Almost Dead

Late for her weekly visit with her grandmother, Cissy Holt reaches Eugenia’s Cahill’s home, pizza in one hand, young son in the other . . . and finds her grandmother dead, apparently from a fall down the stairs.
A second death follows shortly after Eugenia’s and Cissy realizes that someone [perhaps her escaped from prison mother?] is killing off Cahill family members. Will Cissy be next? Or can she solve the mystery of who is murdering her family . . . and why?

This intense narrative, although able to stand alone, continues the saga of the Cahill family introduced in “If She Only Knew.” Here Cissy takes center stage as, one by one, members of her family die. Jack Holt, her estranged husband, is desperately hoping for a show more reconciliation, but at the outset, Cissy seems quite unmovable on that point.

Several of the characters have a tendency to be quite annoying and self-centered in their thinking, character traits that make them all the more believable. The investigating detective, Anthony Paterno, is a superbly-drawn character, a highlight of the tale.

The suspense builds in this thriller as the plot twists and turns, keeping readers involved until the final unexpected reveal most readers aren’t likely to see coming. show less

Lately Cissy Cahill has been asking herself if life could get any worse. While in the middle of divorcing her husband, her psycho mom escapes from prison. Just when Cissy thinks nothing else could possibly go wrong, she finds the body of her grandmother, dead from what looks like a fall down the stairs. When more members of her family are murdered, the Police are sure it is Marla Cahill, her mother. Even though she knows her mother is crazy, Cissy can't believe that she could murder members of her own family...or could she?

While the mystery is strong in this book, Lisa Jackson has gone back toward her romance roots. Romance suspense fans should be happy with this Jackson offering.

Almost Dead
3.5 Stars

A good plot with some interesting twists and turns, especially the revelation at the end.
The characters are where the book falls short. Jack and Cissy are not that likable as their constant bickering is a turnoff and their romance is lacking.

The two detectives moved the story along, but the H/H didn’t. Frustrated by all the small chit chat and internal moaning and groaning when I wanted to know what the villains were doing. Excellent story premise though.

Almost Dead
3.5 Stars

A good plot with some interesting twists and turns, especially the revelation at the end.
The characters are where the book falls short. Jack and Cissy are not that likable as their constant bickering is a turnoff and their romance is lacking.

Review: “Almost Dead” by Lisa Jackson. This is a great book. I recommend it to all lovers of suspense, muders, mystery, thriller and most of all REVENGE. It was a book I had a hard time putting down. The story was amazing and keep me on guard. I would think one way the story was going and it just kept changing. It was an intriguing and an exciting book to read.

The story was about a well known three generation Family. In that family there was one secret and that secret was about to be exposed. Plots and plans of murder were around every corner and very well planned out, with one exception. One of the players was not following the plans the way they were set up. This person decided to add kidnapping an eighteen month old baby to the show more plans. I thought I knew the answers to my most asked questions as I was reading through the book. However, It got to the point that I was wrong most of the time. The writer made it hard to make any connection to a reasonable answer to who the killer or killers could be. This made me read more because I wanted to know who was behind the murders. One Victim was pushed to her death, the second victim suffered a fatal overdose and the third victim was shot in the heart. Like the book states… “three down more to go”. show less

In If She Only Knew we meet the Cahill family, (click here for my review), Almost Dead continues the story 10 years later with Marla's daughter, Cissy Cahill.

Cissy is married now with a toddler son. Her world appears to be falling apart, her marriage is failing and then the people closest to her start dieing, being murdered actually. Cissy herself is being stalked. Detective Anthony Paterno has returned and is the investigating officer.

As the police put the pieces together and the killer draws closer, a secret from the past holds the key to solving the case.

Once again Lisa Jackson draws the reader into another world, a world where fear rules and twisted individuals are willing to do anything to get what they want. While you could read show more this novel without reading the first one, I think it is much more enjoyable if you already have a basic knowledge of some of the characters in Almost Dead. The twists in this novel are thrilling, once again with unexpected turns and a surprise if not a total shock at the end makes this another winner. show less