I am always looking for a new snack-reading author. Someone who can write a genre series with interesting characters and snappy writing and perhaps a clever plot line. I had never read anything by Lisa Jackson, although my library has a whole shelf of her NY Times bestsellers. I picked this one at random, because the blurb--Four girls go missing from All Souls College in Baton Rouge!--tempted me.

But the book is disappointing on many levels, primarily the writing. Doesn't Lisa Jackson have an editor? The book reads like a first draft, after which the author will see--oh, oops, I used the word 'hastened' in two successive sentences, and the word 'sizzled' three times on one page. To refer to lightning. There are sentences and metaphors that sound like they were written by a lovelorn 15-year old. And the text is overwritten. Every little action is described--Kristi locks her bike. Kristi goes down the sidewalk. She goes up the stairs. She puts her hand on the doorknob. She turns the knob. She turns it the other way. It's locked! Oh no! It's no wonder the book is so long. I found I was rotating my hand---come on, come on, just tell us already.

It was clear from the outset that this is a series, and we're supposed to know things about annoyingly spunky Kristi Bentz (NOT Rick Bentz's biological daughter! Oh no!) and her past, wherein she attracts serial killers, but survives the ensuing comas to pursue her dream of returning to college at 27 and, as a sidelight, identifying people who are about to die.

Seriously--I was still on board after the first few chapters, despite all the expositive melodrama. But eventually, the lack of a coherent plot, the endless repetition and the genuinely awful writing made finishing the book a chore.