Customer Reviews

The Cold Room (Taylor Jackson Series)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Another thriller by JT Ellison. Taylor Jackson is on the hunt for "The Conductor" a killer so sick and twisted...he starves his captives.

When he's finished, he creatively disposes of the body by reenacting scenes from famous paintings. And it seems similar macabre works are being displayed in Europe. Taylor teams up with her fiancé, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, and a New Scotland Yard detective named James "Memphis" Highsmythe, a haunted man who only has eyes for Taylor, to put an end to the Conductor's art collection.

I actually loved this book and was sorry to see the ending. Now to wait another year for a follow up - pure torture. This is the 4th book in her Taylor Jackson series and it is definitely worth the read. Don't Miss it!!!

First, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have never read any of J.T. Ellison's novels before, but after reading this, I will for sure give them a try because I did enjoy this story. Because it is sort of part of a series, there was a bit of history on the main character that wasn't fully disclosed in this book, leaving me a bit confused at times. Aside from that, I felt it was a wonderful suspensful story line which held my attention to the point that I finished the book in just 3 days. I could get into a brief description of the story, but everybody else wrote pretty accurate reviews for that...and the books description contains that...my review is just to let you know how I felt about the book...and the answer to that is that I really enjoyed it outside of a few confusing points due to this being the 4th book in this series. With that being said, I didn't feel I needed to read the other books for this to make complete sense, but I enjoyed it so much that I am going to read the others and add J.T. Ellison to my list of favorite authors to watch for new books in the series.

The ending Author's notes by J. T. Ellison regarding her book, The Cold Room, intrigued me. Many readers will find the book "dark" and into an almost taboo subject; it was a welcome addition for me to read her thoughts as she wrote the book, realizing from her research that the issue was far from uncommon--that those who use narcotics as part of their assaults were often mimicking their baser desires.

For necrophilia...

Add that to how and who was committing the horrendous murders, and you have one of the most compelling novels you may have read for quite some time. Fortunately, with the darkness, Ellison's main characters are an exciting team. Think "Closer" but have the couple working side-by-side on a major serial killer case.

Dr. John Baldwin, head of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit had been involved much earlier than Taylor Jackson. They called the killer, The Butcher, as he murder women in Italy, and then, later, in England. When similar, but not quite the same MO was used by a man in Nashville, where Jackson worked for Metro police, they quickly started comparing notes.

The Butcher had first starved the women to death, but had grown impatient and had started to strangle them...He would leave a picture of some piece of famous art with her body.

But the man who was soon called The Conductor, was much more dramatic, setting the stage with classical music and actually posting the bodies to match works by Picasso!

Taylor Jackson is one hot investigator! Though recently demoted and her previous team scattered, she quickly latches on to the case and is moving ahead, even while a new boss wants her to kowtow to his personal management style and she has a new partner about whom she knows little and has had no opportunity to build trust and an awareness of what skills she could come to depend on.

Her meticulous approach, however, soon has other cases tied to The Conductor and she is able to add much to Baldwin's profile development.

And then the pressure is on, because the latest victim is related to a member of the Metro administrative staff and Jackson has promised her friend that she will find the young girl!

Add on to all of that the fact that Taylor Jackson has her own stalker, called The Pretender, and an officer from England falling for her and you have one complex, twisted book that forces you to marvel at the main character's ability to keep going to solve the case. What an exciting book!

If you love psychological thrillers, and don't mind delving into a perhaps new and dark area for you, then you won't want to miss The Cold Room by J. T. Ellison... Me, I'll be ordering her three other books and adding her to my Trackle List for new books! You?




Book Provided Via
Amazon Vine

G. A. Bixler

The Cold Room is an awesome brilliantly written novel full of everything you need to keep you turning page after page. The information provided at the end of the book was eye opening to say the least. I look forward to reading more from J.T. Ellison. Oh by the way I got it on my Kindle, thanks Amazon!

If you've read J.T. Ellison's previous books, you may be pleased to know that, for the most part, the work politics are minimal. This is a very good thing, because it keeps the action moving. If you haven't read her previous books, that's fine -- you won't be lost. Having finished it, there are some details that I think should have been addressed, but presumably she'll clear up a few of them in her next book. Would recommend -- it's an entertaining and quick read.

I'm relatively late to the characters of JT Ellison's Taylor Jackson world. So when you're on the forth book of the series, you're missing a lot of the backstory.

Fortunately, the book is written well enough that if you jumped in starting with this book, you can pick up and fill in the blanks. Taylor Jackson's a well written character - most female detectives tend to not be fleshed out, especially in a macho world of male police. Naturally, her boyfriend is also in the same line of work (the FBI profiler), so it's more of a team adventure than just Jackson running alone. Personally, I would have enjoyed watching Jackson juggle a normal life (why can't she have a boring boyfriend with a day job instead?)

The Conductor ranks up there with one of the more interesting bad guys in literature. Between kidnapping, performance art of watching them starve and then necrophilia, he's a dark and dreary person. So when there's parallels between the crimes in the US and in Europe, Scotland Yard is also on the hunt, making for an interesting dynamic between the three police on the hunt.

The Cold Room is a decent enough read and flies by relatively fast. It's the perfect airplane book - you read it for a few hours and enjoy the escapism. 4.5 stars

I've never read J.T. Ellison before, but I'm always up for a good story, and her previous work had garnered some praise, so I was hoping that her latest read, The Cold Room, would be just as enjoyable a read. When I started reading it I was definitely intrigued. The crimes that were being committed were definitely stomach turning, but I've read other stories that had similar horrible murders, so that didn't turn me off.

You're immediately whisked into the world of Detective Taylor Jackson. Now here comes one of the tricky parts - it took me a few dozen pages to realize that Jackson had actually been the Lieutenant, but that there was a scandal and that caused her to be demoted. And she has a new partner - that was also something that took a minute to figure out.

Jackson has a fiance - Dr. John Baldwin - an FBI profiler who tends to wind up working with his fiance. And also thrown into the tale is Scotland Yard Detective James "Memphis" Highsmythe, who has a strange connection with Jackson.

THE GOOD:
The bad guy(s) was great. The crime that is committed is not one that you often see, which is why I had high hopes for this tale.

THE BAD:
If you haven't read the other Taylor Jackson books, I can see how it would be easy to get confused. There are many little things here and there that may make a reader who is new to the series (such as me) go, "huh?" Like Jackson's scar and the brief discussion of it. The idea behind Memphis and Jackson's attraction was a good one - unfortunately it wasn't flushed out nearly enough. And we see very, very little of Baldwin and Jackson, which I definitely wanted to see more of. And while the murder mystery idea started out good, I wanted so much more from it.

CONCLUSION:
While I have a feeling that J.T. Ellison is capable of some great work, unfortunately I feel that The Cold Room fell through. There were too many holes, making this potentially great novel more like a swiss cheese tale. Fans of the series will likely love the tale, which is why I gave it three stars, but newcomers to the series like me may find that they have more questions after the book is done than they had when they first started the book.

The Cold Room by J.T. Ellison

The Cold Room is the fourth book in the Taylor Jackson series.
I loved to read this series initially because I like the strong character of Taylor Jackson.
Ellison writes a good plot and her characters, for the most part, evolve with each book.
After reading this book though I was a little disappointed in the plot and the main character, Taylor Jackson.
I felt like the plot was dragging a little and could have been wrapped up sooner. The plot unfolded nicely but there wasn't any big revelation here, I knew what was coming. Yes, the plot was very original and it was interesting. I think what bothers me the most with the writing is the dialog. I know it is written that Taylor and her crew are close and work well together and that is true but I don't see it from the character's points of view but just through the author writing those facts. Some of the conversation between Taylor and Baldwin seems stiff. I just don't imagine Taylor talking that way.
Maybe its me and how I imagine the characters but it something that sticks out when I read this series
I am definitely excited to read the next book, The Immortals, to get back to the "Pretender" plot.

Due to restructuring of the Nashville Metro Police Department, homicide detective Taylor Jackson's been demoted from her prior position of lieutenant. If that isn't bad enough, she's being pursued by a serial killer called the Pretender. Now another serial killer's in Nashville, one who abducts young black women, starves them to death and, after performing necrophilia, poses them per scenes from famous paintings. It isn't long before Jackson's fiancé, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, connects Jackson's serial killer to one he's been investigating in Europe named the Conductor. Jackson and Baldwin team up with Scotland Yard detective James "Memphis" Highsmythe, and the chase is on as the three try to determine if they're dealing with only one killer or perhaps two. As the investigation proceeds, Jackson's trying not to be distracted by the chemistry between her and Highsmythe, which is unexpected and confusing, and her superior's strange actions, which are hampering her efforts to investigate her case.

This fourth installment of the Taylor Jackson series is as suspenseful and intriguing as the first. This psychological thriller is gritty and realistic and filled with intense action. The chemistry between Jackson and Highsmythe, although not expected, is nicely delivered. Jackson's a great character, a woman who's tough mentally and physically but a real softy on the inside. The colorful backdrop of Nashville is a bonus to readers, as is Ellison's intelligent writing.

"The Cold Room" is a book with a serial killer like I've never seen - one who captures women, slowly starves them to death in a glass coffin and can only then love them (and yes, that's in the icky physical way ...). He then takes their bodies to random places he has chosen and carefully arranges them to match famous paintings. Detective Taylor Jackson, along with FBI profiler John Baldwin and New Scotland Yard detective "Memphis" Highsmythe (who has come to America on the heels of hearing about the serial murders in the States because he is investigating a series of similar murders in Europe) have to find him before it is too late for his next victim.

Is there just one killer, who is active in both the US and the Continent? Or are there two killers, acting in symphony? These are the questions that must be answered before a proper search can even be started.

This is one of those books where we, the readers, are omniscient - we know the killer/killers (which is it? I'm not telling!!) processes and thought patterns, because we're given that POV - but it is nonetheless a great police procedural and there is plenty of suspense to go around as Jackson, Baldwin and Highsmythe try to solve the mystery in time. A recommend from me.