Deep Freeze

by Lisa Jackson

Dear Reader,

  I hope you enjoyed Jenna and Shane’s story. Boy, did I have a great time writing the book! The idea for Deep Freeze started when my editor said he wanted a book where the killer only kills in the winter. “Wow,” I thought, “that’s not much to go on. Why would he only kill with the snowfall? Where would the book be set? How would he do it?” But the idea for the story started to form just about the time my editor said, “And you know what? How about a companion book where the opposite is true: another serial killer, linked to the first, who kills either in or with intense heat.”

  I’ve always loved the idea of opposites or the yin and yang in life. I thought this was a fabulous idea. I ran with it.

  So . . . the follow-up book now available in bookstores is Fatal Burn. You’ll meet old friends from Deep Freeze and meet some new ones as well.

  Fatal Burn is Travis Settler’s story. He’s propelled into action as his only child, his adopted daughter, Dani, is missing, presumed abducted. He doesn’t know how, where or why his daughter was stolen from him, but he intends to find her, and he’ll use every method he’s learned from his military/ spy past to find her—with or without the cops.

  Armed and dangerous, Travis follows a trail that leads straight to Shannon Carlyle’s door in Northern California.

  Shannon is Dani’s birth mother as well as a beautiful woman with a dark past she’d hoped was put to rest forever, a woman who never thought she’d get the chance to again see the daughter she gave up as an infant.

  Travis is giving her that chance and she leaps at it.

  Neither trusting the other, Shannon and Travis have to work together. Time is running out. A serial arsonist has resumed his deadly fires and somehow, they fear, he’s connected to Shannon.

  And to Dani.

  Now, please turn the page, and get an exciting sneak peek atFatal Burn, where you can learn more about Deep Freeze as well as my other books, play games, enter contests, take polls or participate in discussions online. At www.themysterymansion.com, you can log on and visit the mansion that has interactive rooms from some of my books.

  Now, please turn the page, and get an exciting sneak peek at Fatal Burn, now available wherever books are sold!

  Keep reading!

  Best,

  Lisa Jackson

  Please read on for an

  exciting sneak peek at

  Lisa Jackson’s

  FATAL BURN,

  now available

  wherever books are sold!

  He stood before the fire, feeling its heat, listening to the crackle of flames as they devoured the tinder-dry kindling. With all the shades drawn, he slowly unbuttoned his shirt, the crisp white cotton falling off his shoulders as moss ignited, hissing. Sparking.

  Above the mantel was a mirror and he watched himself undress, looked at his perfectly honed body, muscles moving easily, flexing and sliding beneath the taut skin of an athlete.

  He glanced at his eyes. Blue. Icy. Described by one woman as “bedroom eyes,” by another as “cold eyes,” by yet another unsuspecting woman as “eyes that had seen too much.”

  They’d all been right, he thought and flashed a smile.

  A “killer smile” he’d heard.

  Bingo.

  The women had no idea how close to the truth they’d all been. He was handsome and he knew it. Not good-looking enough to turn heads on the street, but so interesting that women, once they noticed him, had trouble looking away.

  There had been a time when he’d been so flattered that he’d rarely turned in the other direction, a time when he’d picked and chosen and rarely been denied.

  He unbuckled his leather belt, let it fall to the hardwood floor. His slacks slid easily off his butt, down his legs and pooled at his feet. He hadn’t bothered with boxers or jockeys. Who cared? It was all about outward appearances.

  Always.

  His smile fell away as he walked closer to the mantel, feeling the heat already radiating from the old bricks. Pictures in frames stood at attention upon the smooth fir. Images he’d caught when his subject didn’t realize he or she was on camera. People who knew him. Or of him. People who had to pay.

  His eyes fixated on one photograph, slightly larger than the others, and he stared into her gorgeous face. He traced a finger along her hairline, his guts churning as he noticed her hazel eyes, slightly freckled nose, thick waves of unruly reddish curls. Her skin was pale, her eyes alive, her smile tenuous, as if she’d sensed him hiding in the shadowy trees, his lens poised at her heart-shaped face.

  The dog, some kind of scraggly mutt, had appeared from the other side of the woods, lifted his nose in the air as he’d reached her, trembled, growled, and nearly given him away. Shannon had given the cur a short command and peered into the woods.

  By that time, he’d been slipping away. Silently moving through the dark woods, putting distance between them, heading upwind. He’d gotten his snapshots. He’d needed nothing more.

  Then.

  Because the timing hadn’t been right.

  But now . . .

  The fire glowed bright, seemed to pulse with life as it grew, giving the bare room a warm, rosy glow. He stared again at his image. So perfect in the mirror.

  He turned, facing away from the reflection.

  Looking over his shoulder, he gritted those perfect white teeth, gnashing them together as he saw the mirror’s cruel image of his back, the skin scarred and shiny, looking as if it had melted from his body.

  He remembered the fire.

  The agony of his flesh being burned from his bones.

  He’d never forget.

  Not for as long as he drew a breath on this godforsaken planet.

  And those who had done this to him would pay.

  A Very Special Q&A With Lisa Jackson

  The plot of Deep Freeze deals with an obsessed fan. Over the years there have been many movies and novels featuring this device. There was a movie in the 1980s called The Fan, starring Lau ren Bacall, as a theater actress with a stalker. And who can forget Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Stephen King’s Misery, which was a novel before it was a movie? Why do you think the obsessed fan is a popular plot device that keeps readers and viewers coming back?

  I LOVED Kathy Bates in Misery, though it makes me cringe to think of the “hobbling” scene. I think we’re all fascinated with fame and its pitfalls—otherwise why in the world would we all pick up copies of People at the hairdresser’s? The obsessed fan or stalker is part of the dark side of fame and touches a fear deep in all of us, and we all want a peek into the lives of the rich and famous and if someone dares stalk them, we’re all fascinated. When writing Deep Freeze, I wanted to touch on this and how one famous woman struggles for a “normal” life for her children and herself.

  I’ve heard a rumor that your editor would like you to perhaps revisit the characters in Deep Freeze. It would be a few years later, and one of Jenna’s daughters, either Cassie or Allie, would be an actress dealing with her own obsessed fan. Any truth to the rumor?

  My editor and I have dozens of ideas that we’ve discussed over the years, and this is a very viable one. With me, sometimes it takes years for a story to develop, as in the case of You Don’t Want to Know; other times, as in the case of Deep Freeze, it’s just a suggestion (in this case, my editor wanted a killer who killed only in the winter—that was his whole concept, and it blossomed into one of my favorite books fairly quickly). So, yes, there’s a possibility that we’ll see Cassie’s or Allie’s story (maybe both?) someday!

  I also heard that your editor would like you to take that actress character and cross her over with the characters you created in your Rick Bentz/Reuben Montoya series. She would be involved in New Orleans making a movie based on Father John, the serial killer who appeared in Bentz and Montoya’s first case in Hot Blooded.

  Well, my editor does have an imagination, and this is a great idea, I think. The Bentz/Montoya characters are popular, and my readers seem to want more of them, so it’
s worth exploring. Again, I don’t have the entire story plotted in my head yet, but it’s definitely a possibility!

  Now, as your readers know, Father John’s body was never found, so could he be the stalker? After all, he was stalking your heroine, Samantha Leeds, in Hot Blooded, so he does have a pattern!

  We won’t know if he’s the stalker until I actually write the book, and even if I did know, I wouldn’t tell or it would ruin the story, but I will tell you this: Father John comes into play not only in Hot Blooded but in Devious as well. He’s one of the villains I have trou ble forgetting!

  Speaking of actresses, who are some of your favorites?

  Uh-oh. Here we go. I hate to admit it, but I can’t keep up with all the new faces. I do love Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi, of The Good Wife, and Meryl Streep is hard to beat. Jennifer Lawrence did a great job in The Hunger Games, and OMG—Claire Danes is fascinating in Homeland! Of course I’m in love with the entire casts of Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones, but when I was writing Deep Freeze, I have to admit, Demi Moore came to mind.

  How do you come up with your ideas? What inspires you? Do you brainstorm with your editor? Other writers? How much input do you ask from your sister, Nancy Bush, who’s also a New York Times bestselling author?

  All of the above! Each book is different. Of course Nancy and I brainstormed all the way to Seattle via car for our “Wicked” series. We were so caught up in the story line that we actually drove to the wrong spot! My editor, John Scognamiglio, is responsible for many of my story ideas; for example, he came up with the basic killer in Deep Freeze, and the plotline similarities to a famous true crime for Tell Me. Sometimes the idea comes to me from something I read, or heard or saw or dreamt. The idea for You Don’t Want to Know started out as an exercise at a writer’s workshop I attended five or seven years before I actually wrote the book. It varies, just as the stories do.

  Have you ever started working on a novel and after you’ve gotten into it decided that the idea just wasn’t working and abandoned it?

  Many times. I have a whole file of misspent ideas that I think didn’t germinate for a variety of reasons, one of which being it just wasn’t the time for the book. In the case of Devious, my editor came up with the basic idea years before, but it didn’t click with me and all of a sudden one day, I thought, Hey! I know how I can make that work, and I did. I always work off of a synopsis, though, so I don’t invest months and months into a dead project. If the story doesn’t work, I know it during the plotting stage, so I haven’t written pages that have to be trashed!

  Which do you enjoy writing more: stand-alone novels or books that are linked?

  Oooh. Tough question. I love going back to characters I enjoy. I can’t imagine not writing another Montoya/Bentz story set in New Orleans or not revisiting my favorite characters in Grizzly Falls, Montana, in the “To Die” series, but it’s difficult keeping all of them straight, and sometimes their story has been told, so the well is dry, at least for a while. I love the novelty of stand-alones, and the characters are new, so there’s more freedom with their backstories, but because I haven’t written about them before, it takes awhile to “get to know” the characters.

  Is it easier to write a book that’s part of a series, or is it harder?

  I think this harkens back to the previous question. Some - times it’s either way. It varies. I never know which book is going to be a dream to write and which will be a nightmare. Oftentimes, though, I believe it’s what’s going on in my personal life. If my own life is full of life-changing scenarios, it’s more difficult to concentrate on my characters where, when my life is even-keeled (boring?), it’s easier to get deep into the characters in my book.

  Dear Reader,

  I hope you enjoyed Deep Freeze.

  After She’s Gone, a brand-new book, will be in stores in January 2016. This book takes up nearly a decade after Deep Freeze and catches up with Allie and Cassie Kramer, both who have tested the waters of acting in Hollywood with varied success. Allie, the younger sibling, is much more famous that her older sister. Jealousy and rivalry have been parts of their lives and culminate when Allie goes missing, and Cassie, never all that stable to begin with, is suspected in her sister’s disappearance. Is Allie dead? The victim of her sister’s jealousy? Is she part of an elaborate publicity stunt? Or is she now the victim of her own insidious stalker with his own malevolent intent. Catch up with the Kramer sisters and find out in After She’s Gone.

  For those of you who are into my Grizzly Falls series that features Detectives Alvarez and Pescoli, you’ll be glad to know that in late 2016, there will be two more books available. Expecting to Die takes up where Deserves to Die left off, with a very pregnant Regan Pescoli debating whether she’ll stay on the force or throw in her badge and stay home after her baby is born. Unfortunately an old nemesis plans to take the choice away from her and all her carefully laid plans, as well as the lives of her family, are threatened. Things only get worse in Willing to Die where Pescoli and Alvarez battle a foe who is willing to sacrifice everything to extract a deadly revenge.

  I think you’ll like the stories. At least, I hope so.

  If you’d like more information on these books or any other I’ve written, please check out my website. At www.lisajackson.com you’ll be able to see what’s new and read excerpts from upcoming as well as already published books. Also, you can like me on Facebook at Lisa Jackson Fans or follow me at readlisajackson on Twitter.

  Keep Reading!

  Lisa Jackson

  In this explosive new thriller, #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson delves into the deep bond between two sisters and their shared dream that becomes a harrowing nightmare of madness, hatred, and jealousy . . .

  Cassie Kramer and her younger sister, Allie, learned the hazards of fame long ago. Together, they’d survived the horror of a crazed fan who nearly killed their mother, former Hollywood actress Jenna Hughes. Still, Cassie moved to L.A., urging Allie to follow. As a team, they’d take the town by storm. But Allie, finally free of small-town Oregon, and just that little bit more beautiful, also proved to be more talented—and driven. Where Cassie got bit parts, Allie rose to stardom. But now her body double has been shot on the set of her latest movie—and Allie is missing.

  Police discover that the last call to Allie’s phone came from Cassie, though she has no recollection of making it. Instead of looking like a concerned relative, Cassie is starting to look like a suspect—the jealous sister who finally grew sick of playing a supporting role. As the tabloids go into a frenzy, Cassie ends up on a Portland psych ward. Is she just imagining the sinister figure who comes to her bedside, whispering about Allie—a visitor of whom there is no record? Is someone trying to help—or drive her mad?

  Convinced she’s the only one who can find Allie, Cassie checks herself out of the hospital. But a sudden slew of macabre murders— each victim masked with a likeness of a member of Cassie’s family—makes Cassie fear for her safety and her sanity. The only way to end the nightmare is to find out what really happened to Allie. And with each discovery, Cassie realizes that no one can be trusted to keep her safe—least of all herself . . .

  Please turn the page for an exciting sneak peek of

  Lisa Jackson’s

  After She’s Gone,

  coming in January 2016

  wherever print and eBooks are sold!

  Portland, Oregon

  He watched.

  Carefully.

  Paying attention to every detail as the rain sheeted from the night-dark sky and streetlights reflected on the wet pavement.

  Two women were running, faster and faster and he smiled as the first passed into the lamp’s pool of illumination. Her face was twisted in terror, her beautiful features distorted by fear.

  Just as they should have been.

  Good. Very good.

  The slower woman was a few steps behind and constantly looking over her shoulder, as if she were expecting somethin
g or someone with murderous intent to be hunting her down.

  Just as he’d planned.

  Come on, come on, keep running.

  As if they heard him, the women raced forward.

  Perfect.

  His throat tightened and his fists balled in nervous anticipation.

  Just a few more steps!

  Gasping, the slower woman paused, one hand splayed over her chest as she leaned over to catch her breath beneath the street lamp. Rain poured down from the heavens. Her hair was wet, falling in dripping ringlets around her face, her white jacket soaked through. Again she glanced furtively behind her, past the empty sidewalks and storefronts of this forgotten part of the city. God, she was beautiful, as was the first one, each a fine female specimen that he’d picked precisely for this moment.

  His heart was pumping wildly, anticipation and adrenaline firing his blood as an anticipatory grin twisted his lips.

  Good. This is so good.

  Silently he watched as from the corner of his eye, the first woman raced past him just as he’d hoped. Eyes focused ahead, she was seemingly oblivious to his presence, but, in his heart, he knew she realized he was there, observing her every movement, catching each little nuance of fear. He saw determination and horror in the tense lines of her face, heard it in her quick, shallow breaths and the frenzied pounding of her footsteps as she’d flown past.

  And then she was gone.

  Safely down the street.

  He forced his full attention to the second woman, the target. She twisted her neck, turned to look his way, as if she felt him near, as if she divined him lurking in the deep umbra surrounding the street.