Wicked
Game
Non-series
Lisa Jackson and Nancy
Bush
Zebra
(Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-4201-0338-5 (1420103385)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-0338-0 (9781420103380)
Publication Date: February 2009
List Price: $7.99
Synopsis (from
the publisher): One By One,
They’ll Die …
Twenty years ago, wild child Jessie Brentwood vanished from St.
Elizabeth’s high school. Most in Jessie’s tight
circle of friends believed she simply ran away. Few suspected that
Jessie was hiding a shocking secret—one that brought her into
the crosshairs of a vicious killer …
Until
There’s No One Left …
Two decades pass before a body is unearthed on school grounds and
Jessie’s old friends reunite to talk. Most are sure that the
body is Jessie’s, that the mystery of what happened to her
has finally been solved. But soon, Jessie’s friends each
begin to die in horrible, freak accidents that defy explanation
…
But
Her …
Becca Sutcliff has been haunted for years by unsettling visions of
Jessie, certain her friend met with a grisly end. Now the latest deaths
have her rattled. Becca can sense that an evil force is shadowing her
too, waiting for just the right moment to strike. She feels like
she’s going crazy. Is it all a coincidence—or has
Jessie’s killer finally returned to finish what was started
all those years ago?
Review:
A collaborative effort of sisters, Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush, Wicked Game
wanders in its wickedness from a forensic cold case mystery to a steamy
romance to a novel of the paranormal with touches of Stephen King.
For several of St. Elizabeth’s alumni, their high school
years in Portland weren’t the happiest. For some there was
bullying, for others rejection, and for 16-year-old seer, Rebecca
“Becca” Sutcliff, now 34 years old and recently
widowed, there was a miscarriage in an “accidental”
auto wreck. For her 16-year-old friend and a fellow seer, Jezebel
“Jessie” Brentwood, an adopted child with a
reputation as a runaway, it was a time of murder – her own.
Her death is described in gripping detail as her shadowy assailant
stalks and viciously stabs her, mouthing incantations of hate. Now,
twenty years later, an excavation on the St. Elizabeth’s
campus reveals the contents of a makeshift grave that brings out Sam
“Mac” McNally, the detective originally assigned to
Jessie’s missing person’s case. This time, however,
he’s got to deal with an annoying female partner as well as
the same group of tight-knit, closed-mouthed friends of
Jessie’s from twenty years earlier, but now grown into middle
aged victims of a grim reaper. On the other hand, Mac now has help from
modern forensics, from Becca, who experiences visions of
Jessie’s spirit, and from another woman with psychic
abilities, Renee Trudeau, a reporter and the twin sister of
Becca’s boyfriend, Hudson Walker, who has recently re-entered
Becca’s life. Mac needs all of the science he can muster,
plus every benefit of Becca’s and Renee’s efforts
as seers to divine what happened to Jessie. He also needs to learn who
or what is now decimating the St. E. alumni and trying to kill Becca,
her boyfriend, his sister, and an unborn child. There’s lots
of dirty linen for airing, too, what with the dark details about
Jessie’s family background as an adoptee, her sexually
taunting ways, Mac’s obsession with Jessie’s death,
the fatherhood of Becca’s first child, Becca’s
connections to Jessie, Hudson and others, including psychic Mad Maddie,
the surprising contents of the twenty-year-old gravesite, the
intertwining intrigues, misdemeanours – even felonies - in
the lives of the St. Elizabeth alumni, and the role that a mysterious
cult called “Siren Song” has to play with the
primary characters.
Although the novel needs tightening, several scenes grab and hold the
reader’s attention. The car crashes, for example, are as good
as any, and a couple of stabbings are hair-raising. The love scenes are
tender but eventually become predictable in their passionate outcomes.
The characters are all credible, even Becca’s pet pooch
Ringo. Both the dialogue and the settings ring true, and the twisted
mind of a villain is well-depicted in the dialogue interjected both
before and after the perpetrator is revealed by the authors. From the
Epilogue, it appears the demon has another mission to fulfill, and
plans are already underway for the next steps in fulfilling it.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Wicked Game and to Nancy Berland Public Relations for providing an advance uncorrected proof of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Wicked Game? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Wicked Game
Zebra (Mass Market Paperback), February 2009
ISBN-10: 1-4201-0338-5 (1420103385)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-0338-0 (9781420103380)
Omnimystery
keywords for Wicked Game
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Location(s) referenced: Portland, Oregon.
