Left to Die by Lisa Jackson

#1 - Selena Alvarez and Regina Pescoli
Copyright: 2008
Publisher: Zebra
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 386
Challenges: TBR challenge, Thriller and Suspense
Author's Website
My rating: 3/5

Simple Description: 
In a small town in Montana, the unthinkable has happened, there is a serial killer on the loose.  He is targeting woman.  The police can't find any kind of link between the woman, other than that the were driving the mountain roads at the wrong time.  The killer shoots the woman's car tire and they crash. Then he rescues them and it appears he nurses them back to health for awhile before he ties them to a tree to die in the cold.

Regan Pescoli and Serena Alvarez are the lead homicide detectives on this case.  They go over and over the clues but can't seem to get a step ahead of the killer.  They know about what his time line is, but that's about it.  They have no way to stop him because they don't know where he takes the victims after the car accidents. Plus, due to the snow they keep getting, they usually don't find the cars until after the women are found.

Jillian Rivers was driving to her ex-husbands house when she heard a gun shot and then lost control of her car.  She had recently received some disturbing news, it appeared that her first husband, who was presumed dead, might still be alive.  She wants some answers.   However her car crashes and MacGregor happens to find her and takes her to his cabin and tries to help her get better.  However Jillian doesn't think she can trust him because before she left her house she read an article about a serial killer in this area, is she the latest victim?  What, if anything, does this have to do with her first husband possibly being alive?

Now what you really want to know....my thoughts:
Overall, I enjoyed this book and because the book does stop with a cliffhanger, I'll be reading the next one in August.   It's very interesting because we go back and forth between the detectives investigating the case, the serial killer, and Jillian Rivers.  Throughout the book we don't know who the serial killer is, we don't know if it's the man who has Jillian or not.  We are given glimpses of him through the other stories, but his identity is never revealed.  In fact, at the end of this book we still don't know who he is.

While this book did take me awhile to read it, it did move pretty well.  There always seemed to be something that was going on, some new twist.

I think part of what kept me from reading it faster and possibly liking it more than I did were the two detectives.  Alvarez and Pescoli are main characters in this book and important to the story, but I didn't connect with either one of them.  We know that Alvarez has some secret about her past and while we finally are told part of it, I really don't think that's the whole story.  Pescoli is made to seem as somewhat of a wild and loose single Mom.  I just didn't think the characters were that strong or appealed to the reader much.  I'm hoping with the second book we are able to connect to them more.  I'm assuming we will finally learn the secret Alvarez is carrying around with her.


This book is part of my collection and was either bought or given to me.