The Sinner

Rating:
Summary: Gerritsen does it again!
Review: 'The Sinner' takes off where 'The Apprentice' left off, following the pursuits of homicide detective Jane Rizzoli as she investigates the brutal deaths of two cloistered nuns. Rizzoli's assisted by the attractive but aloof new medical examiner, Maura Isles. Isles is a woman running from her recent breakup with ex husband Victor Banks, the handsome and devoted leader of One Earth an organization dedicated to solving health care needs in impoverished countries.

Rizzoli and Isles are each at turning points in their own lives and are both obsessed with these brutal deaths. Together they piece together a strange trail of events leading to the murders. As usual, Gerritsen fully develops her characters and their relationships and so carefully details her story that it appears to have been taken from the pages of an investigator's journal. You leave this book feeling you truly know Rizzoli and Isles and the final unravelling of the investigation with its many turns and twists will surprize the most experienced mystery reader. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: A Good Read!!!
Review: Although I was loath to put this book down until the final page, it still was not as gripping as her last two books. Still if you like medical thrillers you can't go wrong with Ms. Gerritsen.

Without giving too much of the plot away the opening takes us to India and a massacred village. Then we are back in Boston at a brutal murder of a young novice and the injury of an older nun. The violence is unbelievable and there seems to be no indication of motive. But when the investigation moves forward ties between the murder of the young novice and the murder of an unidentified women in an abandon building are linked by bizzare circumstances. Detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isle work together to bring a killer to justice.

I enjoyed reading about Jane and I actually liked that Ms. Gerritsen was willing to portray this strong woman with normal human feelings of not thinking that she can do it all. I don't feel that romance was a huge part of the book. I'm a huge romance genre fan and the romance between Jane and Agent Gaberial Dean was way far back on the back burner and since I have been reading all the books involving Jane I was happy to see this relationship was continued and developed. As for the romance issue with Dr. Isle I feel that it played a part in the storyline and again this was not a priority in the plot. Yes, this book is not as griping as her last two...but then it is dealing with a different type of killer.

This book is worth picking up just keep and open mind and don't expect it to be like her others. Suspense is at a premium and favorite characters from previous book are included. If you have not read the last few books by Ms. Gerritsen don't worry, this book is still a stand alone story and by no means relys on previous titles. This is a fast paced read and a good way to spend a weekend.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping thriller
Review: I love Tess Gerritsen's thrillers, and "The Sinner" has only solidified my opinion of her. Slightly different from her previous novels in that it is told more from the point of view of coroner Dr. Maura Isles instead of police detective Jane Rizzoli, "The Sinner" grabbed my attention from the beginning and never let go. It's easier to understand the characters in this book if you read "The Surgeon" first because in this book Gerritsen refers to relationships that changed in "The Surgeon" and that now carry over into "The Sinner."

Gerritsen's portrayal of Jane Rizzoli can be a little too stereotypically woman-having-to-act-super-tough-because-she's-in-a-man's-world, and that has sometimes annoyed me when reading her previous novels. However, because "The Sinner" is really Dr. Isles' book instead of Rizzoli's, you get Rizzoli's gruffness in snippets instead of being hit over your head with it throughout the novel, and this makes "The Sinner" actually a more enjoyable read.

This was a very entertaining thriller in typical Gerritsen style. And, yes, it can get gruesome, but if you've read Gerritsen, you've come to expect the gruesome details.

Rating:
Summary: fantastic yet shocking medical thriller
Review: It's only four days before Christmas and the citizens of Boston are in an uproar because two nuns in a cloistered abbey are bludgeoned with one dead and the other barely alive. Boston Medical Examiner Dr. Maura Isles discovers that Sister Camille gave birth to a stillborn deformed son. The other nun that was attacked, Sister Ursula was only back in the abbey a year after doing nursing work at a leper colony in India. She remains in intensive care but the doctors aren't hopeful that she will recover.

Maura is called out on another case when a woman is shot to death, her hands and feet are amputated, and her facial skin peeled away. The woman also has some strange lesions on her body and after exhaustive study, they learn she was suffering from Hansen's Disease. A vice president of a company that has a factory near the leper's colony is found shot to death, the victim of an assassin just before he was scheduled to talk to the Justice Department. All three of these cases are linked and once that connection is discovered, the police will probably know who the killer is.

Tess Gerritsen has joined the ranks of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs with this fantastic and shocking medical thriller. Jane Rizzoli, one of the more popular Boston detectives, plays a secondary role in THE SINNER because she is as concerned about her unexpected pregnancy as she is about these cases. Dr. Maura Isles is the star of this tale because it is her esoteric medical knowledge that is needed if the case is to be solved.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: suspenseful story with good twists
Review: Medical Examiner Maura Isles is called to a cloistered convent where one novitiate lies bludgeoned to death by a hammer and an older nun lies near death. The autopsy of the young nun reveals a shocking surprise, she had recently given birth. Dr. Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli investigate for the answers to the many questions this case raises. Why would two nuns with no contact with the outside world be attacked? Before too long a gruesome third killing is tied to the nuns attack and the FBI become involved. In addition to the investigation, Isles and Rizzoli must confront unresolved issues from their pasts that interweave with a crime that goes far beyond the murder of nuns and an unidentified woman.

Jane Rizzoli has appeared in THE SURGEON and THE APPRENTICE. It is not necessary to read the former stories to enjoy THE SINNER, but it helps with character development. Also, both earlier books are excellent. This is not a book for the faint-hearted. The crime scenes and autopsies are very graphic. The book is well plotted with some really good twists, and it really keeps you reading. I liked the characters, but both women seem to be a little more intelligent in their careers than in their private lives. The ending was a bit to pat and was a little bit of a letdown after the promise of the strong beginning and middle of the book. Overall, it was not quite as good as the previous Rizzoli books, but still far superior to most medical/forensic thrillers.

Rating:
Summary: Totally Satisfied!!!
Review: This is my first Tess Gerritsen novel and I haven't been disappointed at all. Even though it does display much the same premise as the Kay Scarpetta novels,she still makes the story interesting,exciting, and suspensful. It moved along really well and I felt like I got to know the main characters. I would consider buying other novels by this author.