Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Devious
    Devious
    Devious
    Audiobook15 hours

    Devious

    Written by Lisa Jackson

    Narrated by Joyce Bean

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    The crime scene at St. Marguerite’s cathedral in New Orleans is shocking, even to seasoned detectives like Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya. A novice nun named Sister Camille has been found dressed in a yellowed bridal gown and viciously garroted, her body covered with an altar cloth.

    Valerie Houston is devastated by her sister’s death. For weeks, she’d begged Camille to leave St. Marguerite’s, where she seemed determined to live as some kind of martyr. But Camille had a knack for making bad choices—she joined the convent in part because she’d fallen for Val’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Slade.

    Convinced the police aren’t doing enough, Val begins to investigate. Slade, on a mission to repair their marriage, is determined to help her. But the deeper Val’s inquiries go, the more twisted the case becomes. St. Marguerite’s is far from the tranquil retreat many believe, and everyone, from handsome Father Frank O’Toole to the mysterious Mother Superior, has their own agenda. Despite their closeness, even Camille had a hidden life Val never suspected. But someone knew about Camille’s past—and Val’s, too. Now she has no choice but to catch a devious, depraved killer intent on purging St. Marguerite’s of all its sins—before she becomes the next victim.…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMar 29, 2011
    ISBN9781441813329
    Author

    Lisa Jackson

    LISA JACKSON is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than seventy-five novels, including Paranoid: Liar, Liar; One Last Breath; You Will Pay; After She’s Gone;Close to Home;Tell Me; Deserves to Die;You Don’t Want to Know;Running Scared; and Shiver. She has over thirty million copies of her books in print in nineteen languages. She lives with her family and three rambunctious dogs in the Pacific Northwest. Readers can visit her website at www.lisajackson.com and find her on Facebook.

    Related to Devious

    Titles in the series (10)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Suspense Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Witch Finders

      Jul 16, 2020

      Beth pulled her cloak tightly around her. It was the very last day of October and the air was damp and chill. Dead autumn leaves lay in deep piles in the woods and smoke curled into the night air from her cottage. Not far to go now. She bent her head

      4 min read

    • Article

      Cast Out

      Jul 10, 2021

      Verity pushed back the quilts, rolled off her straw mattress onto the floor, felt for the poker, and stirred the ashes. The embers glowed. She wouldn’t have to go fire-borrowing again. Her chilled hands were clumsy. One glowing bit of wood rolled fro

      21 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Phillip B. Williams

      Dec 15, 2017

      The masters are yet dead. Wanting to be human,I tried to rewrite The Waste Land. The canon’s reachcasts ruinous light. The masters’ pens breachthis page where, above, my own hand spectates. Babylonrisen, exorcism in reverse, whose nature upended now?

      6 min read

    • Article

      Jason the Heat Guy

      Jan 11, 2021

      Jason the Heat Guy
      11 min read

    • Article

      Equinox

      May 18, 2022

      In this strange world, where identities change with the rising and setting of the sun, supernatural forces are at work – and they’re causing trouble… St Leonars prison was an appropriately imposing building. It rose out of the surrounding shacks and

      5 min read

    • Article

      Raiders From The Sea

      Sep 1, 2023

      CANNY LIFTED HER head from the swirls of gold and red and put down the brush, stretching her frozen fingers. The sun fell through the scriptorium window in warm panels, but the room was still cold, and she’d been at work on the manuscript in front of

      7 min read

    • Article

      Competition

      Sep 20, 2023

      IN COMPETITION No 297 you were invited to write a poem called Bells. Gail White concluded with a firm couplet: ‘We keep that memory with us like a shield / Against despair: the bells of Finchingfield.’ Other Essex bells inspired Christine Ratcliff. B

      2 min read

    • Article

      It’s About Altares

      Aug 17, 2021

      It’s About Altares
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Bridle

      Oct 10, 2021

      Saliva pooled on her tongue beneath the rusty depressor. She endured a constant urge to swallow, afraid of choking on her own fluids. The taste of metal and blood are so akin, it is easy to mistake one for the other. This early in the day, blood was

      11 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      Cul-de-Sac

      Dec 1, 2021

      That old rage for order: how my father drove a square mouthed mower over-and-back, over-and-back, each row of neatly trimmed grass cut just like he told his barber: boy’s short, regular. O pioneer, taming this joke bit of prairie, no bindweed or dog

      5 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Crescent City

      Dec 1, 2021

      Crescent City
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ursula K. Le Guin

      Jun 15, 2018

      He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor. Little of her would be left by now, a plank or two down in the sand maybe, a bit of driftwood on the western sea. As he drifted near sleep he began to remember sailing t

      15 min read

    • Article

      Cricket Ceague

      May 1, 2019

      Katarina Antonisen, age 10 Good Hope, GA Around the cornerI see her.Along the streetsI see them.The oneWho bound me.Her ravensWho watch me.I cannot be freed.And I warn you to bewareOf the woman in blackAnd her ravensWith feathers and coatOf night an

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Symmetry Of Ruby Margot

      Feb 6, 2020

      The Symmetry Of Ruby Margot
      10 min read

    • Article

      Towns Like Ours

      May 3, 2018

      Towns Like Ours
      9 min read

    • Article

      Announcing the Winners Of Our 100-WORD CONTEST

      Jul 17, 2021

      Eager to try your hand at the 100-word genre? Submit your best work – fiction or nonfiction – in just 100 words in our second annual 100-Word Contest, returning this fall. Bookmark writermag.com/contests for more information. BY ALICIA LUNA Today, I

      5 min read

    • Article

      Jack of Knives

      Jun 3, 2021

      WINNER £100 Jennifer is the author of four middle grade children’s novels published by Maverick (writing as Jenny Moore). Her latest book, The Misadventures of Nicholas Nabb, is set during the same period as her winning story and also includes a scen

      6 min read

    • Article

      Honey & Spice

      Aug 8, 2022

      So, he was good with kids; had a softness to him. The most dangerous thing about that was clearly it wasn’t performed: there was no way he could fake the adoration with which he looked at that angel. With that obnoxious display of genuine cuteness, h

      5 min read

    • Article

      Left To Lose

      Jul 10, 2022

      Around the time she gives up her name, it starts to feel like this entire revolution isn’t worth it anymore. The world is probably lucky that Kelian—she still remembers Kelian, in spite of everything—is there to pick up the pieces, the way he always

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Invitation

      Aug 21, 2023

      York, October 1644 Before I’ve even mustered the courage to knock, the door to the townhouse flings open. I drop my hand. “It is me, John Falmouth,” I say and wince at how loud my voice carries into the night. My greeting falters when I look up and n

      6 min read

    • Article

      The White Fox

      Oct 13, 2017

      The White Fox
      10 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Devious

    4/5

    127 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Packed with my unexpected twists. So shocked as the story came near the end. Great writer! Enjoyed this book!
    • 5/5
      Leave it to author LISA JACKSON to come up with another great thriller! In DEVIOUS, we have a serial killer who is going after nuns. The deaths are quick and the crime scene gruesome but Detectives Montoya and Bentz are on the scene and what makes this one more difficult is that the victims are known,even once friends. the two detectives must stop this person before they kill and kill again! I have been a fan of Lisa Jackson and her books. The thriller DEVIOUS shows that she is not slowing down when it comes to a heck of a good read. Think you got the killer named? Guess again! And to me that is what a makes a good thriller.I recieved this book free from goodreads in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      Devious is the 7th book in Lisa Jackson's New Orleans Series. It is the first I read and I had no problem following the story. It features Detective Reuben Montoya and his partner, Rick Bentz. It is quite dark and scary with a serial killer on the loose.

      The story starts with a bang. There is a terrible murder in a chapel at St. Marguerite's Convent. It is Sister Camille, a novice nun with a rather troublesome past. When Montoya and Bentz arrive at the crime scene, Montoya realized he knew the victim, in fact, they dated in high school. Not only that, but the nun who discovered the body, dated his brother and the suspect in the murder, Father Frank O'Toole was a friend of his growing up. Valerie Renard, Camille’s sister is dealing with her own problems while dealing with her estranged husband who has shown up from Texas and wants to reconcile. Of course, he shows up on the night of the murder and it was an issue between Camille and him that caused the estrangement in the first place. As more nuns become victims in rather gruesome ways, Valerie realized that these deaths may be linked to the orphanage, St Elsinore, where she and Camille lived before getting adopted. Is Mother Superior keeping secrets. What happened at St Elsinore's.

      The descriptions in this book are so detailed, I could picture the setting and the crime scenes. The plot had me hooked and I quickly read through this story trying to figure out what would happen next. Was Valerie going to become a victim? The suspense and tension will keep you glued and interested until the last page.
    • 4/5
      I enjoy Lisa Jackson's writing. It makes you turn the page to see what happens next.
    • 4/5
      This book was pretty good.. I'm a fan of all of her books for the most part.. Although why she likes to make her make characters all seem to have "blade thin lips" I just don't get it.. I'm also not a fan of a whole lot of tongue rubbing the roof of my mouth.. But I do at least find the sex scenes amusing..

      I was surprised to find out who the killer was.. As I so often am in Lisa Jackson's books... Left a cliffhanger too of course! And I was pleased to see there will be more of Bentz and Montoya in the future if we are to believe the authors note in the back..

      I find I really enjoy the images I get in my head when she describes the setting.. The little touches she adds in - while some may find these tedious and tend to go on too long.. While I get what they mean - I always like the fact that I get the whole picture!

      I also found that for some reason reading about the nuns - reminded me of a mini-series I had seen in the early 90's.. Called Brides of Christ. It was an Australian series and a young Naomi Watts played one of the girls who attended the school taught by the nuns. Also the then unknown Russell Crowe makes an appearance in one episode!! So I happily revisited the series again and thoroughly enjoyed it!!

      And as always with this series I love the New Orleans setting.. I find myself wanting to find more books about... MURDER SEX RELIGION and NEW ORLEANS!!! (Or someplace else in the South) although typing that into Google really doesn't bring up what I was hoping for.. So if anyone reads this and does know of any books that have similar subject matter?? Let me know!!! And FYI.. I'm currently reading all of Lisa Jackson's books in order by series.. I have them all!! Thank my mom for the years worth of hand me downs!! So if you were going to suggest more of her books.. I'm already on it!!

      Thanks for reading!! Take care all!!
    • 3/5
      It was a good enough tale - would be a great beach read if there was a beach near me - but there were a few situations where I just found it hard to believe that Val would react in that way. Not a bad book at all, but (in my humble opinion) it just didn't blow me away. Not that they all should, of course. But a little breeze would be nice.
    • 3/5
      “Devious” is a page-turning murder mystery that follows two detectives as they investigate the murders of nuns from the St Marguerite Convent in New Orleans. Besides the detectives, a former cop, Valerie is also looking into the murders since one of the nuns was her sister.

      Lisa Jackson’s finely detailed writing places readers into the thick of New Orleans and the hunt for a murderer. She teases you with small narrations from the murderer and the curious clues left behind from the victims. For each answer or clarification you think you get there is more hiding in the shadows.
    • 5/5
      What a great book. Kept me on my toes. You think it is this person , then nope .Then you think it is that person . Nope. Lets just say the ending was quite a surprise.... Enjoyed the book .
    • 4/5
      Lisa Jackson is fast becoming one of my favourite authors, plain and simple. Devious is only the second novel of hers that I have read, and while I did not enjoy it as much as Without Mercy, I love her writing style and her ability to maintain suspense over 400 pages. Some may feel that the novel is longer than necessary and although there is some agreement from me there, the rich back story allows you to get to know the characters and develop an understanding and appreciation for the issues they deal with.

      The novel opens, as so many do, with a gruesome murder scene. A young nun in New Orleans, Camille, has high hopes for the festivities of the evening, but her night goes horribly wrong when she is brutally killed in a church. On the other side of town, her older sister Valerie is battling her own demons, but can’t shake an eerie feeling that all is not well with her sister. Estranged after Camille and Valerie’s soon-to-be-ex husband Slade had a ‘moment’ together, the two women had recently attempted to reconcile their differences. Both adopted from orphanage St. Elsinore’s after their biological parents were killed, Val had softened towards her sister once Camille told her she was pregnant and ready to leave the convent. However, the promise of a brighter future is shattered when two detectives (Jackson’s long-standing duo Bentz and Montoya) arrive with the horrible news that Camille has been murdered.

      Camille was a nun at the rigid and orthodox St. Marguerite’s, a parish with some dark secrets. The prime suspect is Father Frank O’Toole, a handsome young priest who seems to find the celibacy gig a bit tough. He seems to be the man with everything to lose, but as Bentz and Montoya dig into the history of St. Marguerite’s, they start to think something far more sinister is at work behind the walls of the parish. When another nun is found dead, the pressure is on the detectives to make some progress to catch the sadistic killer. Another victim turns up, with a creepily similar MO from a serial killer who is presumed dead (from Jackson’s previous novel Hot Blooded), and the detectives must re-assess everything they thought they knew about the case and the terrifying killer known as Father John.

      Full of mystery, secrets, and revelations, Devious takes a little perseverance to get in to, but once you’re there, it gets you good. Jackson is a master at leaving you hanging right till the very last page, and while this book didn’t wrap up as neatly as others have (there are quite a few loose ends), I will eagerly await her next Bentz and Montoya novel as I firmly believe a writer of her calibre wouldn’t leave ends loose unless they were to be tidied up in the future.
    • 4/5
      Fun to listen to! Someone is strangling novice nuns in Jackson's terrifying if overwrought seventh Bentz and Montoya novel (after Malice). When NOPD homicide detectives Reuben Montoya and Rick Bentz arrive at the first crime scene, the chapel of St. Marguerite's Convent, Montoya recognizes the murder victim, Sister Camille, as his old high school girlfriend, Cammie Renard. In another coincidence, the novice sister who discovered Camille's body, Lucia Costa, once dated Montoya's brother. On top of that, one of the prime suspects is a high school classmate of Montoya's, Fr. Francis O'Toole, who may have had an affair with the victim. As Cammie's sister, Valerie, a former Texas cop now a New Orleans Garden District B&B owner, struggles with a surprise visit from her estranged husband, more nuns succumb to a crazed killer. Val learns more than she bargained for about her past—and Cammie's—at a nearby orphanage in a creepy thriller sure to please Jackson's many fans. (Apr.)
    • 4/5
      Let me tell you this was a really good, if not great, example of romantic suspense. The action takes place in New Orleans with some familiar detectives at the helm, Montoya and Bentz. As with previous stories involving these members of New Orleans finest, there is some personal interest.Montoya dated the first murder victim, Camille Renard, back in high school. If that's not personal enough, his younger brother Cruz dated the lady that found that body. What makes this all the more interesting is that both ladies are now nuns. Camille's sister, Valerie, is shocked over the murder especially since she knew that Camille was planning on leaving the church due to a pregnancy. What is even more surprising, is that Sister Camille was evidently having a relationship with one of the priests? Is it possible that Father Frank is the murderer? Both the Catholic Church and New Orleans have been hit hard in recent years, but can the Church survive a murder spree of nuns and novitiates that all appear to have had relations with one of its priests? There's a lot more going on that meets the eye with this story. The heat gets turned up a notch when Cruz Montoya returns to New Orleans and tries to restart a relationship with Sister Lucia. The heat gets even hotter when Valerie's estranged husband, Slade Houston, shows up on the very night that Camille is murdered. Slade's presence forces Valerie to re-evaluate her belief in her sister's word, namely that Slade attempted to seduce her rather than vice versa. (Hard to believe that someone so focused on sex that she’s willing to attempt seducing her brother-in-law wanted to be a nun? Oh yeah, that probably explains her pregnancy and affair with the priest!) Thankfully there's a diary that reveals almost as much as it hides.The twists and turns in this story are just as devious as the actions of the murderer. Just when you think you know who the culprit is or where the story is going there's another unexpected twist to shake things up and keep you guessing. It is for these reasons that I enjoyed reading Devious. If you're into romantic suspense or just suspense then this is probably a good book for you.
    • 4/5

      The proprietors at Roma’s Preread Books, in Rockwall, TX were kind enough to give me an advance uncorrected proof to Devious in April. From the moment I picked up the book, I could not put it down.

      I have read many books by Lisa Jackson, but Devious: A Bentz and Montoya Novel is by far the best. The plot twists and turns, the characters have many facets, and the book does not rely on sex to fill in the gaps.

      Valerie Radnar, a one-time police detective, is now a woman torn by the actions of her sister and her husband. She returned to New Orleans in an attempt to put her life back together, only to be devastated once again when her sister, now a Catholic novice, turns up murdered. Her husband Slade returns the same night, and Valerie must deal with the confusion of having a husband she still loves, while trying to sort out the enigma of her sister, and the actions of a serial murderer at St. Marguerite. The plot thickens when detectives discover that many of the participants attended the same high school, and many spent time at St. Elsinore before their adoption. Add in crime scene elements related to a serial killer Detective Bentz hunted at some point in the past and a nun with ESP, and the story leaves the reader trying to find all the clues to piece the story together.

      A great read, diverting and positive. Thoroughly enjoyable, thank you Roma’s Preread Books.