Book Review: Die Again by Tess Gerritsen

In Boston, Detective Jane Rizzoli and Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles are investigating a bizarre murder. A man has been found gutted and hanging in his home. When the remains of another victim are found, it is clear that this murderer has been a work for years, and not just in Boston.
Six years ago, a group of travellers set off on an African safari. None of them are seen again- apart from one woman who stumbled out of the bush weeks later, barely alive. The only woman to have seen the killer's face.
Has the 'safari killer' resurfaced in Boston? Jane is sent to Africa to find the one link between the two cases- the only survivor- and convince her to face death once again...

Publisher: Bantam Press

Pages: 352

This is the 11th book in the Rizzoli and Isles series, it had a slightly different feel to some of the others but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. As with most in this series, some of the action takes place in Boston but a large part of this book took place in
Africa and this was really refreshing.
Jane Rizzoli is called to a murder scene where a hunter and taxidermist has been gutted and left hanging upside down. Maura helps with the investigation and when another body is discovered they soon realise that the victims are linked and that there may be many more. Jane is led to the disappearance of a group of travellers in the African bush more than six years ago. Only one woman survived and now Jane think she may hold the clue to identify the killer.
I felt that Die Again focused much more on Jane than Maura and in this particular book the author was looking at the pressures Rizzoli has out of work. She has a very stressful and demanding job and on top of that she is a wife, mother and daughter, all three positions pulling her in different directions.
I found Tess Gerritsen's writing style as gripping as usual; the plot was fast paced and very clever. I thought I had it all worked out at one point and I loved the plot twists along the way. This series of books never disappoints and I urge you to read this one.

Book Review: The Killing Place by Tess Gerritsen

Something terrible has happened in the snowbound village of Kingdom Come, Wyoming. Twelve, eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. The people who lived in them appear to have vanished, seemingly into thin air.
Maura Isles is driving through the area with a group of friends when they find themselves trapped in a snowstorm. They stumble into the abandoned village to take shelter. Their nightmare has only just begun.
Days later, Jane Rizzoli flies to Wyoming to search for her missing friend. A crashed vehicle has been found with four badly burned bodies still inside. Can one of the corpses be Maura's?
Jane's hunt for the truth leads her to Kingdom Come. Where the person who was watching Maura now lies waiting for her...

This series of  books never fails to grip me, The Killing Place was no different, I raced through this book in two days.
I think out of all of the books in this series that I have read so far, this one is the most chilling; it really played on my mind when I turned the light off at night. The story is pretty sinister and dark, it felt as though everything is working against Maura and Jane.
Maura is the main focus of this book; she is attending a medical conference when she bumps into an old college friend. Her invites her to join him, his daughter and some friends to do a spot of sight-seeing before they head home. She sets off full of excitement but it soon turns into a nightmare when they encounter a huge snowstorm. They take shelter in a deserted village. They are just relieved to have found somewhere warm with a fire. But they are actually staying in Kingdom Come which until recently has been a fully functioning religious cult. Maura and her companions do begin to wonder where the village's inhabitants have gone and why did they leave in such a hurry? A series of incidents lead Maura to realise that they are being watched, why does this person not reveal themselves and help them? Are they safe to stay in the house where they though they had found sanctuary?
Tess Gerritsen is so good at creating suspense. I experienced goose bumps several times when reading this. The snow really creates a sinister atmosphere; it has caused them to be trapped and then magnifies any noise or movement around them.
I like the focus being on Maura as I didn't feel that I knew her as well as Jane. This book explores how she functions and she she chose the job she did. Her relationship with Father Brophy is laid bare in this book; she has fallen in love with a man she can't have, their relationship can never be an honest and open one. Is she happy to live like that?
The Killing Place is an excellent read and a perfect example of thriller writing from one of the best.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 5/5

Book Review: Keeping the Dead by Tess Gerritsen

When an ancient mummy is discovered in the basement of a museum in downtown Boston, excitement starts to mount. Under the glare of a media frenzy, the mummy is taken to hospital for a CT scan. Forensic pathologist Maura Isles is invited to attend.
As the CT scan proceeds everyone in the room leans in- and gasps in horror as an image of a bullet is revealed. Maura declares it a possible homicide, and calls in Detective Jane Rizzoli.
When the preserved body of a second victim is found, and then a third, it becomes clear that taking lives is not enough for this terrifying killer. And that unless Rizzoli and Isles can find and stop him, he will soon be adding yet another chilling piece to his monstrous collection. 

I hadn't read a book from this series for quite a while but the fact that I read this book in just over a day, shows how much I still enjoy them.
I wouldn't say that Keeping the Dead is one of my favourites but I flew through the pages, Tess Gerritsen had me hooked from the very beginning.
An ancient mummy wrapped in 2000 year old bandages is found to have a modern day bullet embedded in its leg. Where has the victim come from and why has someone taken so much care to preserve her in such a way?
Tess Gerritsen is definitely a master of this genre, her books are so well written and she provides constant twists and turns. There was a big plot twist at the end which I really was not expecting.
Keeping the Dead isn't just your standard crime/thriller book, it asks questions about what evil is, how far would you go to protect the ones you love and how long can you keep running from something until it finally catches up with you?
I think that Keeping the Dead focused much more on the plot than giving us anything new about Rizzoli and Isles which is maybe why it's not one of my favourites.
A I always say, this is an excellent series of books. I can't recommend Tess Gerritsen enough, I will be very sad to get to the final one.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 4/5

Book Review: The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen

Can you really see evil when you look into someone's eyes?
In a rundown house, a woman has been dismembered in an act of carnage that leaves veteran cops in shock.  Drawn on the wall, in blood, are ancient symbols, and a mirror-image word in Latin, that, transcribed says 'I have sinned'.
Then a second woman is found butchered on Beacon Hill, just outside the home of the leader of the Mephisto Club, a secret society dedicated to the study of evil. On the door yet more ancient symbols have been scrawled. This is evil that the Boston PD have never encountered before. And the only way Dr Maura Isles can defeat it is by turning to the people who understand the devil himself.

The Mephisto Club is the 6th book in the Rizzoli and Isles series and it is by far my favourite. I can't believe how much I have enjoyed this series of books, Tess Gerritsen just keeps on getting better and better! 

I think that this book is darker than the previous ones. I felt that parts of it were verging on horror rather than the crime/thriller genre. Tess Gerritsen does not hold back when describing murder scenes and in my opinion she is one of the best at creating and maintaining the tension throughout a book. 

Dr Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli team up once again but there is tension in the air as Rizzoli does not approve of Maura's developing relationship with Father Daniel Brophy. The discordance in their relationship affects the investigation in that Maura is drawn into the Mephisto Club more than she would normally have allowed herself to be. The club studies evil and the person that Isles and Rizzoli are chasing, could definitely be described as that. The victims are found in appalling states, surrounded by words and symbols that lead back to the devil himself. It is clear that the murderer has only just begun but how are they going to catch him when he may not even be human?

I have said in all of my reviews of this series how much I have enjoyed them. Each book has had me gripped from beginning to end; if you are looking for a new crime series to try then check out Tess Gerritsen, she's one of the best.

Dot Scribbles Rating 5/5

Book Review: Vanish by Tess Gerritsen

The beautiful woman appears to be  just another corpse in the morgue. But when Dr Maura Isles looks down at the body, she gets the fright of her life. The corpse opens it's eyes. Now very much alive, the woman is rushed to hospital, where she murders a security guars and seizes hostages, one of whom is the heavily pregnant detective, Jane Rizzoli. But who is this woman and what does she want? Only Jane can solve the mystery- if she survives the night.

Another absolute cracker from Tess Gerritsen! Honestly, this author just gets better with each book in my humble opinion. I read Vanish in just over a day and a half and I just couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next.
I felt with this book, more than Gerritsen's others that you really got to know the victims, there are a lot of flashbacks and the story being told from the victim's perspective, I think this added another layer and made for a more interesting read.
Obviously Jane Rizzoli and Dr Isles feature heavily. Jane is actually in labour when she is taken hostage and Dr Isles is left feeling completely useless in helping her friend.
What follows is a seriously gripping plot, rape, blackmail, corrupt government officials and murder. I think that Vanish may be my favourite of the series so far, this book should come with a warning though, once you start it , you won't want to do anything else until you have reached the last page.

Dot Scribbles Rating 5/5

Book Review: Body Double by Tess Gerritsen

Dr Maura Isles started at the corpse in the car, at the face illuminated by Rizzoli's flashlight beam. It's me. That woman is me. 

Maura Isles deals with death. As a pathologist in downtown Boston, she has seen more than her share of corpses. But never before has the body on the medical examiner's table been her own.

There can be no denying the evidence though. The dead woman is the mirror image right down to the most intimate physical details. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type.

Then a DNA test confirms that Maura's mysterious double is indeed her twin sister, and suddenly an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing  excursion into a past full of dark and deadly secrets...

Tess Gerritsen just gets better and better! Body Double is so hard to put down,  I was completely carried away with the plot and the characters.
Dr Maura Isles returns from a trip to Paris to discover the police outside her house. Everyone is looking at her like a ghost and she soon understands why when they reveal why they are there. Slumped over the steering wheel, a gun shot victim is parked in Maura's driveway and looks exactly like her. A heavily pregnant Jane Rizzoli is leading the case and whilst she is relieved that her friend is alive and well, she is is no way prepared for where this case will take the two of them.
After a DNA test confirms that the victim is actually Dr Isle's sister, a whole can of worms is opened. In her quest to find the truth, Maura discovers that she may have quite a macabre heritage and that she may not be the only member of her family interested in the dead.
As usual, Tess Gerritsen has delivered a story with a terrific pace, each chapter makes you want to read on. I really liked how this book focused on Dr Maura Isles and I thought that it was a very clever way to explore the idea of nature vs nurture. Are we really just a product of our shared DNA or can we shape our own lives?
I'm already looking forward to reading the next book in the series and I will be very sad when I get to the last one.

Book Review: The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen

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. 

As medical examiner Maura Isles autopsy of the murder victim yields a shocking surprise, the case takes a sudden and disturbing twist. The body of another woman has been found. And someone has gone to a lot of 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 realisation of the killer's identity.

I only discovered Tess Gerritsen this year and I think that The Sinner is my favourite so far of the Rizzoli and Isles series. I read this on a 10 hour flight between Heathrow and Miami and it was the perfect book to keep me distracted.
I felt that The Sinner focused in more detail on Rizzoli and Isles and I learnt more about the two female characters in this book than I did in the previous two.
The murder at the convent is completely shocking, one nun is dead and another critically injured. The violence inflicted in to these two women of God shocks everybody. The fact that the attack took place in a cloistered convent is even more alarming, these two women should have felt completely safe but somebody got in and shattered that forever.
Jane Rizzoli is leading the case and feels the huge burden of catching this highly dangerous killer. She is sickened by the crime scene and cannot believe where her investigation takes her. Rizzoli's personal life infringes on the job too, Gabriel Dean makes an appearance in the last third of the book and Jane has to finally admit that he may be more than a passing interest.
Dr Maura Isles in many ways holds the key to the investigation. Her post-mortems reveal vital clues as to  what happened to the nuns. When the third body is found, Maura initially thinks that is bears no connection to the convent killing. When she investigates further, she could not begin to imagine the ways in which the victims are linked. Dr Isles also has her personal life to content with in the form of her ex-husband Victor turning up after three years apart. She has a real mix of emotions; she realises how much she has missed him but then begins to question why he has suddenly decided to make an appearance.
Tess Gerritsen once again impressed me with her powerful story-telling skills. I think that a lot of crime/thriller books can be quite predictable but Gerritsen keeps you guessing right to the very end. I have the next book in the series, Body Double to read soon and I can't wait to see what these two women get up to next.
As I have said before, I would highly recommend Tess Gerritsen's books, she is right up there as my Queen of Crime!