Fatal Burn (West Coast 2)

“That’s great.”

“It feels good,” Shannon admitted. She let her gaze wander to the dock where the girls were talking to Shane and Travis. She felt the same familiar tug on her heart every time she saw her daughter with her father. He was so good with her. Shannon had a brief thought of the boy who had fathered Dani and was glad that the rumors about Brendan Giles had proven false. He hadn’t returned. Someday, when she was older, if Dani wanted to know about him, Shannon would give her all the information she had. For now, though, Travis Settler was the girl’s only father.

Khan, realizing that his position of honor with Shannon was in jeopardy, raced to her side and growled at Atlas. The big shepherd, didn’t seem to notice, just wagged his tail.

Leaning down, Shannon patted both dogs’ heads. “You’re such good boys,” she said as they crowded around her, slapping her legs with their tails.

A burst of laughter erupted from the little crowd gathered on the dock.

“Love the Santa,” Jenna said to Shannon as she pointed at the roof of the house.

“Travis’s doing.”

“I figured.”

Jenna and Shannon walked toward their families as the sunlight reflected on the glassy surface of the lake. Dani and Travis turned to look at her and Shannon couldn’t help but smile.

So it would take time to heal all the old wounds. Who cared? She had all the time in the world. What were the words in that John Lennon tune…” A very merry Christmas…”

Yes, she thought, gazing at Travis and Dani, so it would be.

A very, very merry Christmas.

Dear Reader,

Thanks for picking up FATAL BURN! I hope you liked reading the book as much as I did writing it. You might remember that Travis and Dani Settler were secondary characters in DEEP FREEZE, the prequel to FATAL BURN.

As you know most of my books are linked, some more than others. Often times a favorite character of mine appears in a subsequent book. And I’m going to do it once again, this time with one of the most popular characters I’ve ever created.

Remember Detective Reuben “Diego” Montoya from HOT BLOODED and COLD BLOODED and THE NIGHT BEFORE? He’s always taken second seat to another popular character, Detective Rick Bentz. For years readers have written me and asked, “When is Montoya going to get his own book?” Well, now he does.

In April of 2006 SHIVER will be on the shelves. Montoya is back in New Orleans, now a senior detective. Although he’s grown up a bit, he’s still the swaggering, sexy, rebel cop that he was in previous books. This time he meets his match in Abby Chastain, a woman with a murky past and a disturbing future.

A string of bizarre murders takes place and they center around Our Lady of Virtues, a now-abandoned mental hospital. Set outside of New Orleans and now falling into ruin, Our Lady of Virtues is the same hospital where Oliver from FATAL BURN was sent and came back scarred. There are secrets within the walls of Our Lady of Virtues, dark and deadly secrets that have now come back to haunt anyone who had the misfortune of being a patient there. Abby Chastain’s mother died at Our Lady of Virtues under mysterious circumstances, and now Abby realizes Faith Chastain’s death was only the first.

A killer is stalking the old, musty hallways of the decrepit hospital and everyone, including Abby and Montoya, is at risk. With each step, he gets just a little closer and the danger becomes more grave.

I think you’ll like SHIVER. Those of you who wanted to see Montoya in his own story will love it. Want to know a little more? Just turn the page for an excerpt from the book. Then, log onto www.lisajackson.com for a unique look into the deadly hallways of Our Lady of Virtues and SHIVER.

Keep reading,

Lisa Jackson

In each of her gripping bestsellers, Lisa Jackson has brought readers to the edge of their seats and proven herself a master of romantic suspense. Now the New York Times bestselli

ng author of Hot Blooded and Cold Blooded delivers her most powerful novel yet, bringing back New Orleans detective Reuben Montoya as he matches wits with a twisted psychopath whose very presence makes his victims SHIVER…

Detective Reuben “Diego” Montoya is back in New Orleans. Thanks to years of working with the dark side of society, his youthful swagger is gone, replaced by straightforward determination. He’ll need it, because a serial killer is turning The Big Easy into his personal playground. The victims are killed in pairs—no connection, no apparent motive, no real clues. Somebody’s playing a sick game, and Montoya intends to beat him at it.

His only lead is the ex-wife of one of the victims. Abby Chastain is a woman haunted by painful secrets. Twenty years ago she watched in horror as her mother, a patient at the Our Lady of Virtues Mental Hospital, plunged through a window to her death. Abby has always dreaded that she too would one day go insane…especially now, back in this town, where she’s begun to feel watched, as if the devil himself is scraping a fingernail along her spine. Something about Abby—her spirit and her honest fear—gets to Montoya. His gut tells him his prime suspect is innocent, just like it’s telling him there’s something significant about the once-grand hospital now decaying in a gloomy thicket of ancient live oaks. Abby Chastain can help unlock the mystery—if only Montoya can get her to trust him enough to face the ghosts of her past.

As more bodies are found in gruesome, staged scenarios and the FBI moves in, Montoya’s in a desperate race to find a killer whose crimes are getting more terrifying, and closer all the time. Plunging deep into a nightmare investigation will uncover a shocking revelation—a deadly connection between Abby and Montoya and an asylum where unspeakable crimes were committed, evil once roamed free, and a human predator may still wait. For the past is never completely gone. Its sins must be avenged, its wrongs righted. And this time Detective Reuben Montoya may pay the price…

Please turn the page for an exciting sneak peek at

SHIVER

coming in April 2006!