Childhood secrets can be dangerous

By Ande Jacobson

The penultimate book (so far) in Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series, I Know a Secret, was first released in August 2017. This one is creepy dealing with sociopathic tendencies, childhood frailties, and how a long buried secret can wreak havoc even decades later. For most children, certain situations elicit expected and appropriate displays of emotion. In sad or somber situations like a relative’s funeral, that can sometimes mean tears. For those rare kids who are wired differently such that they don’t feel the normal range of emotions, this might end up being a learned behavior rather than an instinctual one. For such a child, their response can look like those of their peers while instead being a coldly calculated act to avoid standing out. So begins the story narrated by an adult who was once such a child. How that ties into the murders at hand takes most of the book to unfold, but the ending is worth the wait, unsettling though it may be.

On a somewhat sideways turn, Gerritsen shows how horror films might intersect with an investigation helping our detectives solve a perplexing killing spree. Gerritsen draws from a deep familial love of the genre, a love that she and her mother shared over the years. She insists through her characters that horror film fans aren’t the deranged sociopaths that many assume they are, but they are instead often well-adjusted and congenial compared to the general population. Gerritsen even talks in the acknowledgements about a personal foray into making such a film of her own in years past. The inspiration for horror films can come from numerous sources from harmless fantasies to acting out childhood traumas.

In I Know a Secret, the mystery surrounds what prompted the murders of several people who attended a particular after school daycare as children. A group of them start dying under extremely peculiar circumstances. One of the victims, the first one in the recent spree, had been in the process of making a horror film. Suspects abound, but the investigators are stymied by the uniqueness of the crimes. The murders mirror how various Catholic saints met their demise. The victims all share their birthdays with the commemoration of the day on which a Catholic saint was killed in a horrific and unique manner. After establishing that the murders are connected in some way, the investigation accelerates and takes the team in directions that make them more uncomfortable than they usually are, and these are seasoned homicide investigators. In the midst of one of the more gory investigations, they contemplate an even more unsettling aspect of the story – how someone with sociopathic tendencies can avoid detection. Often, a sociopath will trigger feelings of discomfort in others, but in ways that are difficult to identify. They just seem “off” in some intangible way.

Along the way, a decades old case is reevaluated from new perspectives changing how those involved are perceived by the team. When the now adult victims were children, a serious crime took place, and the family that ran their daycare had been implicated, tried, and punished, but were they really the perpetrators? That’s the question complicating the current investigation, and the answer isn’t a simple one.

We also see some personal development in the lives of a few of the series regulars. The characters experience some interesting growth opportunities despite these grisly circumstances. Seeing the dark side of human behavior inspires them to reevaluate their lives and make startling changes to improve their overall happiness. Life isn’t static. Circumstances change, and small annoyances can spark reactions to remedy the situation in rather dramatic fashion.

Gerritsen brings all of these elements together into a compelling mystery that moves quickly. This time, there’s not a lot of misdirection. It just takes time to pull the pieces together into a coherent path to solution. The investigative team members aren’t in any real danger this round, but the same cannot be said for the newly introduced characters.

Gerritsen’s penchant for meticulous investigative detail serves her well in this story, and the addition of the horror film elements add a new dimension. Horror films can provide a way to work through the fear and anxiety of a past trauma in a safe space since a film can’t hurt you physically. Psychologically, on the other hand, all bets are off. Play acting past traumas can sometimes provide a way to work through them. For horror film makers, drawing on their inner fears is far more than a simple creative exercise. Despite the discomfort in drudging up a past trauma, it can be therapeutic and even cathartic in some cases. The therapeutic aspect is discussed in the story to some degree once the investigators understand what they are seeing.

Overall, Gerritsen spends far more time on the police investigation and how the team, particularly Jane Rizzoli puts the pieces together rather than on the medical details. Medical examiner Maura Isles is of course deep into the case as well, but her part in the story focuses more on her personal life rather than in her autopsy suite. In fact, for the series regulars making big life changes, they are all in the personal, rather than the professional realm.

Gerritsen also explores the question of accountability. Can somebody be too young or too old to be held accountable for past actions? Despite the case being solved, there are some story threads that aren’t cleanly resolved, and that leaves an opening that may or may not be further explored in the series. With only one book left (unless Gerritsen comes back to the series at some point), this book sets up some interesting personal developments to explore.

References:

The Surgeon, by Tess Gerritsen
The Apprentice, by Tess Gerritsen
The Sinner, by Tess Gerritsen
Body Double, by Tess Gerritsen
Vanish, by Tess Gerritsen
The Mephisto Club, by Tess Gerritsen
The Keepsake, by Tess Gerritsen
Ice Cold, by Tess Gerritsen
The Silent Girl, by Tess Gerritsen
Last to Die, by Tess Gerritsen
Die Again, by Tess Gerritsen
I Know a Secret, by Tess Gerritsen
https://www.tessgerritsen.com/
https://www.starttv.com/lists/the-differences-between-the-rizzoli-isles-books-and-tv-show