Customer Reviews

The Morning After

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This was truly a strong suspense novel. I realize that it's billed as a "romantic suspense" but trust me there is hardly any romance to be found in these pages so those of you that are scared off by the idea of romance will be safe in picking up this title.

There were a lot of character's but I don't think there were so many that one could not keep track of what was going on. Really I feel that each character did play it's part in the telling of the story.

Someone is going around killing people by burying them alive with a dead corpse. Why? How are they connected? These are the questions that haunt Detective Pierce Reed. From the beginning the killer later dubbed "The Grave Robber" draws Reed into his horrid game. Reed knows the first victim. Now it's a race against the clock to catch this killer before he kills again.

Nikki Gillette is a hard core journalist. She is after the story that will break and at the same time make her career. She has a bad blemish on her record so she has to work twice as hard to prove that she can get the job done. While working on local interest stuff she also works at trying to scoop not only her co-worker but the competition by getting all the information regarding the Grave Robber. Of course she is also in communication with the killer. He has a bone to pick with her as well. Soon this hard core newspaper journalist, and the tough as nails detective find that they have more in common then they thought. A Killer to be exact.

Nikki was an obnoxious character at times and yes, this did get on my nerves after a time. Still the twists and turns that Ms. Jackson took us on was well worth one of her annoying characters. Ms. Jackson is well on her way to becoming a mainstream suspense novelist.

Imagine waking in a dark, small space, a peculiar smell in what little air there is to breathe. Imagine something lumpy and soft pressing against the back of your naked body. Imagine clods of dirt raining down on your eternal resting place as cruel laughter floats in the air. Imagine being buried alive.

Nikki Gillette is looking for her breakout story--a story that will propel her out of the small time newspaper she's writing for now. When she gets wind of a serial killer who buries his victims alive, she goes after it like a buzzard on road-kill. Self-centered and self-righteous, she's determined to get the story with very little concern about who she might hurt in the process.

Pierce Reed has secrets he wants kept off the front-pages of the Savannah news, but the pretty journalist, Nikki, is being a royal pain in the rear, especially when she finds out he was involved with one of the victims. He has to deal with a leak in the police department, his foul-mouthed partner with ex-husband problems, and a serial killer who taunts him with letters containing clues to who he is and who the next victim will be.

Nikki and Pierce will have to put aside their contempt for each others choice of careers and work together in order to catch a killer with an agenda to bring about justice in his own twisted mind.

Ms. Jackson's vivid descriptions of places, things and emotions puts you right in the midst of the story. I found myself gasping and on the edge of panic along with the victims. THE MORNING AFTER is a chilling, suspenseful and brilliant tale.

Lumpkin County, North Carolina Sheriff Baldwin calls Savannah cop Pierce Reed to come immediately to a crime scene in a wooded area as his name was found with the deceased. Pierce is shown a coffin containing two bodies and a microphone. Apparently someone Pierce knows Barbara Jean Marx was buried alive with an existing corpse.

Savannah Sentinel reporter Nikki Gillette follows Pierce and his partner Sylvie Morrisette as they try to uncover the identity of a serial killer. The culprit seems to be toying with Pierce as the offender appears to intimately know the cop. As Pierce cannot shake off Nikki, he finds himself falling in love with her, a feeling the journalist reciprocates. Neither one knows the connection Nikki has with the psychopath, but Pierce is willing to risk his life to keep his beloved from being the next person buried alive.

The latest Lisa Jackson's Georgia police procedural romance (see THE NIGHT BEFORE) is a solid terse tale that hooks the audience from the eerie opening scene until the climax. The story line never slows down from the moment Barbara Jean knows she has been buried alive with a dead body until the final confrontation between the heroes and the villain. Though the motive for the homicides seems crazy (than again the killer is crazy), fans will appreciate the lead couple and his partner as the stress on each of them from love and from the murders is palpable. Once again Ms Jackson provides a terse romantic suspense with the accent on thriller.

Harriet Klausner

From the first page, readers will find themselves chilled to the bone as they find themselves trapped in a coffin ontop of a long dead body, fighting to claw out before two corpses lie inside. The scene shifts rapidly to the two detectives who will be in charge of the case, Morrisette and Pierce Reed. Reed soon finds he has a connection to the aforementioned coffin. The more recent body belongs to his former lover, and though the killer might not have known it, there were not two but three victims inside. An unborn child was killed as well. As horrible as all this is, it becomes more so as the Grave Robber Killer adds more victims to his list. With each kill, Pierce and a young female reporter recieve notes taunting them with encrypted clues. The truth lies in long buried memories hidden in a twisted mind. Reed must outguess a diabolically tortured killer, or Nicki will be the coup de eta.

**** Lisa Jackson can keep you up all night reading, afraid to sleep and unwilling to let the story go until it ends. Yet, despite the thrilling suspense, she is not neglectful of the romantic element and has well thought out, complex characters that will come to life as you turn the pages. ****

This novel began with a very chilling circumstance and just got better and better. Nikki Gillette, bless her shallow little heart, was not very good at recognizing danger until it came and bit her. The police seemed very competent in this story, not just one or two mavericks who were on the job, but the force as a whole seemed to be actually doing a good job investigating. Reed was a fine character and I ended up just loving Nikki despite her character flaws. These were great characters in a great situation, doing battle with a truly twisted killer. The final scene where Nikki was in trouble was excellent, although I kind of guessed how she was going to ...well, her father's leg was a clue foreshadowed early in the book. Anyway, in her situation, I don't think I could have been calm enough to think like that. I guess that's why she's the heroine and I'm not. I did not figure out who the bad guy was until it was actually revealed. Lisa Jackson does a great job with the suspense. She throws in enough romance but doesn't go overboard with that. This is an easy book to recommend. The second book I've read by Lisa Jackson. I just bought a couple more and am anxious to read them.

Another serial killer is stalking Savannah. Detective Pierce Reed (The Night Before) is still a local celebrity, having solved the rash of killings of the Montgomery family. But this latest series of murders is baffling - a coffin missing from a graveyard turns up with two bodies in it - the deceased, and another victim buried alive with the body. But this is not just any victim - this is one of Reed's former lovers. And the killer starts to contact him in a series of letters and emails.

Ace reporter Nikki Gillette hunts down the notoriously quiet Reed to get to the heart of the story. But like all reporters, he shuns her. She nicknames him the Grave Robber, and soon becomes his pen pal. When Reed is taken off the case due to conflict of interest, he joins up with Nikki to share knowledge, promising her an exclusive once the crime is solved. Being a hungry reporter, she cannot resist this proposition. Then additional bodies start piling up. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure out what the victims have in common, unless of course, you are a Savannah police detective. Then someone really close to Nikki is targeted by the killer, as well as Nikki herself.

I found the story interesting, and terrifying at the same time. But the ineptitude of the police and Reed's annoying oft married chain smoking partner just turned me off despite the numerous twists she tried to introduce to keep the reader guessing. I expect more from a Jackson novel.

A fairly typical thriller/suspense.

The Morning After features a lunatic killer who buries people alive and who sends cryptic clues to the police and media. Detective Pierce Reed is personally connected to the case when the first victim turns out to be an ex-lover of his. The killer draws him further by sending Reed notes. Reporter Nikki Gillette wants the story of her career and is determined to get any information possible, including why Reed is so crucial to the case. As they try to find the killer, everyone's lives are in danger.

This story is a good suspense story. It's well-written, complicated, dark and twisted. You're drawn into the story and what's going on, trying to figure out who the bad guy is. So it was a good read in that sense.

As a "romantic suspense", as the book is labeled on the spine, it's really damn lousy. It's the worst "romance" I've ever read, simply because there's practically no romance at all in the entire book. The book is about 430 pages long, and up to about page 250, Reed and Nikki have only 1 serious interaction, and throughout the whole book, I think they kiss twice. There's no emotional connection between them, nothing deeper than the case they are working on. And at the end, you're given only that they may be about to enter into some sort of relationship.

All that hardly qualifies this book as any sort of romance. Why it is labeled as a romantic suspense is beyond me. I was highly disappointed in that factor. If you're looking for a good thriller, you'll like this book, but if you want romance, I'd avoid it. Along with her other books, as I'm told they are much the same. Too bad I didn't know that before I bought 2 other books of hers.

Rating: 2.5 / 5 (for serious lack of romance...I am a reviewer of romance books, after all)

Women are being buried alive...in coffins with decomposing bodies. Savannah police detective Pierce Reed receives notes from the killer--they're in the coffins of the long ago/very recently deceased, his office snail mail and his email. Savannah Sentinel reporter, Nikki Gillette, receives notes as well--on her windshield, under her pillow and in her office email. Why are these two targeted? Eventually everyone figures they know who's doing the killing and why. If you have your thinking cap on when you read this, you'll know who's doing the killings.

This is a fairly quick read. However, the author has Nikki working the Grave Robber story and trying desparately to get an interview with Reed...which she's been after for years. She wants the big story that will get her to a major newspaper. Reed is notoriously tight-lipped and hates all reporters. And all of a sudden they're lovey-dovey???? Yeah, it's fiction.....

I am new to Lisa Jackson, and must say that after reading this book, I will continue to be a fan and look forward to reading much more by this talented author.

The story line was excellent and the characters carried with them enough baggage to help you understand their actions. The suspense was awesome and kept me guessing until the very end.

I tried so hard to stay awake last night to finish it as the climax was awesome, but alas the work week caught up to me and I couldn't do it. However, along with my cup of coffee this morning I grabbed this book and finishing it was the first thing I did today.

Excellent read, highly recommended.

The murder plots were fine, but it was the lack of any sex between the two main characters that killed this book for me.

A few phrases "rock hard", tight ass, fiery green eyes, and TWO kisses between Nikki and Pierce didn't cut it. The serial killer "The Grave Robber" was given more thoughts of sex than the journalist and the cop.