The Morning After

From Publishers Weekly Slowly waking from a drugged sleep, a woman realizes she's not in her own bed but in a closed coffin, lying on top of a cold, reeking dead body. Thuds resonate on the lidâx80"dirt and stones being shoveled on topâx80"bringing the sure knowledge she's being buried alive. From this bone-chilling, if melodramatic, opening image, Jackson skillfully crafts a horrific thriller about an elusive serial killer dubbed The Grave Robber. Seeing the high-profile murders as her ticket out of small-town Savannah, ambitious reporter Nikki Gillette latches onto the case and onto lead investigator Pierce Reed. Tough-guy police detective Pierce initially sees Nikki's dogged investigations as a mere irritantâx80"until evidence turns up indicating that the killer may see Nikki as his prey. Meanwhile, tension and unease mount for Nikki as secret ties among the attractive Pierce, whom she may be falling for, the killer and the victims start coming to light. As in Jackson's previous offering, The Night Before, this psychological thriller has a beautifully conceived plot full of unexpected twists and provocative misleads, as well as sophisticated character development. Not even the sadistic murderer is one-dimensionally evil, and the protagonists display delicious depths. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Lisa Jackson has been writing romantic fiction for fifteen years. Over sixty of her books have been published and reprinted in more than a dozen foreign languages. A single mother, she is a native of Oregon, where she still resides with her two teenage sons. Lisa is often asked what is the key to her success, and her unfailing answer is a keen imagination, incredible friends, loving family, and always, loads of laughter. As Oscar Wilde is purported to have said, "Life is too important to be taken seriously."