Shiver review

Shiver by Lisa Jackson is a fast paced romantic suspense novel and I found it to be very good as a suspense thriller but found it lacking as a romance. As evidenced by the official synopsis in which the main female character is not even mentioned, the romance seems to be almost a second thought as opposed to a main part of the story.

The chemistry between Montoya and Abby, the female lead, is not even remotely convincing. Montoya is a fairly typical cop character - he's smart, intuitive, tough, and tenacious. He's painted as a bit of a ladies man but I didn't really see that in the story. Abby is a bit of a pushover - she seems to forgive too easily and is willing to do just about anything to keep the peace, regardless of how bad it is for her emotionally. Additionally, Abby and her sister, Zoey, seem to be less intelligent that I'd like or maybe it's just that they are lacking in common sense. They know there is a serial killer on the loose, Abby at least knows details of the investigation, and yet neither of them bothers to mention several fairly obvious incidents that involve the killer to the police? It seems a little less than realistic.

I do have to say that as someone who reads a lot of romantic suspense and mystery novels, I usually have a very solid idea of who the killer is by half way through the book. Not in Shiver - the killer was a complete surprise to me. Jackson does a good job of giving some possible, and one probable, blind for suspects but not in such a way as to make the reader feel like it should have been one of the blinds - just as good foils for the police and the reader to follow.

Shiver is the third novel in Jackson's New Orleans series and is followed by Absolute Fear, which I'll be reading shortly.

Synopsis

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 a determined, take-no-prisoners stride. He'll need every bit of 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 to it. As more bodies are found, 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. For the past is never completely gone. Its sins must be avenged, its wrong righted. And this time, Detective Reuben Montoya may pay the price.