A Series Of (Un)Fortunate Reviews

Last to Die is the latest in Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli & Isles series.  My initial reaction to the murders in this latest outing is that "it's a trap!"  And now that I think about it, that first reaction turned out to be correct in the end. Three young kids, Will, Claire, and Teddy, have each survived the respective massacres of their families; the massacres occurring within the same week.  Two years later each survives the massacre of their respective foster families.  Will and Claire have come to Evensong Academy where child survivors of violence find safety, kindred spirits and an education that teaches them how to deal with a dangerous world and helps them to heal from their traumas. In Boston Teddy survives the massacre of his foster family, and Det. Jane Rizzoli, with Dr. Isles' help, puts the pieces together and realizes that Teddy may still be in danger.  Jane races to Teddy's emergency foster family placement just in time to prevent the mas...

The Silent Girl is the latest installment in the Rizzoli and Isles series by Tess Gerritsen.  I have since finished this book and moved on to another good one that I'll be reviewing probably next week.  This was a very satisfying installment in the series, and it had a bit of a surprise twist in the true identity of one of the supporting characters.  Considering the role this particular character played in the book, it makes me wonder if he will also make an appearance in the next book in the series. Before I move on to the review, I want to share some exciting book news.   Fallen , Karin Slaughter's newest book has finally arrived here at the library.  People.  I CAN BARELY CONTAIN MYSELF.  I still have about half of a book left before I can start Fallen .  I think I know what I'll be doing this weekend. A Jane Doe's cleanly severed hand turns up in a Chinatown alleyway in Boston, and Rizzoli is called to investigate.  A police search f...

It's been a long, long wait for Tess Gerritsen's latest, Ice Cold .  Throughout my wait I've been obsessing about the massive spoiler revealed in the jacket blurb.  Is it for real or will it turn out to be a fake out because who puts that kind of major development involving a character upon which the series focuses on the book jacket instead of saving it for the mother of all shocking story lines for the unsuspecting reader?  That is the conundrum I've been pondering for several months ever since Amazon posted the blurb on the book's page. The first few chapters seem off to a slow start that's compounded by the slight awkwardness of the diction in the first chapters describing what is surely (one way or another) the end of the affair for Dr. Maura Isles and her beloved Father Daniel Brophy (a Catholic priest with whom she's been having an affair for over a year!).  Then the story and the suspense crank up into a scary, thrilling page turner that's hard...

The Keepsake is the latest installment in Tess Gerritsen's Dr. Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli (medical examiner/homicide detective, respectively) series that is set in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the other book that I was anticipating for about the past half a year since I found a listing for it on amazon.com. The novel begins with a cryptic first chapter narrated in the first person--this is a departure from the rest of the novel and the series since the rest of the book, save for the final chapter, is narrated in third person. Gerritsen contributes a much better written installment to her series than Reichs did to the Brennan series. Gerritsen's mystery crackles with tighter, more urgent suspense as well. Gerritsen succeeds in creating and painting a more terrifying serial killer. In The Keepsake we catch up with Isles and Rizzoli. Isles continues to see a man she cannot completely have and Rizzoli's marriage is still going strong; Rizzoli's daughter is now a year old....

I've read all the books in Tess Gerritsen's Dr. Maura Isles (an M.E. for Boston) and Det. Jane Rizzoli series. The series focusses on two women who solve mysteries and fight crime; books in the series tend to take turns on who is the focus of the action. For example, one book might have Isles at center stage, while the next one has Rizzoli at center stage. The Bone Garden , Gerritsen's most recent book, is actually a stand alone novel, though it does feature a cameo appearance by Isles at the beginning of the book. The action flips back and forth between the present and 1830. In the present a woman named Julia is trying to fit together the pieces of a hundred year old series of murders and solve the mystery of the old bones found buried in the back yard of her new house. The majority of the action takes place in 1830 in Boston where the aforementioned series of murders is in full swing; it is up to two medical students and a recent Irish immigrant to Boston named Rose t...