Customer Reviews

Malice (New Orleans Series)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

New Orleans detective Rick Bentz is seeing his ex-wife, Jennifer, everywhere. The problem is that Jennifer died in LA twelve years earlier. Bentz knows it's not his imagination, but how could Jennifer be alive? He's the one that identified her body. After receiving an envelope with recently dated photos of Jennifer or someone that's a dead ringer for her, taken in LA looking alive and well, Bentz is off to LA to find out who is messing with him and why.

Malice is the sixth book in Lisa Jackson's New Orleans series. I'm usually a stickler for reading a series in order, but I won a copy of the book and had a time limit to read it and answer some questions. Even though I had not read any of the first five books, I didn't feel like I was missing anything. There was just enough back story for each character for me to feel like I knew them, but not so much that it interfered with the flow of the story. The characters were very well developed. The story was fantastic, fast paced, and filled with suspense. I thought I knew who the culprit was, but I ended up surprised. I always love it when I'm surprised by a suspense/thriller novel because so many of them follow the same pattern and you end up feeling like you've read it a hundred times before. I didn't feel that way with Malice. I've already picked up the first book in the series and hope to get started on it soon.

Bentz has been my favorite character in the past. This man is not the Bentz that Lisa Jackson previously created. After a great book where Rick and Olivia meet and fall in love, they are now suddenly on the verge of loosing their marriage to his obsession with his ex-wife. Not just about if she's alive or not, but all the sexual memories he has of her. He flies off to investigate "Jennifer" when he has nothing to work with. His co-workers do all the real work.

Also, it's clear who the bad guys are half way through the book. Jackson lost her touch with this one!

Even if you decide this book is worth the read, be prepared for the endless run of useless words that are meant to fill the book. If I had to read anymore detailed descriptions of drivers going through traffic... It really was difficult to care by the end of the book.

The end itself never did wrap up all the weirdness that Bentz went through in his emotional separation from Olivia. All in all, it was not worth the money I spent on the book.

This was not my first Lisa Jackson book, an author I've enjoyed in the past. However, it was my first Rick Benz book. I thought the entire book was just tiresome! If Ms Jackson had done a "word search" or more accurately a "phrase" search, I think she would have realized that she overworked "what am I doing here?", "why am I doing this" a few dozen too many times. And how many times did Rick ask himself, "Did I imagine this?" There was little to explain why Olivia would have tolerated his (in my opinion) insulting behavior toward her by basically leaving her to go chase his ex. Obviously all of his sexual thoughts were centered on Jennifer, not his wife. I also wondered why nearly every person that knew Rick, other than his colleague in the NOPD, and Jonas Hayes, didn't really seem to care for him. And It wasn't long before I really didn't care about him either... Or the book. I found myself hoping that Olivia would escape and dump Benz.

I read a great deal and rarely want to put a book down before I have finished it..but Malice was one that I had to push through because I felt like I should finish a book when I start it..Ms Jackson repeated and repeated and repeated the condition and situation of the main character to the point that I would skip over the paragraphs over and over..the story was drawn out and I could not wait to finish the book..in fact 3/4 of the way through it I began to serioously skip the pages..

Labeled as a romantic suspense, there is very little romance in MALICE. New Orleans police detective Rick Bentz isn't in a good place right now. He's still recovering from injuries that happened in a previous book. The department won't let him back until he's fully recovered, which means Rick is going crazy. To make things worse, his wife, Olivia, wants to have a baby. Rick believes he's too old to start another family. He already has a grown daughter.

In the previous books, we know that Rick has been seeing his dead wife, Jennifer. He thinks it's his imagination until he receives photos of her alive in California along with a copy of her death certificate with a big question mark on it. Now he wonders if she'd actually dead.

Rick had left Los Angles on less than perfect terms with the LAPD. Now he's back and trouble is waiting. A serial killer, the Twenty-One Killer, from an unsolved case he left behind strikes as soon as he arrives. Is this related to Jennifer? It's hard to figure out until the end.

MALICE is the seventh book of the New Orleans series. It's a series that I highly recommend you read in order. The author does fill-in some of the background, but it's not the same. My major complaint doesn't have to do with the author's writing style or the plot, but the audio format. The narrators were Joyce Bean and Mel Foster. While Joyce Bean was fine, Mel Foster missed the mark capturing Rick Bentz. He sounded like he was from New York and sort of a wise guy. That's not who Rick is. Also, the transition between the voices wasn't a smooth one.

All-in-all, I enjoyed MALICE. This is a favorite series of mine and hope there will be more. The author left off with some unanswered questions, so I'll be anxiously awaiting the next book.

I hadn't read Lisa Jackson in awhile and had pretty much forgotten about Bentz. And while this book was good and suspenseful, it was way too long and repetitive. At points, I found myself wishing she'd stop repeating the same stuff and finish it already. I mean, how many times can someone jump into the water and no trace of them be found?

This was a pretty good story, but towards the end it started to drag a bit trying to draw out the suspense as far as it could take it. After endless pages of Bentz wringing his hands and worrying over his wife, I had to look ahead finally and see "whodunit". Some of the storyline didn't seem very believable, but I kinda of rolled with it for the sake of the story. I won't get too descriptive here so as not to give anything away, but it's an okay book.

ms. jackson apparently thinks her readers are idiots. the same phrases repeated over and over ad nauseum. note to ms. jackon...we get it. we know ricks leg hurts. you do not have to tell us about it every time he walks or runs or gets out of bed or the shower or stands up or... same thing with his thoughts or olivias thoughts. we heard them the first time. eliminate all the repetiton and this book would have been about one pages long. too bad because the story was pretty good.

Whenever I discuss my favorite authors, the name of Lisa Jackson always comes up and I continue to read just about anything she puts out. Having said that, I have been kind of disapointed in some of her recent works including 'MALICE'. The premise is so ridiculous that it made the entire book difficult to read. It took weeks to read 'MALICE' and it was not worth the effort. Rick Bentz is the hero of this work but is pretty much totally unlikeable. No wonder he has no friends left in the Los Angeles Police Department. He doubts himself and is obsessed with his ex-wife. Forget the fact that he's married to Olivia now, his heart is still with Jennifer. What a dip! The killer has a grudge against Rick. This is some grudge. I can't go much further without giving the killer away, although it was pretty easy to guess fairly early in the book. 'MALICE' was probably a hundred or so pages too long due to Rick constantly wondering to himself if he was doing the right thing and dwelling on whether or not he should just go back to Olivia. Montoya, Rick's partner, arrives just in time to help save the day. Ho hum, so cliche!!! Olivia's stunt to get the cage open...Really? Yawn! Another 5 or 6 books like this and I may just stop reading Lisa Jackson. On the other hand, I made it through 'MALICE' and it was readable. Not very good, but some might like it. I did not.

This is my first Lisa Jackson and although I enjoyed it for the most part, I couldn't stand that on almost every third or so paragraph, it's 'damned this' or 'damned that', over and over again . Also I found myself getting irate when Rick kept on asking himself "why did I come here"? "what am i doing here"? blah blah blah.

Lisa, if you're reading this please don't use "damned" too many times. I know it's used for emphasis and effect but you've overdone it.