switch, which instead left me feeling like she didn't trust the readers with subtler material. I adore books that keep me guessing and red herrings are fine, but this was flat out bad writing. If it had been perhaps tied into the murderess' delusions instead of being something 'cute' perhaps it would have worked better. (Sorry that is so vague, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers here.) Several of the story threads depended on this flawed concept, which destroyed their value for me.

As mentioned by other reviewers, the Beej kid was annoying, but many kids are. Just like many parents will bend to their child's whims, as they did at times in the story. The lead female Cissy being annoying (and very, very repetitive) and a flat out brat to her husband was harder to stomach. Hubby Jack resonated as almost 'too good' for most of the book. The minor characters... eh. I did not feel emotionally invested in any character in the story.

That was my 'official' review. Here is my internal 12-year-old's version. LAME.