Lost Souls (A Bentz/Montoya Novel) (U)

The suspense is relentless in #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson’s gripping thriller featuring the daughter of New Orleans Detective Rick Bentz—a resilient young woman whose two-time survival of a serial killer has left her fascinated by the criminal mind, determined to become a true-crime writer—and drawn her once more into a twisted psychopath’s unspeakable crimes . . . All twenty-seven-year-old Kristi Bentz needs to fulfill her writing dreams is one case that will take her to the top. When she learns that four girls have disappeared from All Saints College in two years, Kristi decides to enroll and re-trace their steps. The once-stodgy Catholic school now boasts edgy professors and provocative classes, and there are whispers of a campus inner-circle whose members engage in dark rituals to which only the elite have access . . . All four girls were “lost souls”—troubled, vulnerable, with no one to care or come looking for them when they disappeared. The police think they’re runaways, but Kristi senses there’s something that links them—something terrifying. As Kristi delves deeper into her investigation, she gets the feeling she’s being watched, followed—studied, even. Then the bodies start turning up in ways that frighten even hardened cops like Bentz and his partner, Reuben Montoya. And Kristi realizes she is playing a game with a killer who has selected her for membership in a cult of death from which there will be no escape . . .