Lost Souls (New Orleans Series) [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Lisa Jackson (Author), Joyce Bean (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2008 | Series: New Orleans Series (Book 5)

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. Four girls have disappeared at All Saints College in less than two years. All four were “lost souls” - troubled, vulnerable girls with no one to care about them, no one to come looking if they disappeared. The police think they’re runaways, but Kristi senses there’s something that links them, something terrifying. She decides to enroll, following their same steps. All Saints has changed a lot since Kristi was an undergraduate. The stodgy Catholic college has lured edgy new professors to its campus and gained a reputation for envelope-pushing, with classes like the very popular “The Influence of Vampirism in Modern Culture and Literature,” and elaborately staged morality plays that feel more like the titillating entertainment of some underground club than religious spectacles. And there are whispers of a dark cult on campus whose members wear vials of blood around their necks and meet in secret chambers - rituals to which only the elite have access. To find the truth, Kristi will need to become part of the cult’s inner circle, to learn their secrets, and play the part of lost soul without losing herself in the process. It’s a dangerous path, and Kristi is skating on its knife-thin edge. The deeper she goes, the more Kristi begins to wonder if she is the hunter or the prey. She’s certain she’s being watched and followed - studied, even - as yet another girl disappears, and another. And when the bodies finally begin to surface - in ways that bring fear to the campus and terror to the hearts of even hardened cops like Detective Bentz and his partner Reuben Montoya - Kristi realizes with chilling clarity that she has underestimated her foe. She is playing a game with a killer more cunning and bloodthirsty than anyone can imagine, one who has personally selected her for membership in a cult of death from which there will be no escape.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kristi Bentz, having recovered from her last encounter with a sadistic monster in bestseller Jackson's Absolute Evil, faces an equally terrifying ordeal in this frantic paranormal thriller. Four female students associated with a vampire cult have gone missing at Baton Rouge's All Saints College, where Kristi is pursuing a journalism degree and plans to write about true crime. Kristi by chance rents an apartment once tenanted by one of the missing girls and begins investigating the case, thinking it might make a great first book. Kristi's old college sweetheart, Jay McKnight, provides an unexpected surprise (and protection) when he shows up as the fill-in for one of Kristi's professors. Not too surprisingly, Vlad, the mysterious serial killer, sets his sights on Kristi. Adding hot sauce to the blood bath is Kristi's new supernatural ability to detect anyone marked for a life-or-death struggle when she sees a person go from living color to deadly gray or black-and-white. Jackson peppers the action with insights into the challenges faced by law enforcement agencies trying to solve crimes in post-Katrina Louisiana. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

After recovering from her own experience with a killer, Kristi Bentz is determined to pursue her dream of becoming a true-crime writer. To that end, she enrolls at All Saints College in Baton Rouge, away from her overprotective detective father. Kristi yearns for a big case to write about, and All Saints provides one when four coeds go missing. No one seems to believe anything sinister has happened to them, but Kristi finds clues she can’t ignore: all were English majors and had taken the same classes as Kristi. Unbelievable rumors of a vampire cult on campus add to her belief that something nefarious is afoot. Kristi is intrepid and stubborn in her need to solve this mystery without involving the police, especially her father. Fortunately, an old boyfriend she unceremoniously dumped is one of her teachers, and she reluctantly allows him to help her. From beginning to end, Jackson creates a world of little romance and relentless suspense, where every nuance, from the weather to a too-long stare, builds the tension to an unbearable and satisfying pitch. --Maria Hatton --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD; Abridged edition (March 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423315316
• ISBN-13: 978-1423315315
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,458,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

#1 NYT and USA TODAY bestselling author Lisa Jackson started writing after her sister read an article in TIME Magazine in 1981 about how young mothers were making money writing romance novels. Both Lisa and her sister, Nancy Bush, began their writing careers right then, and lo, these many years later Lisa has published seventy-five plus novels and has no plans to slow down anytime soon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Capable of every wickedness", March 25, 2008

By 

Linda Bulger (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost Souls (Hardcover)

Kristi Bentz wants to be a true-crime writer. She's got a great background for it, having already tangled with two serial killers in her young life. Against her over-protective father's wishes, she re-enrolls in All Saints College in Baton Rouge.

All Saints has livened up its English Department with attractive professors and trendy courses, but all is not well. Four girls have disappeared in the past two years, all enrolled in the same English courses including The Influence of Vampyrism in Modern Culture and Literature. Kristi sees the coed disappearances as subject matter for her first book, and her research draws her into a ring of evil. She infiltrates a group of students who play in vampire chat rooms, wear tiny vials of blood on gold chains, and hold secret meetings after hours in the cellar of a museum. She's determined to solve the mystery of the disappearances, against the wishes of her father Rick, a New Orleans detective, and her boyfriend Jay McKnight, back in her life after a breakup years before.

While LOST SOULS is based on a vampire theme, its evil is strictly of this world rather than supernatural. The main characters are well drawn and engaging; the dialog and action flow easily. One of the strong elements is the moody atmosphere of post-Katrina Louisiana, effectively woven into the story.

I took one star off for a bit more foreshadowing than I like; otherwise this is a thoroughly entertaining read. If you like complex, well written romantic suspense novels with a double dose of suspense, don't miss LOST SOULS. Author Lisa Jackson kept me reading -- and guessing -- right to the end. Thanks also to bookreporter dot com, in whose contest I won an ARC of this excellent book.

"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary: men alone are quite capable of every wickedness." Joseph Conrad.

Linda Bulger, 2008

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Suspense/Romance Fans, July 19, 2009

By 

365andMe - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lost Souls (Mass Market Paperback)

It's been a year and a half since Kristie Bentz's coma. She's ready to go back to All Saints College and has registered for winter classes. Her desire to become a crime writer prompts her interest in the four missing coeds, one of which lived in her very apartment before she went missing.

Teaching one of her classes is Jay McKnight, a high school sweetheart she dumped in a previous book. He also has been working in the New Orleans crime lab. They team up to uncover clues that tie the missing women to a dark vampire cult on campus. What they don't realize is the killer knows of Kristie's every move and has from the day she arrived on campus.

LOST SOULS is part of the New Orleans series. I highly recommend these books to be read in order. This one is a sequel to one of the previous books. Out of the books I've read, this is my second favorite. HOT BLOODED is the first. Here are the titles:

* Hot Blooded (2001)
* Cold Blooded (2002)
* Shiver (2006)
* Absolute Fear (2007)
* Almost Dead (2007)
* Lost Souls (2008)
* Malice (2009)

HOT BLOODED still remains my favorite of the entire series.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars There may have been a thriller in there somewhere, but I couldn't find it, April 5, 2008

By 

Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lost Souls (Hardcover)

Last night, at page 198, I finally gave up on this book. No way could I finish it; it is just way too boring and slow to capture my interest at all.

For a book touted on the flyleaf as "her most harrowing novel yet", I kept wondering when Jackson was going to throw in some "harrow". This thing moves at an absolute snail's pace; the characters are simply bo-o-o-o-ring people; the characterizations are two-dimensional at best, paper thin; and to this point in the book, almost NOTHING has happened.

Endless drivel about character Kristi's class schedule, work schedule, and her angst that one of her profs is an old boyfriend. More endless pages about the prof's angst that Kristi's his student. Ya-a-a-a-awn......

Meanwhile police departments everywhere are unbelievably uninterested about a possible serial killer in the area; and I mean "unbelievably".

The Bad Guy -- what little I've seen of him to this point in the book -- isn't really all that interesting, either; pretty run-of-the-mill bad guy.

It seems there's some tie-in to Goth practices or vampire obsession, but frankly.......... who cares? This book just doesn't interest me enough to try to wade through all this boring nonsense to find out about it.

One star at best.