About the author:
Born: San Diego, CA on June 12, 1953
Education:
B.A. Anthropology-Stanford University, Stanford California
M.D.- University of California, San Francisco, CA
Website: http://www.tessgerritsen.com/
Thriller Sub-genre: Forensic Thriller
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Future of the series: The latest book in the series, Listen to Me, was released on 7/5/22.
Review of the novel in the series-I Know A Secret
The Simon Review:
For those fans that are in love with the Rizzoli & Isles Series on TNT and want a review that makes a comparison of the TV show with the book series, I am afraid to tell that you won’t find it here. I am not much of TV person mainly because my husband and I have very different taste in what we like to watch on TV. He likes anything about vintage cars and movies with mobsters, which is not my cup of tea, so he watches TV and I work on the computer. With the exception of a few movies and Hoarders: Buried Alive on the TLC network, I watch very little TV. I don’t know what it is about the Hoarders show that I like so much, perhaps it is a fascination with the pathological psychology that makes a person become an excessive hoarder. I guess it is not much different than wanting to understand the psychology into what makes someone a serial killer, which of course is the focus of many of the thrillers that I read and review.
Speaking of serial killers, Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles Series will not disappoint if that is something that you love and cherish as part of a good forensic thriller. In fact, the first book in the series, The Surgeon, is all about finding a serial killer nicknamed the surgeon, and I will let you use your imagination to figure out why. Detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isles are the main protagonists in the series. In the first novel, Rizzoli is actually a secondary character and Isles doesn’t actually make her appearance until the second book of the series, The Apprentice. The strength of this series is the relationship that develops between these two women who both feel alone in the male dominant field of law enforcement. Jane Rizzoli is a homicide detective that has a fiery personality and goes above and beyond the call of duty to catch the crook. Maura Isles is the medical examiner for the Boston Police Department and has been branded the ‘Queen of the Dead’ because of her cool and level headed behavior when working with the deceased. The two are actually slow in developing their friendship mainly because they both have developed a tough exterior to shield them from anyone in seeing their weaker side. Eventually the walls crumble and their friendship blossoms.
What makes Rizzoli & Isles friendship so enjoyable is the large differences in their personalities. Rizzoli is a family person and we watch her get married, get pregnant, and have a child, as well as dealings with her very colorful Italian parents and siblings throughout the series. She often has to find a balance between her family life and her job and they often overlap with interesting consequences. On the other hand, Isles has virtually no family and falls in love with men that are very unattainable, such as the very untouchable Father Daniel Brophy, a Catholic priest. Isles’ family ties are very complicated in the fact that her mother is estranged for reasons that I won’t elaborate here and she didn’t know she had a sister until the midway into the series (details on both relationships go into greater detail in Body Double). Isles desire to have a family develops as the series progresses and late in the series she becomes a surrogate mother to a teenage boy that she shares a hair-raising adventure with in Ice Cold.
Tess Gerritsen is a doctor turned novelist and has been very successful with the changeover. Her medical background adds to the science experience that many of us techno junkies love to relish, though I do have to say that the medical jargon does seem to thin out as the series progresses. Tess Gerritsen is an excellent writer and you can’t lose with this series. The series should be read in order.
Simon’s pick:
Most Favorite Novel in the Series-The Apprentice, because I probably would pick the The Surgeon as my favorite but it does not have Maura Isles in it, so to be true to the Rizzoli & Isles series, The Apprentice is the next best choice.
Least Favorite Novel in the Series–Ice Cold, I like the setting in Boston for the other books in the series and much of the setting of this novel was in Wyoming. It is a minor point but I had to pick on something, because I really like all the books in the series.
What about the science? Gerritsen was a practicing physician before she took up the pen to write fictional novels. She took up the cause when she took time off on maternity leave, and in between changing diapers and burping the baby, she found time to write some very good thrillers. She started with romantic thrillers and naturally gravitated to medical thrillers with the Rizzoli & Isles series being more on the side of a forensic thriller. So the the vast majority of the science in the series is in the area of medical science.
The Maura Isles Technical Word in Review: Lewis Triple Response– is a skin inflammatory response that was first recognized by cardiologist Sir Thomas Lewis in 1924 when a blunt object brushed up against skin. The first response is formation of a red line on the skin also referred to as the FLUSH which occurs as a result of the dilation of the capillaries under the surface of the skin. The second response is the skin turning bright red in an irregular pattern that surrounds the area of impact also referred to as the FLARE and is due to the dilation of the arterioles (small blood vessels that branch out from an artery). The final response is the formation of the WHEAL which is an elevation of the skin which is usually referred to as a welt, and is a result of protein enriched fluid that released from the capillary to fill in the interstitial space between skin and muscle.
Moments later, when Isles lifted the right arm, she spotted the marks on the side of the chest. Beneath the magnifying lens, two faint red bumps stood out. Isles ran her gloved finger over the skin. “Wheals,” she said. “It’s a Lewis Triple Response.”
“Lewis what?” asked Rizzoli.
“Lewis Triple Response. It’s a signature effect on the skin. First you see erythema-red spots-and then a flare caused by cutaneous arteriolar dilatation. And finally, in the third stage, wheals pop up due to increased vascular permeability.”
“It looks like to me a Taser mark,” said Rizzoli.
Isles nodded. “Exactly…” –The Apprentice
Books in the Series by Order:
Vote for your favorite Forensic Thriller on the Forensic Fiction List on Goodreads Listopia.
Goodreads Forensic Fiction Best List
Most Favorite in the series: I Know A Secret with a score of 4.29
Least Favorite in the series: The Mephisto Club with a score of 4.02
Based on overall ratings from Goodreads, Library Thing and Amazon (US & UK)
(Doesn’t include novellas)
#1-The Surgeon – 2001
Winner of the 2001 Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Suspense Novel
Winner of the 2002 RITA Award for Best Romantic Suspense Novel
Listed #6 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
Listed #113 out of 117 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
First Line:
Today they will find her body.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli: Only women detective on the Boston Police Homicide Unit
Thomas Moore: Lead investigator
Catherine Cordell: The single survivor of a serial killer
Lawrence Zucker: Psychologist and criminal profiler
Barry Frost: Rizzoli’s partner
Darren Crowe: Homicide detective and nemesis to Rizzoli
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
In Boston, there’s a killer on the loose. A killer who targets lone women, who breaks into their apartments and performs terrifying ritualistic acts of torture on them before finishing them off. His surgical skills lead police to suspect he is a physician – a physician who, instead of saving lives, takes them.
But as homicide detective Thomas Moore and his partner Jane Rizzoli begin their investigation, they make a startling discovery. Closely linked to these killings is Catherine Cordell, a beautiful medic with a mysterious past. Two years ago she was subjected to a horrifying rape and attempted murder but she shot her attacker dead. Now she is being targeted by the new killer who seems to know all about her past, her work, and where she lives.
The man she believes she killed seems to be stalking her once again, and this time he knows exactly where to find her…
“Blood was the first thing that she saw, bright ribbons of it streaming down the wall. Then she looked at her patient, sprawled face down on the floor. Nina had fallen halfway between the bed and the door, as though she had managed to stagger a few steps before collapsing. Her IV was disconnected and a stream of saline dribbled from the open tube onto the floor, where it formed a clear pool next to the larger pool of red. He was here. The Surgeon was here.”
Meghan from Goodreads gave Tess Gerritsen’s novel The Surgeon a two star rating.
I almost forgot! I intensely dislike books with blank pages in between each chapter. Aside from the fact that is a serious waste of paper, the only real purpose I see is to truly separate the chapters. To force the reader to digest one chapter before plowing headfirst into the next. I find this slightly insulting. As ifI am unable to control my reading habits and need you to step in and stop me. Or as if my eyes might stray from reading the backside of one page and greedily begin reading the next page and spoil whatever mini-cliffhanger the chapter ended with. So, from the paper wasting standpoint, eBooks make the blank page presentation slightly less offensive. But frankly, they are a pain in the back side. Unlike a real book where two pages are presented to the reader at once and they will read the left side, then move to the right, an eBook only presents one page at a time. So, If page 1 ends with a cliffhanger, it isn’t until I press the button that I see the next page. But, with the blank-page-between-each-chapter-books instead of taking me to the next chapter, there is an entirely blank screen, which never fails to make my brain think “what’s going on? Did my battery die?” and then have to click next page again. My point is, blank pages are dumb…quit it.
Looking for a review of The Surgeon? Check out:
The Sporadic Chronicles of a Beginner Blogger
La Petit Muse…Where Inspiration and Passion Collides
Amazon Rating-US: 4.40 out of 5 stars based on 1,078 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.63 out of 5 stars based on 508 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.10 out of 5 stars based on 100,660 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.85 out of 4 stars based on 918 ratings
Total Score 4.10 (updated 11/1/17)
#2-The Apprentice – 2002
Listed #38 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
Listed #115 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
First Line:
Today I watched a man die.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Det. Thomas Moore, Det. Barry Frost, Det. Darren Crowe and Dr. Lawrence Zucker
Maura Isles: The Boston Police Department Medical Examiner
Agent Gabriel Dean: FBI agent sent to investigate and becomes a romantic interest for Jane Rizzoli
Frankie Rizzoli: Jane’s older brother
Frank Rizzoli: Jane’s father
Angela Rizzoli: Jane’s mother
Michael Rizzoli: Jane’s other brother
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
Although serial killer Warren Hoyt is behind bars, a copycat acolyte continues his diabolical legacy of murders performed with twisted medical techniques, and Detective Jane Rizzoli races against time to stop the vicious crime spree.
Looking for a review of The Apprentice? Check out:
The Sporadic Chronicles of a Beginner Blogger
Amazon Rating-US: 4.31 out of 5 stars based on 582 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.60 out of 5 stars based on 312 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.14 out of 5 stars based on 39,219 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.86 out of 4 stars based on 681 ratings
Total Score 4.14 (updated 11/1/17)
#3-The Sinner – 2003
Listed #114 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
First Line:
The driver refused to take him any farther.
Notable Quote:
Only the forgotten are truly dead.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, Det. Barry Frost, Det. Darren Crowe, Frankie Rizzoli, Frank Rizzoli, Michael Rizzoli and Angela Rizzoli
Daniel Brophy: Priest of Our Lady Devine Light, romantic subject of Isles
Ursala Rowland: Nun at Our Lady Devine Light
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
Within the walls of a cloistered convent, a scene of unspeakable carnage is discovered. On the snow lie two nuns, one dead, one critically injured – victims of a seemingly motiveless, brutally savage attack.
Medical examiner Maura Isles’ autopsy of the murder victim yields a shocking surprise, but the case takes a disturbing twist. The body of another woman has been found. And someone has gone to a lot trouble to remove her face, hands and feet.
As long buried secrets are revealed so Dr Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, find themselves part of an investigation that leads to an awful, dawning realization of the killer’s identity…
Maura crossed over to cubicle #10, where the patient was getting her final sponge bath. Standing at the foot of the bed, Maura watched the nurse peel back the sheets and remove Ursula’s gown, revealing not the body of an ascetic, but of a woman heavily indulged in meals, generous breasts spilling sideways, pale thighs heavy and dimpled. In life, she would have appeared formidable, her stout figure made even more imposing by her voluminous nun’s robes. Now, stripped of those robes, she was like any other patient. Death does not discriminate; whether saint or sinners, in the end, all are equal.
Looking for a review of The Sinner? Check out:
The Sporadic Chronicles of a Beginner Blogger
Amazon Rating-US: 4.45 out of 5 stars based on 970 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.60 out of 5 stars based on 475 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.13 out of 5 stars based on 34,146 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.87 out of 4 stars based on 568 ratings
Total Score 4.14 (updated 11/1/17)
#4-Body Double – 2004
Winner of the 2004 Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Contemporary Mystery Novel
Listed #110 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
A Sample Clip of the Audiobook
First Line:
Matty Purvis did not know if it was day or night.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, Det. Barry Frost, and Daniel Brophy
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
Dr. Maura Isles makes her living dealing with death. As a pathologist in a major metropolitan city, she has seen more than her share of corpses every day-many of them victims of violent murder. But never before has her blood run cold, and never has the grim expression “dead ringer” rung so terrifyingly true. Because never before has the lifeless body on the medical examiner’s table been her own.
Yet there can be no denying the mind-reeling evidence before her shocked eyes and those of her colleagues, including Detective Jane Rizzoli: the woman found shot to death outside Maura’s home is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical nuances. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. For the stunned Maura, an only child, there can be just one explanation. And when a DNA test confirms that Maura’s mysterious doppelganger is in fact her twin sister, an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets.
Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await. But perhaps more frightening, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree. To stop the massacre and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject: the mother that she never knew . . . an icy and cunning woman who could be responsible for giving Maura life-and who just may have a plan to take it away.
Looking for a review of Body Double? Check out:
Amazon Rating-US: 4.45 out of 5 stars based on 970 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.60 out of 5 stars based on 475 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.17 out of 5 stars based on 36,440 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.87 out of 4 stars based on 603 ratings
Total Score 4.18 (updated 11/1/17)
#5-Vanish – 2005
Winner of the 2005 Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Suspense Novel
Winner of the 2006 Nero Wolfe Award
Listed #112 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
A Sample Clip of the Audiobook
First Line:
My name is Mila, and this is my journey.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, Det. Barry Frost, Det. Darren Crowe, Frank Rizzoli, Angela Rizzoli and Thomas Moore
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
A blessed event becomes a nightmare for pregnant homicide detective Jane Rizzoli when she finds herself on the wrong side of a hostage crisis.
A nameless, beautiful woman appears to be just another corpse in the morgue. An apparent suicide, she lies on a gurney, awaiting the dissecting scalpel of medical examiner Maura Isles. But when Maura unzips the body bag and looks down at the body, she gets the fright of her life. The corpse opens its eyes.
Very much alive, the woman is rushed to the hospital, where with shockingly cool precision, she murders a security guard and seizes hostages . . . one of them a pregnant patient, Jane Rizzoli.
Who is this violent, desperate soul, and what does she want? As the tense hours tick by, Maura joins forces with Jane’s husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, to track down the mysterious killer’s identity. When federal agents suddenly appear on the scene, Maura and Gabriel realize that they are dealing with a case that goes far deeper than just an ordinary hostage crisis.
Only Jane, trapped with the armed madwoman, holds the key to the mystery. And only she can solve it-if she survives the night.
“These are slaves, serving against their will. Thousands of girls brought into the US where they simply vanish.”
Looking for a review of Vanish? Check out:
Confessions of a Mystery Writer
Amazon Rating-US: 4.55 out of 5 stars based on 532 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.69 out of 5 stars based on 221 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.13 out of 5 stars based on 43,208 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.84 out of 4 stars based on 600 ratings
Total Score 4.13 (updated 11/1/17)
#6-The Mephisto Club – 2006
Listed #93 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
A Sample Clip of the Audiobook
First Line:
They looked like the perfect family.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, Det. Barry Frost, Det. Darren Crowe, Frank Rizzoli, Angela Rizzoli and Daniel Brophy
Anthony Sansone: Wealthy and head of the Mephisto Club
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
PECCAVI
The Latin word is scrawled in blood at the scene of a young woman’s brutal murder: I HAVE SINNED. It’s a chilling Christmas greeting for Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli, who swiftly link the victim to controversial celebrity psychiatrist Joyce O’Donnell, Jane’s professional nemesis and member of a sinister cabal called the Mephisto Club.
On top of Beacon Hill, the club’s acolytes devote themselves to the analysis of evil: Can it be explained by science? Does it have a physical presence? Do demons walk the earth? Drawing on a wealth of dark historical data and mysterious religious symbolism, the Mephisto scholars aim to prove a startling theory: that Satan himself exists among us.
With the grisly appearance of a corpse on their doorstep, it’s clear that someone or something is indeed prowling the city. The members of the club begin to fear the very subject of their study. Could this maniacal killer be one of their own or have they inadvertently summoned an evil entity from the darkness?
Delving deep into the most baffling and unusual case of their careers, Maura and Jane embark on a terrifying journey to the very heart of evil, where they encounter a malevolent foe more dangerous than any they have ever faced . . . one whose work is only just beginning.
Jane looked around the table at Sansone and his guest. The so-called Mephisto Club. Even though Maura claimed not to be part of it, there she was, seated in their circle. These people might think they understood evil, but they couldn’t recognized it, even when it was sitting right here at the same table.
‘If you like Tess…’ from Amazon gave Tess Gerritsen’s The Mephisto Club a 1 rating. It seems that her review is a bit of an oxymoron.
this is a great book – story gives a different slant on the TV portrayal of the characters – but a great read
Looking for a review of The Mephisto Club? Check out:
Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind
Amazon Rating-US: 4.39 out of 5 stars based on 974 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.53 out of 5 stars based on 344 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.01 out of 5 stars based on 28,427 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.72 out of 4 stars based on 571 ratings
Total Score 4.02 (updated 11/1/17)
#7-The Keepsake (Keeping the Dead-UK title)– 2008
Listed #103 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
A Sample Clip of the Audiobook
First Line:
He is coming for me.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, Det. Barry Frost, Det. Darren Crowe, Frank Rizzoli, Angela Rizzoli and Daniel Brophy
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
For untold years, the perfectly preserved mummy had lain forgotten in the dusty basement of Boston’s Crispin Museum. Now its sudden rediscovery by museum staff is both a major coup and an attention-grabbing mystery. Dubbed “Madam X,” the mummy–to all appearances, an ancient Egyptian artifact– seems a ghoulish godsend for the financially struggling institution. But medical examiner Maura Isles soon discovers a macabre message hidden within the corpse–horrifying proof that this “centuries-old” relic is instead a modern-day murder victim.
To Maura and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, the forensic evidence is unmistakable, its implications terrifying. And when the grisly remains of yet another woman are found in the hidden recesses of the museum, it becomes chillingly clear that a maniac is at large–and is now taunting them.
Archaeologist Josephine Pulcillo’s blood runs cold when the killer’s cryptic missives are discovered, and her darkest dread becomes real when the carefully preserved corpse of yet a third victim is left in her car like a gruesome offering–or perhaps a ghastly promise of what’s to come.
The twisted killer’s familiarity with post-mortem rituals suggests to Maura and Jane that he may have scientific expertise in common with Josephine. Only Josephine knows that her stalker shares a knowledge even more personally terrifying: details of a dark secret she had thought forever buried.
Now Maura must summon her own dusty knowledge of ancient death traditions to unravel his twisted endgame. And when Josephine vanishes, Maura and Jane have precious little time to derail the Archaeology Killer before he adds another chilling piece to his monstrous collection.
“He didn’t want to let them go, so he turned them into keepsakes that would last forever.” “So why kill them at all?” asked Detective Crowe. “Why not just keep them as prisoners?”
Looking for a review of The Keepsake? Check out:
No Longer Employed, No Longer A Bride…
Amazon Rating-US: 4.41 out of 5 stars based on 441 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.60 out of 5 stars based on 239 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.09 out of 5 stars based on 28,427 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.82 out of 5 stars based on 470 ratings
Total Score 4.09 (updated 11/1/17)
#8-Ice Cold (The Killing Place, UK Edition) – 2010
Listed #62 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
First Line:
She was the chosen one.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, Det. Barry Frost, Anthony Sansone, and Daniel Brophy
Julian Perkins: Also nicknamed ‘Rat’, is a teenaged boy who befriends Maura Isles
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts and Wyoming
In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip. But when their SUV stalls on a snow-choked mountain road, the group seeks refuge in the remote village of Kingdom Come, where twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. The town’s residents seem to have vanished, but footprints in the snow betray the presence of someone who still lurks in the cold darkness. Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli receives the grim news that Maura’s charred body has been found in a mountain ravine. Determined to learn what happened to her friend, Jane plunges into the twisted history of Kingdom Come. As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane closes in on an enemy both powerful and merciless-and the chilling truth about Maura’s fate.
Looking for a review of Ice Cold? Check out:
A Series of (Un)Fortunate Reviews
Maudaug’s Attempt at Book Reviewing
The Sporadic Chronicles of a Beginner Blogger
Amazon Rating-US: 4.49 out of 5 stars based on 1,086 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.52 out of 5 stars based on 312 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.14 out of 5 stars based on 30,732 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.95 out of 4 stars based on 467 ratings
Total Score 4.15 (updated 11/1/17)
#8.5-Freaks – 2011 (A Novella)
First Line:
The queen of the dead had arrived.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, and Det. Barry Frost
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
Homicide cop Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles have seen their fair share of mortal crimes, but the death of Kimberly Rayner may qualify as inhuman in more ways than one. When corpse of the emaciated seventeen-year-old girl is discovered next to an empty coffin in an abandoned church, mysterious bruises around the throat suggest foul play. Caught fleeing the scene is the victim’s closest friend, Lucas Henry, an equally skeletal, pale teenager who claims he’s guilty only of having a taste for blood—a craving he shared with Kimberly. But the victim’s distraught father doesn’t believe in vampires, only vengeance. And now, another life may be at risk unless Rizzoli and Isles can uncover the astonishing truth.
Looking for a review of Freaks? Check out:
Amazon Rating: 3.84 out of 5 stars based on 430 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: not rated
GoodReads Rating: 3.54 out of 5 stars based on 6,650 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.30 out of 4 stars based on 79 ratings
Total Score 3.56 (updated 11/1/17)
#9-The Silent Girl – 2011
Listed #98 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
A Sample Clip of the Audiobook
First Line:
All day, I have been watching the girl.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, Det. Barry Frost, Frankie Rizzoli, Frank Rizzoli, Angela Rizzoli, Anthony Sansone, Daniel Brophy and Julian Perkins
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
Every crime scene tells a story. Some keep you awake at night. Others haunt your dreams. The grisly display homicide cop Jane Rizzoli finds in Boston’s Chinatown will do both.
In the murky shadows of an alley lies a female’s severed hand. On the tenement rooftop above is the corpse belonging to that hand, a red-haired woman dressed all in black, her head nearly severed. Two strands of silver hair—not human—cling to her body. They are Rizzoli’s only clues, but they’re enough for her and medical examiner Maura Isles to make the startling discovery: that this violent death had a chilling prequel.
Nineteen years earlier, a horrifying murder-suicide in a Chinatown restaurant left five people dead. But one woman connected to that massacre is still alive: a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dares not tell, a secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of Chinatown. A secret that may not even be human. Now she’s the target of someone, or something, deeply and relentlessly evil.
Cracking a crime resonating with bone-chilling echoes of an ancient Chinese legend, Rizzoli and Isles must outwit an unseen enemy with centuries of cunning—and a swift, avenging blade.
How many bodies are lying here, she wondered. How many silent girls who will finally be able to speak? Suddenly she felt overwhelmed by the task ahead..
Looking for a review of Silent Girl? Check out:
Amazon Rating: 4.50 out of 5 stars based on 631 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.59 out of 5 stars based on 320 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.13 out of 5 stars based on 26,047 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.95 out of 4 stars based on 231 ratings
Total Score 4.14 (updated 11/1/17)
#9.5-John Doe-2012 (A novella)
First Line:
Dr. Maura Isles did not enjoy cocktail parties.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, and Det. Barry Frost
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
Maura is at a party. A handsome man approaches. He’s charming and sophisticated. She flirts and drinks champagne. And then nothing. Total blackness. Nothing, that is, apart from these two facts: a man is dead and her address is found in his pocket . . .
“Olmstead Park. A body was found on the bank of the Muddy River, just south of Leverett Pond.”
“It’s not my case, not today. Why are you telling me about it?”
“Because we have a reason to think you might know him.”
Maura sat up straight, staring. “Who?”
“That’s just it, we don’t know. There’s no wallet, no phone on the body. At the moment, he’s a John Doe.”
“Why do you think I know him?”
“Because we found your business card tucked into his breast pocket.”
Looking for a review of John Doe? Check out:
Amazon Rating: 4.39 out of 5 stars based on 346 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.37 out of 5 stars based on 227 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 3.94 out of 5 stars based on 3,386 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.66 out of 4 stars based on 28 ratings
Total Score 4.00 (updated 1/11/17)
#10-Last to Die-2012
Listed #86 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
First Line:
We call him Icarus.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, Det. Barry Frost, Det. Darren Crowe, Frankie Rizzoli, Frank Rizzoli, Angela Rizzoli, Anthony Sansone, Daniel Brophy and Julian Perkins
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts
For the second time in his short life, Teddy Clock has survived a massacre. Two years ago, he barely escaped when his entire family was slaughtered. Now, at fourteen, in a hideous echo of the past, Teddy is the lone survivor of his foster family’s mass murder. Orphaned once more, the traumatized teenager has nowhere to turn—until the Boston PD puts detective Jane Rizzoli on the case. Determined to protect this young man, Jane discovers that what seemed like a coincidence is instead just one horrifying part of a relentless killer’s merciless mission.
Jane spirits Teddy to the exclusive Evensong boarding school, a sanctuary where young victims of violent crime learn the secrets and skills of survival in a dangerous world. But even behind locked gates, and surrounded by acres of sheltering Maine wilderness, Jane fears that Evensong’s mysterious benefactors aren’t the only ones watching. When strange blood-splattered dolls are found dangling from a tree, Jane knows that her instincts are dead on. And when she meets Will Yablonski and Claire Ward, students whose tragic pasts bear a shocking resemblance to Teddy’s, it becomes chillingly clear that a circling predator has more than one victim in mind.
Joining forces with her trusted partner, medical examiner Maura Isles, Jane is determined to keep these orphans safe from harm. But an unspeakable secret dooms the children’s fate—unless Jane and Maura can finally put an end to an obsessed killer’s twisted quest.
All killed within days of each other. Now it’s two years later, and the sole survivors of those families are attacked again. It’s like someone’s determined to wipe out the bloodlines. And these three kids will be the last to die.
Looking for a review of Last to Die? Check out:
The Sporadic Chronicles of a Beginner Blogger
Amazon Rating-US: 4.39 out of 5 stars based on 841 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.53 out of 5 stars based on 425 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.10 out of 5 stars based on 20,620 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 3.88 out of 4 stars based on 159 ratings
Total Score 4.12 (updated 11/1/17)
#11-Die Again
Listed #88 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
Listed #63 out of 115 on Goodreads Best Medical Thriller Book List
A Sample Clip of the Audiobook
Check here for my review on Die Again
First Line:
In the slanting light of dawn I spot it, subtle as a watermark, pressed into the bare patch of dirt.
Characters
Jane Rizzoli, Dr. Maura Isles, Agent Gabriel Dean, Det. Barry Frost, Det. Darren Crowe, Frank Rizzoli, and Angela Rizzoli
Millie Jacobson: Member of the Botswana safari group
Johnny Posthumus: The bush guide for the safari expedition
Richard Renwick: Novelist of thrillers, boyfriend to Jacobson and me member of Botswana group
Elliot Gott: Member of Botswana safari group and son to Leon Gott
Leon Gott: Well know taxidermist, murder victim
The Setting
Boston, Massachusetts, Botswana, South Africa, and Maine
When Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are summoned to a crime scene, they find a killing worthy of the most ferocious beast—right down to the claw marks on the corpse. But only the most sinister human hands could have left renowned big-game hunter and taxidermist Leon Gott gruesomely displayed like the once-proud animals whose heads adorn his walls. Did Gott unwittingly awaken a predator more dangerous than any he’s ever hunted?
Maura fears that this isn’t the killer’s first slaughter, and that it won’t be the last. After linking the crime to a series of unsolved homicides in wilderness areas across the country, she wonders if the answers might actually be found in a remote corner of Africa.
Six years earlier, a group of tourists on safari fell prey to a killer in their midst. Marooned deep in the bush of Botswana, with no means of communication and nothing but a rifle-toting guide for protection, the terrified tourists desperately hoped for rescue before their worst instincts—or the wild animals prowling in the shadows—could tear them apart. But the deadliest predator was already among them, and within a week, he walked away with the blood of all but one of them on his hands.
Now this killer has chosen Boston as his new hunting ground, and Rizzoli and Isles must find a way to lure him out of the shadows and into a cage. Even if it means dangling the bait no hunter can resist: the one victim who got away.
“Six years ago, in the bush, I found out what it’s like to die.” I shake my head. “Don’t ask me to die again.”
Paper or Kindle “I live to read!” on Amazon reviewed Tess Gerritsen’s novel Die Again and gave it a so-so rating. Personally I think the “missing bus stop” novel deserves a 5 star rating.
This isn’t the best book in the series, but it was gripping enough to make me miss my bus stop because I was so wrapped up in it.
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Amazon Rating-US: 4.55 out of 5 stars based on 1,452 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.67 out of 5 stars based on 649 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.16 out of 5 stars based on 16,381 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 4.07 out of 4 stars based on 185 ratings
Total Score 4.21 (updated 11/1/17)
#12-I Know A Secret-2017
Listed #76 out of 121 on Goodreads Forensic Fiction Book List
Listed #109 out of 168 on Goodreads Science Thriller Book List
Check here for my review on I Know A Secret
First Line:
When I was seven years old, I learned how important it is to cry at funerals.
The crime scene is unlike any that Detective Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles have ever before encountered. The woman lies in apparently peaceful repose on her bed, and Maura finds no apparent cause of death, but there is no doubt the woman is indeed dead. The victim’s eyes have been removed and placed in the palm of her hand, a gesture that echoes the terrifying films she produces. Is a crazed movie fan reenacting scenes from those disturbing films?
When another victim is found, again with no apparent cause of death, again with a grotesquely staged crime scene, Jane and Maura realize the killer has widened his circle of targets. He’s chosen one particular woman for his next victim, and she knows he’s coming for her next. She’s the only one who can help Jane and Maura catch the killer.
But she knows a secret. And it’s a secret she’ll never tell.
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Amazon Rating-US: 4.58 out of 5 stars based on 394 ratings
Amazon Rating-UK: 4.66 out of 5 stars based on 151 ratings
GoodReads Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars based on 4,366 ratings
Library Thing Rating: 4.05 out of 4 stars based on 42 ratings
Total Score 4.29 (updated 11/1/17)
#13-Listen to Me-2022
Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are newly plagued by what seems like a completely senseless murder. Sofia Suarez, a widow and nurse who was universally liked by her neighbors, lies bludgeoned to death in her own home. But anything can happen behind closed doors, and Sofia seemed to have plenty of secrets in her last days, making covert phone calls to traceless burner phones. When Jane finally makes a connection between Sofia and the victim of a hit-and-run from months earlier, the case only grows more blurry. What exactly was Sofia involved in? One thing is clear: The killer will do anything it takes to keep their secret safe.
Meanwhile, Angela Rizzoli hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in all the years since her daughter became a homicide detective. Maybe the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. Nothing in Angela’s neighborhood gets by her—not the gossip about a runaway teenager down the block and definitely not the strange neighbors who have just moved in across the street. Angela’s sure there’s no such thing as coincidence in her sleepy suburb. If only Jane would listen—instead she writes off Angela’s concerns as the result of an overactive imagination. But Angela’s convinced there’s a real wolf in her vicinity, and her cries might now fall on deaf ears.
With so much happening on the Sofia case, Jane and Maura already struggle to see the forest for the trees, but will they lose sight of something sinister happening much closer to home?
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A-Thrill-A-Week 