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Whispers
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson delivers the suspenseful story of a woman with shocking secrets who is drawn into a journalist's web...and an obsession that could destroy her. In the chill of an Oregon Night, a man plunges to his death. Another vanishes without a trace. A third drowns in the murky waters of a quiet lake. Alone in the dark, a ruthless killer is certain that every loose end has been cut, every enemy silenced...except one. It's been sixteen years since Claire St. John fled in terror from her family's home on Lake Arrowhead. Sixteen years since her fiance's tragic death and the shocking secret she promised never to reveal to anyone. But that was before journalist Kate Moran began probing the mystery of that horrible night, turning a light on the darkest corners of Claire's life, exposing her once again to a cold-blooded murderer's vicious fury. Now, as Claire returns home to face a past she's tried to forget, another body is unearthed, revealing the twisted nature of a killer who is ready at last to make Claire pay the ultimate price!
452 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1996
2745 people are currently reading
5736 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Jackson
271 books9,593 followersLisa Jackson is the number-one New York Times bestselling author of over ninety-five novels, including the Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya Series, the Pescoli and Alvarez Series, the Savannah series, and numerous stand alone novels. She also is the co-author of One Last Breath, Last Girl Standing, and the Colony Series, written with her sister and bestselling author Nancy Bush, as well as the collaborative novels Sinister and Ominous, written with Nancy Bush and Rosalind Noonan. There are over thirty million copies of her novels in print and her writing has been translated into twenty languages.
Before she became a nationally bestselling author, she was a mother struggling to keep food on the table by writing novels, hoping against hope that someone would pay her for them. Today, neck deep in murder, her books appear on The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly national bestseller lists.
With dozens of bestsellers to her name, Lisa Jackson is a master of taking readers to the edge of sanity—and back—in novels that buzz with dangerous secrets and deadly passions. She continues to be fascinated by the minds and motives of both her killers and their pursuers—the personal, the professional, and the downright twisted. As she builds the puzzle of relationships, actions, clues, lies, and personal histories that haunt her protagonists, she must also confront the fear and terror faced by her victims and the harsh and enduring truth that, in the real world, terror and madness touch far too many lives and families.
Visit http://www.LisaJackson.com where you can find a Media Kit with photos and more information.
Before she became a nationally bestselling author, she was a mother struggling to keep food on the table by writing novels, hoping against hope that someone would pay her for them. Today, neck deep in murder, her books appear on The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly national bestseller lists.
With dozens of bestsellers to her name, Lisa Jackson is a master of taking readers to the edge of sanity—and back—in novels that buzz with dangerous secrets and deadly passions. She continues to be fascinated by the minds and motives of both her killers and their pursuers—the personal, the professional, and the downright twisted. As she builds the puzzle of relationships, actions, clues, lies, and personal histories that haunt her protagonists, she must also confront the fear and terror faced by her victims and the harsh and enduring truth that, in the real world, terror and madness touch far too many lives and families.
Visit http://www.LisaJackson.com where you can find a Media Kit with photos and more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 381 reviews
February 6, 2017
Whispers is an entertaining read. However, what it boils down to is a story about wealthy over privileged teens/young adults with too much time and opportunity to create misery and angst in their own lives. Even the characters that we are meant to empathize with are self centered ans spoiled. The trouble these people find are so far beyond the acceptable that deception, assault, and death all come into play. Whispers reads like a good made for television movie. This would be a good book to pick up while traveling or on vacation when you just want to be entertained and aren't looking to need to think too deeply about a story. I found this copy at Goodwill and I will definitely look for more Lisa Jackson in the future.
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October 8, 2018
WHISPERS
Written by Lisa Jackson
(Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan)
1996 (REISSUED: 2015); Kensington Books (416 Pages)
(Audio length: 16 hours and 15 minutes)
Genre: romance, contemporary, mystery
RATING: ★★
Miranda, Claire and Tessa have been summoned to their family home in Lake Arrowhead, Oregon where their father announces he is running for governor, and needs their cooperation. Their father also hires an investigator to rifle through their family secrets to see what will hurt his campaign. Kane Moran, now a reporter, has returned home to also expose family the candidate's secrets and what find out what really happened sixteen years ago.
Sixteen years ago - eldest daughter, Miranda is love with Hunter and is pregnant with his baby; Claire is in love with Harley and they are engaged to be married; and Tessa has given her virginity to Weston who wants to sleep with all three of the sisters, especially Miranda. Kendall is also in love with Harley, and is in cahoots with Weston to get Harley back. Paige, Weston and Harley's sister, wants Harley to marry Kendall so she can have Kendall in her life. Their parents are all having affairs with one another and not for love. Then one night everything blows up when Harley is found dead and the three sisters were in a car accident - all on the same night.
Then we come back to the present (1996) where things s-l-o-w-l-y unfolds just how you think it would. And, somehow the characters come together in a forced way to tie up loose ends.
This was one of those novels where I did not like a single character. They were all selfish in their own way and not characters I would root for. I did come to feel for Miranda and Tessa as their characters did grow and redeemed themselves (in my opinion). They had the capacity to be strong heroines to carry the novel on their own. I did not like Claire - or like how she turned out or find that she did anything to change my opinion on her. And, of course, she is the heroine. The one everyone wants to love or hate. She has this big secret and every time the person she is keeping it from comes around, she ALWAYS has to mention that she has this secret from them, that they will hate her, and that she can't believe they haven't already figured it out. She also has a love interest (the hero who I also don't care for) where the "romance" seems to pop out of nowhere, as the chemistry between them is not really there. We hear they are in love but don't really see it. I enjoyed the narrator as she kept a good pace for a long drawn out story. I felt like there was too much going on and we were in the past too much. I didn't think we needed whole back story as it gave away the killer right away. I felt for this reason their wasn't much suspense. This book just didn't keep my interest. I did finish it just because I was willing to stay with the story for the author's sake, and then got to a point where I had to finish or admit great defeat.
My Novelesque Life
Written by Lisa Jackson
(Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan)
1996 (REISSUED: 2015); Kensington Books (416 Pages)
(Audio length: 16 hours and 15 minutes)
Genre: romance, contemporary, mystery
RATING: ★★
Miranda, Claire and Tessa have been summoned to their family home in Lake Arrowhead, Oregon where their father announces he is running for governor, and needs their cooperation. Their father also hires an investigator to rifle through their family secrets to see what will hurt his campaign. Kane Moran, now a reporter, has returned home to also expose family the candidate's secrets and what find out what really happened sixteen years ago.
Sixteen years ago - eldest daughter, Miranda is love with Hunter and is pregnant with his baby; Claire is in love with Harley and they are engaged to be married; and Tessa has given her virginity to Weston who wants to sleep with all three of the sisters, especially Miranda. Kendall is also in love with Harley, and is in cahoots with Weston to get Harley back. Paige, Weston and Harley's sister, wants Harley to marry Kendall so she can have Kendall in her life. Their parents are all having affairs with one another and not for love. Then one night everything blows up when Harley is found dead and the three sisters were in a car accident - all on the same night.
Then we come back to the present (1996) where things s-l-o-w-l-y unfolds just how you think it would. And, somehow the characters come together in a forced way to tie up loose ends.
This was one of those novels where I did not like a single character. They were all selfish in their own way and not characters I would root for. I did come to feel for Miranda and Tessa as their characters did grow and redeemed themselves (in my opinion). They had the capacity to be strong heroines to carry the novel on their own. I did not like Claire - or like how she turned out or find that she did anything to change my opinion on her. And, of course, she is the heroine. The one everyone wants to love or hate. She has this big secret and every time the person she is keeping it from comes around, she ALWAYS has to mention that she has this secret from them, that they will hate her, and that she can't believe they haven't already figured it out. She also has a love interest (the hero who I also don't care for) where the "romance" seems to pop out of nowhere, as the chemistry between them is not really there. We hear they are in love but don't really see it. I enjoyed the narrator as she kept a good pace for a long drawn out story. I felt like there was too much going on and we were in the past too much. I didn't think we needed whole back story as it gave away the killer right away. I felt for this reason their wasn't much suspense. This book just didn't keep my interest. I did finish it just because I was willing to stay with the story for the author's sake, and then got to a point where I had to finish or admit great defeat.
My Novelesque Life
January 5, 2016
I wasn’t a big fan of this one. It started out decent and then shifted time perspective and for a good 1/3 of the book, you are basically reading a young adult book with some pretty messed up teen drama and sex, which I seriously am just not interested in, before jumping back to the present. The whole book is really just about some convoluted, twisted and unhealthy relationships, most of which really struggle to ring true even through the lens of teenage ignorance and intensity.
Just like the relationships in this, the story line is twisted and convoluted as well. Pretty early on, you kind of figure out who the bad guy is, then get a few misdirection threads tossed in so you question it, but when it is all said and done, those first impressions prove true, in a much more messed up way than your originally thought. That part isn’t bad, but it is all just a bit too over the top for my tastes, especially when mixed with stereotypical spoiled, entitled teens and other side of the tracks bad boys for the underdog.
This just isn’t the kind of story I really enjoy. I can’t say that it is badly written or that it isn’t worth the read as others may really enjoy it, but it just isn’t my thing.
Just like the relationships in this, the story line is twisted and convoluted as well. Pretty early on, you kind of figure out who the bad guy is, then get a few misdirection threads tossed in so you question it, but when it is all said and done, those first impressions prove true, in a much more messed up way than your originally thought. That part isn’t bad, but it is all just a bit too over the top for my tastes, especially when mixed with stereotypical spoiled, entitled teens and other side of the tracks bad boys for the underdog.
This just isn’t the kind of story I really enjoy. I can’t say that it is badly written or that it isn’t worth the read as others may really enjoy it, but it just isn’t my thing.
March 1, 2009
For those of you who wonder why I continue reading her if I have such petty problems with the vocabulary she uses, I am reading one author a month. February was Lisa Jackson month.
As I previously reviewed she over uses words and phrases, which could easily be corrected with a thesaurus.
Before reading her I had never heard the word "niggle", which means trifling doubt, objection, complaint and seems to have originated in England. She uses this word in excess in this book, with the setting in Oregon, and The Night Before and The Morning After, which take place in Savannah. Now I don't know much about the language of vocabulary or the evolution of words but when the US is split between Pop, Soda, and Coke I have a hard time believing that people from Oregon and Georgia, and everywhere in between, use the word "niggle" in every day language.
Jackson also over uses "the sons he could have sired" and "sired" in general. Again this is something that could easily be avoided with the use of a thesaurus or some creativity. Luckily this time when she talked about how dry someone's mouth was she said "dry as cotton" instead of "all the spit in his/her mouth dried up".
However, I get pulled in and although I become frustrated with her choice of wording I like the suspense she brings to the books of hers I've read already. I'll probably return to her sometime next year or when I take a "free" month.
As I previously reviewed she over uses words and phrases, which could easily be corrected with a thesaurus.
Before reading her I had never heard the word "niggle", which means trifling doubt, objection, complaint and seems to have originated in England. She uses this word in excess in this book, with the setting in Oregon, and The Night Before and The Morning After, which take place in Savannah. Now I don't know much about the language of vocabulary or the evolution of words but when the US is split between Pop, Soda, and Coke I have a hard time believing that people from Oregon and Georgia, and everywhere in between, use the word "niggle" in every day language.
Jackson also over uses "the sons he could have sired" and "sired" in general. Again this is something that could easily be avoided with the use of a thesaurus or some creativity. Luckily this time when she talked about how dry someone's mouth was she said "dry as cotton" instead of "all the spit in his/her mouth dried up".
However, I get pulled in and although I become frustrated with her choice of wording I like the suspense she brings to the books of hers I've read already. I'll probably return to her sometime next year or when I take a "free" month.
June 9, 2018
My 1st book by LJ and I loved it! Excellent mystery/suspense. Eeeny meany miny mo who dunnit ending for me. Gotta get more of her books now!
February 6, 2017
marketed as a mystery thriller, but nothing better than a glorified romance novel whose main characters are teenagers. on the plus side, I learned a lot of euphemisms for talking about sex...I mean, the Union between his searing manhood and her soft netherworld. :)
March 29, 2018
This may have been a 2-star mystery, but I had to take another star away for suffering through 150 pages of 50 Shades of Neanderthal Sex Scenes (“romance”?? Seriously??)
May 9, 2023
Years ago a Harley Taggert was killed and no suspect was ever arrested. Sixteen years later Kane Moran is back in town and he is writing a story of the murder Harley and is determined to get to the bottom of it even if it ends up being the person he has never forgot, Claire St. John. As Kane investigates truths are revealed and the suspect list continues to grow, will Kane figure it out in time?
Claire and Kane had a forbidden love years ago, he was the bad boy and she was the girl everyone wanted. Now Kane is back drumming up old memories and everyone has a secret they are keeping. I thought the pacing was great in this one and I kept thinking I had it solved but then something would happen to steer me in a different direction. Kept me on my toes.
Claire and Kane had a forbidden love years ago, he was the bad boy and she was the girl everyone wanted. Now Kane is back drumming up old memories and everyone has a secret they are keeping. I thought the pacing was great in this one and I kept thinking I had it solved but then something would happen to steer me in a different direction. Kept me on my toes.
December 31, 2015
Good plot overall, but way to wordy and repetitive.
June 6, 2020
Excellent mystery!!!
Trying to guess who did it was impossible. When a story gives you so many directions to look, it certainly is exciting to read.
Trying to guess who did it was impossible. When a story gives you so many directions to look, it certainly is exciting to read.
April 13, 2014
I enjoyed the setting, foggy dreary Oregon. I liked the main characters, three sisters Clare, Tessa, and Miranda. The hunky bad boy, Kane. The evil family , Taggert. And the mystery of who killed who. But I think this book came out just as cell phones were new. Anyway, I liked it so much that when the audio CD started skipping on the next to the last CD, I almost got the book to read. Luckily Mid Continent Library had another copy. It is a good mystery.
April 6, 2020
Horrifyingly awful. So much so that my roommates and I read the whole thing aloud while screaming with laughter. Simultaneously the worst and best thing I've ever read.
April 10, 2021
Did not finish. Plot too slow. Characters boring and one dimensional
January 29, 2025
Entertaining family relationships listening 🎶🔰
This kindle e-book novel is from my Kindle Unlimited account a stand alone book
This novel is about several family members from their teens to a number of years later. It an action packed misdirection with some violence leading to the unexpected conclusions.
I would recommend this novel to readers of romantic family and friends relationships adventure thriller novels 👍🔰. 2025 👒😀
This kindle e-book novel is from my Kindle Unlimited account a stand alone book
This novel is about several family members from their teens to a number of years later. It an action packed misdirection with some violence leading to the unexpected conclusions.
I would recommend this novel to readers of romantic family and friends relationships adventure thriller novels 👍🔰. 2025 👒😀
February 24, 2025
I loved this book. I couldn't put it down and when I had to (go to work, urgh!) all I could do was think about it. So many secrets. So many lies. This book had everything from murder to mayhem, to love and hate and murder and lies and hate. No one knows how to tell the truth? This is a twisted story of two and a half families and their love and brazen hate for each other. I fell in love with "the other man". I loathed the brother. I hated all of the dads. No wonder their family members were so screwed up. Don't pick this book up unless you have time to read it to the end. This one is unputdownable.
December 3, 2017
This awful book took me months to finish. Not sure why I even did. So incredibly boring, lots of graphic sex scenes among teenagers, more sex (thought this was a mystery book), and just words to fill up chapters. I sped red through parts and didn’t miss a single thing bc it was boring fluff.
I hated this book.
I hated this book.
December 23, 2011
Not my style. Thought it was a murder mystery - but it was a romance
March 8, 2017
Too much sex.
August 9, 2020
2 books in a row and I am done with this one too... It's more like a teenager would be reading this book... Lisa Jackson is one of my favorite author too. :-(
September 30, 2021
*Sigh. This was not even close to what it was billed to be. Teenage angst and unsympathetic characters abound. No suspense or tension and the mystery was more of a sub-plot.
September 28, 2018
finished this one yesterday the 27th of september 2018 good read four stars i really liked it. i liked, too, what i'd call poor word choice, half a dozen times, usually a word used in conjunction with a descriptive feeling...didn't mark them, wasn't in a teacher/editor mood, and the one that comes to mind...if i have it right even...'tears drizzled down...' anyway...i enjoyed the story, liked that i couldn't figure out whodunnit, everyone in the cast is a suspect, has the fabled motive, means, and gumption. or wait now...motive, means, and...whackadoodle. that ain't right, either. motive, means...see, this is why i swing a hammer. master of my universe. too, there's an author's note before story opener that this is an updated version...so it's possible to read a version of this that whatever. be wary, be very wary.
September 7, 2022
This is a must read book for fans of Lisa Jackson. It is a standalone about a feud between two families with deadly consequences. The Holland sisters have hidden secrets for years and return home when their father Dutch demands that they appear for his announcement that he is going to run for governor. The Taggert siblings are driven and somewhat crazy for power, at least the ones who survive. I enjoyed the characterization, the romance and the strong, fast-paced plot.
Disclaimer
I checked out this book from my local library using the Libby App. I was not required to write a positive review, All opinions expressed are my own.
Disclaimer
I checked out this book from my local library using the Libby App. I was not required to write a positive review, All opinions expressed are my own.
May 24, 2024
Strong female characters, great imagery, but should come with some trigger warnings about DV and sexual assault and child abuse content. Some cheesy parts and too much sexytime content for my liking but the murder mystery storyline was good. Read it fast because I needed to know all the characters would be ok and honestly, so I could move onto a lighter read after such a dark story.
August 6, 2023
between 3 and 3 1/2; the characters, for the most part, were well-developed. the narration, moving between past and present, worked well to unravel the story with the right amount of tension.
trigger warnings: rape, attempted rape, child sexual assault
trigger warnings: rape, attempted rape, child sexual assault
October 19, 2023
Good read. Full if twist which I loved. A bit lengthy, it could've been shorter. But all in all, it was good.
August 1, 2017
2 1/2 stars
April 4, 2024
It was slow getting started but it pickup and was a good read.
Read
October 23, 2020Too many entangled famalies. 3☆
February 26, 2021
One of those fabulous fast paced mysteries that you don't want to put down. Perfect for a cold grey Canadian winter evening. Intriguing characters, a little bit naughty and just a good solid whodunnit .
March 20, 2017
It was a pretty good book and actually held some surprises for me which was kind of nice
Displaying 1 - 30 of 381 reviews