By Ande Jacobson

The Silent Girl, is the ninth book in Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series, first released in 2011. This book is a treat in that the Kindle version also includes a bonus short story in the Rizzoli & Isles canon entitled Freaks from 2010. Gerritsen considers The Silent Girl a very personal story in which she ties in ancient Chinese folklore that her mother had related to her. Her mother learned these fables and legends during her childhood in China, and they add an ethereal element to the story that infuses the mythos into Jane Rizzoli’s world in unexpected ways. As often happens in Gerritsen’s books, she starts in the past giving readers a foundation they don’t realize connects until much later in the story. This time, although the story starts in San Francisco in the past, it quickly returns to Boston in the present where Maura Isles is testifying in court. Maura’s background matches that of the author to a point – both author and protagonist majored in Anthropology as undergraduates at Stanford and attended medical school at UC San Francisco. From there they diverge in specialty and position, but that’s merely background. The trial in the story sets the scene for why Maura is at odds with most of Boston PD for much of this story. Her factual testimony is key in convicting a police officer accused of killing a young man while in custody. Although the court case has nothing to do with the crimes being investigated in the bulk of the story, it makes the connection between Maura and Jane all the more poignant despite the growing rift caused by Maura’s crossing the thin blue line through her court testimony. Continue reading →