Tess Gerritsen Reviews

Page One

Added May 14, 2007

The Sinner

Jane Rizzoli/Maura Isles Series, Book 3

Author: Tess Gerritsen
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: August 2004
Genre: Fiction: Medical/Suspense/Thriller
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Price: $7.99
ISBN-10: 0345458923
ISBN-13: 9780345458926
Author Email/Website: http://www.tessgerritsen.com/
Reviewer: Summer Lasaire
Rating: 8.5 Gargoyles

There are a few things that most think of as sacred and those in service of the Divine are among the highest. But then again, there are some that think that nothing is sacred, and one of those have taken the life of a young nun and have come close to killing an elderly one.

Detective Jane Rizzoli and M.E. Maura Isles (Queen of the Dead as she's heard others call her in whispers) team up to find out who attacked the two nuns in Graystones Abby. Odd things come to light as they track down clues leading to the killer. The reporters have found out and are turning the case into a media circus.

More is happening though, a woman is found in a condemned building nude, with her hands, feet and face removed, and left for the rats. Another strange thing, she has lesions on her skin that Maura can't find the reason for and although she could see the reason for the removal of the hands and face…why the feet? To add to Maura's load, her ex husband has come to Boston and is trying to get her to talk to him. They didn't separate on the best of terms and haven't talked in almost three years…why does he suddenly want to see her?

Jane has a lot on her plate; a high profile murder case, an unidentifiable murdered woman, Christmas is around the corner and she has to spend it with her family and hasn't had time to shop for gifts. Worse yet, Gabriel Dean is back in town because for some reason the FBI has an interest in the Rat Lady case. Something else to add to her stress, she needs to make a decision, one that may change her life.

The Sinner is a wonderful story that had me on the edge of my seat and anxious to discover the identity of the murderer of Graystones Abby. Unable to put it down, The Sinner kept me captivated in the plot lines and reading until the final page. Following the professional lives of both Jane and Maura was exciting, but when walking with them through their personal ones, I was given a better understanding of both of them, making me like them even more. Tess Gerritsen is a truly wonderful author that adds so much to her books that they truly come alive for me. This is one author that has become an auto-buy, and I'm very much looking forward to reading everything that Ms. Gerritsen has released.

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Added February 10, 2007

Body Double

Jane Rizzoli/Maura Isles Series, Book 4

Author: Tess Gerritsen
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: July 2005
Genre: Fiction: Medical Suspense/Thriller
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Price: $7.99
ISBN-10: 034545894X
ISBN-13: 9780345458940
Author Email/Website: www.tessgerritsen.com/
Reviewer: Summer Lasaire
Rating: 9 Gargoyles

You grow up with parents that love you beyond all else, but one day one of your cousins, in fit of pique informs you that you're adopted. Suddenly everything is different; you wonder who your birth parents are, why you were given up. Was it their situation, or was it something else? Did they die or were you simply not wanted?

Maura Isles has spent a week in Paris at the International Conference of Forensic Pathology and after a three hour delay at the Charles de Gaulle Airport arrives in Boston to find her luggage missing. Exhausted, she returns to her home and finds her street cordoned off with police cruisers and crime scene tape. When she arrives at her house, Detective Rizzoli leads her to a car where a woman has been shot in front of her next-door neighbor's house. The woman looked so much like Maura, the police were sure that it was her.

Maura decides that it's time to find out who her parents are. After approaching the lawyer that handled her adoption once again, she finally gets her mother's name. She was shocked to find out that her mother is in Framingham, the only women's prison in Massachusetts, and imprisoned for the murder of two women five years before. After new facts come to light, Maura is not so sure that Amalthea Lank is her mother. With the help of Detective Rick Ballard of the Newton Police, Maura begins to follow the trail of where Amalthea started while Rizzoli and Frost track down clues to her sister's killer.

I'll have to admit that Body Double was down right creepy at times. Finding out just what some people are capable of is often amazing, even if not information we'd like to attain. Walking along with Maura on her search through her family history was filled with suspenseful twists and truly wicked revelations, which made it impossible for me to put Body Double down. Tess Gerritsen is a master of weaving mystery that is both complex and gripping, and writes scenes that feel so close to real, that I felt I was standing right there in the thick of the action, with the scent of blood in the air. For lovers of mystery, Tess Gerritsen is an author not to miss!

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