mystery

A bit of medical history and a mystery

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , , ,

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. Continue reading →

Warren Hoyt’s story continues …

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

One year after the first book in the series was released, Tess Gerritsen’s second work in the Rizzoli & Isles series dropped in August 2002. The Apprentice picks up where The Surgeon left off with the same heart-stopping action and mind-bending puzzles that Gerritsen’s mystery/thrillers are known for. Gerritsen introduced Warren Hoyt, a skilled and pathological serial killer, in the first book. He’s in prison, but a new series of crimes that reek of his signature come to light. Detective Rizzoli and her team are immediately engaged, and so is Detective Vince Korsak in Newton, a Boston suburb and a different jurisdiction than Rizzoli’s territory. FBI Agent Gabriel Dean also appears for some unknown reason. Other parts of the federal government also kibitz later in the story causing additional confusion and misdirection. In this second book in the series, Medical Examiner Maura Isles is introduced, and she and Rizzoli begin their long-admired professional collaboration in crime fighting though their relationship doesn’t cross the boundary into level of personal friendship that they do in the television adaptation of the books. Dean and Korsak both have different prominence in the books than they did in the television series as well. Korsak is integral to the case in The Apprentice, although this is the only time he works professionally with Rizzoli and company despite his being a regular on TV. Continue reading →

Doctors make the scariest villains

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

First released in hardback in August 2001, The Surgeon is the first book in Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series even though Medical Examiner Maura Isles isn’t introduced until the second book. Making full use of her background as a practicing physician before retiring to write mysteries full time, in The Surgeon, Gerritsen creates a riveting mystery that draws the reader in and doesn’t let them go even when they get to the last page because they know there will be more. In another book. Even so, The Surgeon is at turns gripping and terrifying, and the resolution to this first book in the series is satisfying with a whiff of “happily ever after” for some of the characters. Continue reading →

Can old spies ever truly retire?

A Good Reed Review Book Review , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

Released in November 2023, The Spy Coast is the first book in Tess Gerritsen’s The Martini Club series about a group of retired spies living in the (fictional) small coastal Maine village of Purity. The trouble is that even though they were trying to leave their former lives behind them, events often have far-reaching consequences they hadn’t considered. The main story begins in the present in the quaint Maine village and careens around the world to Thailand, the UK, Italy, Istanbul, Malta, and points in between bouncing between the past when a mission went horribly wrong triggering events in what was supposed to be a comfortable and incognito retirement. Continue reading →

The pine cone mystery

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By Ande Jacobson

For over 25 years, a giant pine tree that was rooted at the apartment complex next door loomed over the back half of my townhouse. It also sprawled over a large portion of the common area behind my building. That tree was monstrous. In addition to a constant flow of pine needles and twigs covering my roof year around, it dropped pine cones onto my roof that sometimes startled me out of a sound sleep. Many of those pine cones would eventually either roll off the roof onto the patio or fall there directly from the tree. That tree threatened to drop limbs which could make stormy nights especially daunting. Fortunately when limbs did fall on occasion, they fell into our common area, and our HOA would eventually have them cut up and hauled away. A few months ago, the apartment complex next door brought in a tree service to cut down that tree and turn it into mulch. It had been sick and posed a danger to people at both the apartments and our townhouse development. Continue reading →