Book Review: The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen

The Surgeon has been locked up for a year but his chilling legacy still haunts the city, and especially Boston detective Jane Rizzoli. But now a new killer is at work and Rizzoli senses something horrifyingly similar about him.
The FBI starts taking an interest in the investigation and Rizzoli begins to wonder just what makes this case so different and so dangerous?
But then the unthinkable happens: the Surgeon escapes. And suddenly there are two twisted killers on the loose- master and apprentice...

Tess Gerritsen just gets better; I was a little worried that this book may not have been as good as The Surgeon but I thought it was brilliant. The Apprentice is the second book in the Rizzoli and Isles series. Jane Rizzoli is the police detective who escaped and jailed The Surgeon in the last book and Dr Isles is the pathologist who she works closely with.
In this book we learn much more about Jane Rizzoli and how she is trying to get on with her life after evading a serial killer. When she is called to a murder scene, the similarities  with the Surgeon's handiwork are striking but she is also extremely conscious of not appearing as though she is obsessed with what has happened in the past. The investigation is then joined by FBI agent Gabriel Dean, who manages to get everyone's backs up. Rizzoli does not trust him, especially when she discovers that he has been withholding vital information on the case.
The moment that Rizzoli finds out that the Surgeon has escaped from prison is extremely tense, you can actually feel her fear and anger. I think this is what Tess Gerritsen does best; she has the hairs on the back of your neck standing up but you cannot stop yourself from reading on.
So now it appears that the Surgeon and the Apprentice  may now have joined forces and the Surgeon definitely has unfinished business where Jane Rizzoli is concerned.
I'm so excited to have found such a good series of books and I already have the third one, The Sinner, sitting on my shelf waiting.

Book Review: The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

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 his victims 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 shot her attacker dead. Now she is being targeted by this new killer who appears to know all about her past, her work at the Pilgrim Medical Center 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...

The Surgeon is the first in the Rizzoli and Isles series and the first book by Tess Gerritsen that I have read, I thought it was brilliant.
I have been searching for a good thriller writer for ages, I wanted something similar to Sophie Hannah and I think I may have found it.
Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli are working on the case where the murderer tortures his victims while they are still awake  and then finishes them off with a single slit to the throat. They can see that the murderer is clean, tidy and methodical and almost certainly has some kind of medical knowledge.

Catherine Cordell becomes an integral part of their case. She escaped from a similar attack two years ago and killed her attacker so she is astounded to learn that someone else is torturing and killing women in the same way. It becomes personal as the killer communicates with her and it becomes clear that she is next on the list.
Tess Gerritsen has created very clear-cut , realistic characters. I really took to Thomas Moore, he is not the cliched detective that you find in many books of this genre which was extremely refreshing. The case takes on a whole new aspect when Thomas accepts that he has developed feelings for Catherine and she for him, I really enjoyed this part of the book.
We do not find out a massive amount about Jane Rizzoli in this book as the focus is more on Thomas but I do hope we learn more about her character as the series develops.
Tess Gerritsen writes some particularly chilling scenes in this book and the pace is just right, it only took me just over a day to read it as I was eager to find out what happened.
If you are after a good, page-turning thriller then I would very much recommend this book, it is a series I know I shall greatly enjoy.