Cold Blooded by Lisa Jackson

Cold Blooded by Lisa Jackson

Year Published: 2002

My Rating: 5 stars

464 pages

This is the second book in the New Orleans series.

A serial killer is on the loose again in New Orleans and Detective Rick Bentz is on the case. Women are found brutally tortured and murdered in very weird ways. With a hint of religious rituals in the mix.
Olivia Benchet seems to see glimpses of the murder while it's being committed but can't see the murderer. She goes to the cops to try to help but is not very welcome.

When the killer seems to be getting close to home, Detective Bentz needs to get any help he can even if it has to be from Olivia the psychic.

Father James in St. Luke's is becoming a very close friend to Olivia but he is hiding a very dangerous secret.

Although it took me over 2 weeks to read this book, it was a page turner. The fact of slow reading was because i just started a new job and don't have that much time to spare for reading well plus playing some Facebook games :)

I loved the suspense and the surprises in every corner, while some where kinda expected I still enjoyed every page of the book!!
The murder scenes were very creative and grotesque, I guess that's one of the amazing things about this book. If you enjoy serial killer books this is a must read book for you :)
I'm planning on getting the next book in this series, "The Night Before" as soon as I can.. Or I might add it to my wishlist *evil grin*

Some quotes I enjoyed from the book :

"Then he took the time to check the rearview mirror. Blue eyes stared back at him. Hungry eyes. "Bedroom eyes," he'd been told by more than one woman who was foolish enough to think he could be seduced.

"Ear to the ground, eye on the sky, nose to the grindstone." Head up the ass, Bentz thought. Sometimes Montoya's practiced cool bugged the hell out of him.

"Hush, Chia!" she ordered. "Another of my grandmother's orphans. Chia doesn't like to go unnoticed. Has to have her say."
"Typical female."
"What?" Olivia's eyes narrowed.
"It was a joke," he explained.
"A poor one."

She was an enigma. An interesting puzzle. He'd left her house but he hadn't been able to push her out of his mind.

"I don't put much stock in psychic mumbo jumbo. ESP usually means Easy Sucker Punch or Exceptional Shit Pile."

"You know what the say is the problem with having an open mind?"
"That your brains will out? I've heard that one, Rick." Bentz smiled.
"I was going to say people might accuse you of being a pansy ass and not having an opinion."

"So does the lady have an alibi?"
"Just her dog and he's not talkin'."

"I think there are gifts God bestows upon all of us. Some we can see, or touch, or prove, if we will. Others are intangible, but gifts nonetheless. We're lucky if we recognize what we've got."

She remembered the way her mother had always argued, forever on the attack. To Bernadette's way of thinking, a best defense was a strong offense.

She'd experimented enough in high school and given her dad a good bunch of his gray hair while trying ecstasy and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Most women melted like butter in the hot sun when Reuben Diego Montoya turned on the charm.

Sometimes Kristi just wished they lived somewhere in the middle of the country -somewhere like Kansas or Oklahoma- and her mom was still alive and really into gardening and her dad sold insurance or real estate, like normal people. They would have a nice two story house with a picket fence and a dog and a cat, and she would have an older brother to watch over her and a younger sister to confide in and fight with. There would be a patio with a barbecue and maybe one of those old-fashioned swings on the front porch and... She snapped herself out of the daydream. Get real!

All in all, he wasn't such a bad guy.
For a paranoid, recovering alcoholic homicide dick.

It wasn't just sex he craved. It was all of it. His heart ached. A beautiful woman, a cozy little cabin in the woods, and a mutt of a dog. All the things he'd given up in life. For his calling. For God. Because he believed. He'd always believed and he knew in his heart that he could help others with their faith, that it was his purpose in life, God's plan for him.

He'd been so cold to her earlier. Not just detached, but ruthless and mean.
He'd seen the pleading in her eyes, the silent need to connect with him and he'd cut her loose.

They'd spent hours talking and she wasn't sure she was ready to trust him again, but she did care about him; probably loved him, fool that she was. At that thought she smiled.