By Ande Jacobson
Tess Gerritsen’s last standalone medical thriller was The Bone Garden, first released in September 2007. This one is a departure from her previous works in that it’s more a work of historical fiction concerned with the study of medicine, a couple of love stories, and a murder mystery built-in. As always, the introduction is a flashback, this time a letter dated March 20, 1888 signed O.W.H. who is a well-known historical figure. The letter is short, and it offers an intriguing introduction to a family history of note. The reader is then immediately transported to the present (at the time of book’s writing), and its present-day protagonist, Julia Hamill. Recently divorced, she set out to start a new life for herself purchasing a country estate outside Boston for a steal because its elderly previous owner had died on the premises. While working hard to rejuvenate her garden, Julia happens upon some remains which opens up an excavation, first by the local police and ME (a cameo by none other than Maura Isles, but this isn’t part of the Rizzoli & Isles series), and later by a well-known forensic anthropologist from Harvard once the remains are determined to be rather old. And so begins the main story.
Julia becomes acquainted with a neighbor, Dr. Thomas Page, who has an uncle in Maine, Henry Page, who has a treasure trove of documents relating to the history of the property that Julia has purchased. It turns out that Tom and his uncle were related to the woman who owned it, and Tom’s uncle is kind of an eccentric family historian, so he took possession of the documents. What follows is a story that mostly takes place in the early 19th Century following the lives and training of four medical students, their professors, and some unseemly characters involved in a series of murders that occurred in Boston around that time. At least one major historical figure appears in the story, a young Oliver Wendell Holmes who later became a renowned doctor important in the furthering of understanding the germ theory.
One big problem in the early 19th Century was something colloquially known as childbirth fever where women who gave birth in hospitals often died of raging pre and postpartum infections. This was the time of Ignaz Semmelweis who in Europe was ridiculed for daring to suggest that doctors practice basic hygiene and wash their hands between patients. Although ahead of his time, the young Holmes learned from what he too observed and was more successful in bringing that knowledge back to the states eventually although not until well after the main story in Gerritsen’s novel.
In Boston in the early 1800s, the Irish were looked down upon, and a young woman in the story, Aurnia Connelly, had given birth to a daughter. Not surprisingly, she became deathly ill in the hospital. Her younger sister, Rose, sat by her bedside. Once Aurnia died, Rose took charge of her infant niece determined to protect her from the ills of the world. The story turns as two of the nurses from the hospital are later killed by somebody termed The West End Reaper who Rose had seen. There were also the four medical students, one of whom found the second nurse and saw the killer as well, though the local police didn’t believe his or Rose’s descriptions. From there the story gets very complicated. Why the killings were taking place was a major mystery. Trying to solve that mystery leads to others snarled in scandal from that time period.
Many of the oddities of the time come to light as well. In those days, medical training was limited to men only, and it was a challenge. One significant challenge was where to get bodies to learn from. In the early 1800s, medical imaging didn’t exist, so the only way to learn of the inner workings of the human body was to dissect it. That’s still a mainstay today, but now there are many legal ways to furnish them as well as technological advances that permit significant study even without a body in hand. Unfortunately, at the time of the story, without imaging technology and virtual reality, cadavers were really the only means for such learning. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so simple to acquire one, as there were strict laws in most regions (including Massachusetts) against the acquisition of the deceased. To meet the need, an unsavory industry arose, i.e., grave robbers, or resurrectionists as they were frequently called. Sometimes the bodies never made it to a grave and were intercepted prior to burial by unscrupulous individuals. Other entrepreneurs “created” their own supply through even less reputable means. One such character is featured prominently in the story, and anatomists gratefully accepted and even paid for their services under the table. Certain medical professors displayed some questionable ethics in those days it seems.
The letter that starts the story comes back, and more follow from the document trove helping connect the origin story to the present. Although Gerritsen spends most of the book in the past, she ties the discoveries to the present solving a mystery from almost two centuries before. The final resolution is both satisfying and in an odd way kind of comforting. Through the investigation of the past, love stories thrived both in the past and the present, and Gerritsen ties the loose strings into a carefully constructed bow that gives the reader closure while leaving the door open for future exploration should she decide to return to this particular cast of characters at some point in the future.
One thing that comes through in the parallel investigations is that detective work is much easier when sufficient time has passed from the time of the crime.
Gerritsen has written numerous standalone novels across multiple subgenres of suspense. Of those, five are explicitly medical thrillers. Those include Harvest (1996), Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), and The Bone Garden (2007), so she jumped into the Rizzoli & Isles series after Gravity and much of that series included the same kind of medical detail that became a bit of a Gerritsen trademark from her earlier medical thrillers.
References:
Harvest, by Tess Gerritsen
Life Support, by Tess Gerritsen
Bloodstream, by Tess Gerritsen
Gravity, by Tess Gerritsen
The Bone Garden, by Tess Gerritsen
https://www.tessgerritsen.com/
https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/tess-gerritsen/
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