Title: Midnight Caller
Author: Leslie Tentler
Publication Date: February 2011
Publisher: Harlequin
Reading Level: Adult
Received from NetGalley (Thanks to Harlequin)
Late-night radio show psychologist Rain Sommers is used to the crazies who call in to rage from the back alleys of the French Quarter and the shadows of the bayou. But one caller's chilling obsession with her and her long-ago murdered mother - an iconic singer beloved among the city's Goth community - has even the jaded Rain running scared as a sadistic serial killer known as the Vampire prowls New Orleans.
FBI agent Trevor Rivette is convinced her midnight caller and the killer are one and the same. As it becomes disturbingly clear that the Vampire has a sick bloodlust only Rain can satisfy, she allows Trevor to get closer and closer. But he soon discovers that his secretive past and troubled present are intertwined - and that he may die trying to keep Rain's fate out of a madman's control.
My Thoughts: I picked up this book because I love books that take place in New Orleans, especially a thriller/suspense book. I was a little disappointed by the fact that it was a little...okay, a lot, predictable. A sexy cop (FBI agent) with a mysterious past arrives back in his hometown to take care of a case (murder in this book). He meets a beautiful woman, also with a sordid past, who is of course involved in the case. FBI agent and woman fall in love, have a couple steamy sex scenes and then the woman (who appears to have lost all common sense) pays no attention to the FBI agent's warnings and of course, ends up getting in trouble and the hot FBI agent must save her, get hurt, get better and they all live happily ever after.
Like I said, I loved the setting because I think New Orleans has to be the best place for a mystery. It's creepy, has a haunted history and always seems dark and misty. The characters were your typical characters. You find out Rain's history quickly but it takes over halfway through the book to find out about Trevor's full history. Then you have Rain's ex, who is a jerk and Trevor's father, who is even a bigger jerk. I found it a little hard to believe that Trevor's father got away with all he got away with while being a cop. I mean, I know the "good ole boys" game but still, it seemed a little far fetched that he could do all that and have the department hide it.
I was not satisfied with the ending at all. The murderer has a story around him as to why he kills his victims and then drinks their blood (he is known as the "Vampire Killer") and there is some mystery as to his age but it is never really resolved in the book. The cops throw around a few options but nobody can really find out what really went on and that just left me hanging. The author also didn't really explain why the murderer's "helper" felt the need to help him over and over again. I would have liked a little more history into that relationship.
Rain's ex is another character that just kinda disappears in the story. He does some things and then he apparently ends up in jail but there is really no conclusion to his problems. What happens to his radio station, his new "girlfriend", etc. There is a brief mention of him in the last couple of pages but nothing as to why he really did what he did and what is going to happen to him now.
So, that about sums up the story. It really had nothing that made it stand out from any other romantic murder mystery and left a lot hanging at the end.
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