Hello Beautiful People! Welcome back to another review! For this review, I get into a beloved series by Lisa Jackson called New Orleans. Starting off on the first book in the series Hot Blooded. I definitely enjoyed Hot Blooded but was reminded when it finished that the characters in the book aside from the detectives would not be returning in book two and was a bit bummed because I defiantly liked them a lot by the end.
Main Characters:
- Samantha Leeds: Psychologist and local radio host who runs a late-night radio show that focuses on discussing topics of interest with people in the community, starts to get chilling prank phone calls that turn out to be a lot more than they seem
- Detective Rick Bentz: Lead detective who is dealing with a serial killer case in which many sex workers are being murdered similarly, everything gets turned on its head when it seems that Samantha may be connected
- Ty Wheeler: Samantha’s new neighbour who shows up around the time that the prank calls start, begins a relationship with Samantha
- Annie: A young woman from Samantha’s past who gets dragged into the current issue
Some Warnings for future readers:
- Includes sexual assault
- Includes murder
- Includes abuse of sex workers
My Review
Hot Blooded by Lisa Jackson is mysterious, thrilling, and filled with interesting and dynamic characters. While there is a bit of a bigger cast of characters in this book I didn’t find it hard to keep track of them or remember who everyone is. This is also one of those mystery books that has some spicy parts ( not my personal fav but others do love so I thought I would toss this in) to add to the dynamic between the characters.
So, when it comes down to how I really felt about the book overall I am going a bit to both sides. There were definitely some strong parts in the book, and when it’s strong it’s strong. There were a few parts though that I was a bit tempted to skip through (I didn’t though) just because they were slow and felt a bit like filler to me. I gave the book a 7.5/10 rating. I wasn’t expecting the book to be as descriptive as it was because I could definitely picture everything Lisa was describing in the book. I feel like good descriptions are always super important to me because I am a very visual reader and I almost paint a picture in my head of what’s going on.
I really enjoyed how complicated but connected the mystery in the story is. Samantha Leeds is a character who is clearly a complicated woman. She is quite smart and confident, but when it comes to making the right decisions and doing what’s best sometimes she struggles a bit on that end. When I say she struggles to do what’s best I don’t mean that in the context of helping people but more when it comes to decisions that would affect her well-being. She often puts herself in unsafe situations to help others, without paying attention to what the consequence will be to herself. When Samantha runs her late-night radio show inviting the listeners of New Orleans to call in and talk to her she is bound to get a few weirdos. One night when she is working on the show, and focusing on the topics of things like wrongdoings and sins she gets a caller that will turn around her life forever. The caller who calls himself Father John is a heavily disturbed man who seems hell-bent on making Samantha uncomfortable. With Father John now harassing her not only at work but at home, she gets another odd call one night on the radio. When Annie calls in to share her woes Samantha’s world turns upside down because Annie who she helped once in the past, is dead. Who is trying to dredge up the past and why becomes the main mystery.
With Samantha being harassed by Father John it seems a bit suspicious when Ty Wheeler moves into her neighbourhood and takes quite a strong liking to her. I honestly enjoyed having this romantic piece in the book because it was a nice light-hearted part to take away from all the darkness going on in the book. What Samantha doesn’t know when Father John and Annie start calling her is that young sex workers are being found dead all across the city. All of the sex workers are dying similarly and it’s clear that a serial killer is also on the loose. But how is it all connected? The connection with the whole mystery is awesome and I loved how it unraveled in the book.
Something that I mentioned before that was a downer for me in this book was that I got super pulled into the lives of Samantha and Ty and was disappointed at the end that they wouldn’t be in book two. The New Orleans series technically follows the detectives, not the other characters, so they will be the only ones to return back to the next book. I didn’t love how quickly the ending of the book went because maybe that’s what left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. I know that realistically Sam and Ty’s story was over but still, there was a part of me that wanted to know what would happen to the two next. Like I said before there was this super-fast-paced ending in the last chapter of the book which felt a bit weird to me. With how much filler was in the book I felt like that could have been cut out to lay more space for the ending to flow a bit better. It wasn’t a bad ending overall but there were some things like aspects from Samantha’s personal life that were just kind of left hanging. There was also this aspect to the ending that may insinuate some part of this story coming back in some way but it’s a bit hard to tell with how it went and how many loose ends were left that it actually had much meaning.
Overall Hot Blooded by Lisa Jackson is a great book with a fantastic mystery, and strong characters really pull it all together. I had a totally different idea of who the killer was and how all of it connected to Annie before it was all exposed at the end. I would definitely say to check this out if you’re looking for a book where you can paint a strong picture in your head of the mystery and can guess along with the other characters as to what’s unravelling.
*** Some Spoilers Ahead ***
The questions at hand are, what’s Ty’s connection to everything, who is Father John, and what does Annie the dead young woman have to do with it all?
Let’s start off with how Samantha and Annie know each other. Before living in New Orleans Samantha ran a similar show in Houston. While in Houston a young pregnant teen named Annie started phoning in looking for Samantha’s advice. Annie ultimately felt unable to get out of her situation and ended up killing herself… or so they think. Turns out Ty is Annie’s cousin who came to New Orleans to connect with Sam and work on his book which focuses on how Annie did not kill herself but was murdered. Ty never meant to fall in love with Samantha (eye roll) and was unable to keep the professional and personal separate. Despite this though I was grateful for Ty because he is essentially the only reason that Father John doesn’t kill her.
Now Father John. The reason he goes by father John is because he believes he is removing sin by killing sex workers by choking them to death with a rosary. Father John is dormant for some time, but when he hears Samantha back on the air he is reminded of a horrible time and blames Sam for it. Annie’s family blamed Samantha for their daughter’s death despite the fact it became exposed that they were the real reason for it. Annie is pregnant, but not pregnant by a boyfriend. By her brother Kent, who is also Father John. When Kent learned of his sister’s pregnancy he knew he had to do something, so he cleaned up the mess himself. Kent being Father John is all because he was never reported for what he did to his sister by his family. If they had been willing to accept what he was and get him help this may have never happened. The woman who calls in as Annie of course isn’t her but is Kent’s girlfriend who he eventually kills as well. Father John blames Samantha for almost exposing his secret all those years ago and is desperate to live out his fantasies on her.
It was super interesting to me how everything ended up connecting in this book and I honestly didn’t see the incest and her brother being the killer coming at all. If I am being honest I was totally convinced it was actually Ty who was the killer but was proved very wrong on that when he saves Samantha from Kent.
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I hope you enjoyed this review! Have you read Hot Blooded by Lisa Jackson before? What did you think?
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