Rating: 
Summary: Solid, but predictable
Review: In Tess Gerritsen's book "The Sinner" even the Queen of the Dead, Medical Examiner Dr. Maura Isles, is disturbed by the savagery of the seemingly unrelated murders of two nuns, a faceless leper, a corporate executive, and most of a small village halfway around the world. With meticulous care and razor-like analysis Dr. Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli examine the bodies as well as their own lives searching for the secrets of the dead and find more than a few that belong to the living. Although, not particularly suspenseful, Gerritsen's novel does create a sense of anticipation. The vignette painted in the prologue of an American businessman in a small town in India photographing a disaster area reveals key information about the murders to the reader that the investigators are not aware of. So, instead of turning page after page to see "whodunnit", it's a matter of watching the discovery process to see how the characters arrive at the answers already revealed to the reader in this solid, but predictable book.
Rating: 
Summary: Tess Gerritsen scores again!
Review: Detective Jane Rizzoli returns in Gerritsen's latest novel, The Sinner. She is joined by medical examiner Maura Isles. The duo make a good team to investigate the seemingly unrelated murders of a nun, an unidentified homeless woman, and an executive. Rizzoli's character is more fleshed out from her previous appearances in The Surgeon and The Apprentice, and we learn more of her relationship with Gabriel Dean of the FBI. Dr. Isles is a good addition to Gerritsen's stable of protagonists. I'm sure we'll see more of these two women in future books from Gerritsen. As a surgeon, I appreciate the medical detail and authenticity found in Gerritsen's works. Fortunately, as she has strayed farther from the medical/hospital setting, she has retained her medical realism. The Sinner is an exciting, gripping read, and I enjoyed it very much. However, as with her next most recent novel, The Apprentice, I feel like the resolution of the suspense was a bit rushed and predictable; hence the 4 out of 5 stars. Still I heartily recommend it, and I look forward to Gerritsen's next suspense offering.
Rating: 
Summary: The Queen of the Dead is on a Case of Murder Most Evil
Review: On a chilly Massachusetts morning someone broke into the chapel of Our Lady of Divine Light and brutally murdered the only novice cloistered there and critically injured an aging nun. There appears to be no motive and the elderly nuns who live at the convent are no help. Boston Medical Examiner Maura Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli are called to the scene and they are faced with not only a brutal crime, but a perplexing one as well that has them asking how someone got past the locked gates and why were the two nuns in the chapel so late at night? And the questions only increase when Isles does an autopsy of the novice and finds she had given birth shortly before she was murdered. The discovery sets off a search for the baby and it's found dead within the grounds of the Abbey. Then the body of a mutilated woman is discovered in a rat invested tenement far from the chapel. This woman had her face, hands, and feet removed. Why? Isles and Rizzoli are again called out to a murder scene. They manage to connect the very different crimes and find a trail of horror and corporate misdeeds that lead to a village in India where something horrible happened and many died. They have uncovered something that someone will do anything to keep hidden. The details of the murder scenes and what happened in India are quite graphic, plus there is violence in this book, so expect to squirm a little. There is suspense and tension in this story as well, so expect a few thrills and chills Also Gerritsen delves deeper into the lives of Isles, the so called Queen of the Dead, and Rizzoli than she has in books gone before, which I found added a very human face to this fast moving thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Two Heroines Make the Sinner Twice as Good
Review: Usually I can tell who the protagonist in a novel is right off the bat, lots of times just by reading the inside flap of a hard cover or the back of a paperback. But in this more than excellent thriller/mystery from Tess Gerritsen I had a hard time deciding if the novel belonged to Boston Medical Examiner Maura Isles or Police Detective Jane Rizzoli. In a well written suspense story told from the third person point of view, we get to wander around in the head of enough people to make the book interesting, usually four or five, but not so many that it becomes confusing, however we spend most of the time with our protag. In this book, however, Ms. Gerritsen seems to have divided our head time more or less equally between these two very well crafted characters and she's done it so well that it's frightening. Dr. Maura Isles is called to a crime scene on a snowy day before Christmas, two nuns in a cloistered order have been attacked, one killed. Detective Jane Rizzoli is already at the scene. Maura discovers the dead nun was pregnant during the autopsy, Rizzoli faints, something this hard as nails cop has never done, but she can't help it, she's pregnant too and she doesn't know if she's going to keep the child as the father is FBI agent Gabriel Dean, who she had a brief affair with and is now back in Washington, a long way from Boston. During the course of the investigation, Maura and Rizzoli discover that the surviving nun had spent two years in a leper colony in India, then later a body turns up with leprosy, however the face, hands and feet had been removed to hide the disease. Rizzoli and Maura wonder if there could be a connection and the FBI does too. Enter agent Dean to represent the Feds and further complicate Rizzoli's life. Should she tell him about the baby or not? Are the bodies related or not? And is the death of an executive from a major chemical company that just happened to have a plant upwind from that leper colony in India related? How many more are going to die? Maura gets close. The killer has his eyes on her. Can Rizzoli stop him? There is a lot to take in in this fast moving story that will have you anticipating as much as it will have you guessing. After reading THE APRENTICE I couldn't imagine how Ms. Gerritsen could get any better, but she has, each one of her books is better than the last and that is really saying something. Reviewed by Ken Douglas, Underpaid Writer
Rating:
Summary: One of Gerritsen's best novels.
Review: Tess Gerritsen's excellent new suspense thriller, "The Sinner," is her best work in years. Boston-based medical examiner Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli are called in to investigate a brutal attack on two nuns who live in a cloistered convent. Was this a random attack by an intruder, or were the nuns the intended targets? Isles and Rizzoli also investigate the case of a murdered woman whose mutilated body turns up in an abandoned building. The corpse's physical condition suggests that the woman had suffered from a mysterious and debilitating disease. What is the disease and is it somehow related to her death? Maura and Jane have some personal problems in addition to their professional worries. Suddenly and inexplicably, Maura's ex-husband, Victor Banks, turns up in Boston. Although she has not seen him in years, Maura is still attracted to Victor. However, she is wondering why he has suddenly come back into her life, and she suspects that he may be manipulating her for reasons of his own. Jane Rizzoli, a hard-bitten cop who tries to hide her personal feelings, is still in turmoil over her brief affair with an FBI agent named Gabriel Dean. Gerritsen's protagonists, Isles and Rizzoli, are strong and professional women, but they are also vulnerable, sensitive, and fallible. We care very much what happens to them. With her crisp and deft prose style, Gerritsen successfully combines the elements of a medical thriller, murder mystery, and romance in "The Sinner." The action, dialogue, and character development are all first rate, and the plot is intricate without being convoluted. To her credit, Gerritsen brings all of the novel's threads together in a satisfying conclusion that feels just right. Don't miss this top-notch thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling
Review: In "The Sinner", Tess Gerritsen focuses on two strong women characters, homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles. Both characters are wonderfully portrayed. I can't get enough of Jane Rizzoli, a female cop with a tough facade who has been a fighter all her life. Add to that now, Maura Isles, a woman who seems cool and detached on the outside, yet who is experiencing inner turmoil. The two come together to investigate the person who murdered one young, beautiful nun and brutally bludgeoned an older one. Gerritsen has proven herself to be one of the best medical thriller authors today. Her books always deliver a powerful story and entertaining read, with some of the best characterization out there. Count me a fan.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best!
Review: M.E. Maura Isles is called to a convent with her friend and colleague, Jane Rizzoli, to investigate the horrific bludgeoning of two nuns. One is battered almost to the point of death and the younger one has had her skull completely crushed.Two separate stories unfold..the death of the young nun who is found to have recently had a baby, and the attempted murder of the older nun who has just returned from medical missionary work in India.Isles and Rizzoli work together on these cases while battling with their own demons, both to do with former lovers.It's a quick read and a most enjoyable one, albeit to do with gruesome medical facts. M/s Gerritsen has an easy to read, flowing style of writing which I appreciate very much and will definitely look for more of her work.
Rating:
Summary: Some of her best writing is shown here..
Review: Tess Gerritsen, a woman who is not afraid to bare all and BEAT THE CRAP out of King, Koontz, Palmer, Crichton, and Sanford. Her characters have a depth that ties them together nicely and with minimal baggage and she keeps her writing fluid and smooth. I've read novels where through the entire book I kept asking myself why am I weaving through this literary jumble of this author's own stupidity. But Tess Gerritsen deserves more than 5 stars, she takes her writing and blows everyone else in her field out of the water. Being an Internist before starting her career in writing, she brings tons of medical information to the table, and she knows how to use the language extremely well. I am waiting on bated breath for her new novel of medical suspense "Body Double." She is incredibly gifted and that is what we need in the writing field today. Let's have a standing ovation for one Mrs. Tess Gerritsen and may she continue to write as well as we have seen her write in the past.
Rating: 
Summary: An Uncharacteristic Showing
Review: I have been highly impressed by Tess Gerritsen's style of writing in her previous novels: Gravity, The Surgeon, Harvest, The Apprentice. Unfortunately, The Sinner does not carry with it the same level of suspense and excitement that has made her other titles absolute page-turners. In fact, there is nearly no suspense involved for the first 3/4 of the book, as the mystery tying together 3 seemingly unrelated crime scenes is unraveled at a painfully prolonged pace. Yes, this is more of an average quality murder mystery novel than the characteristically excellent medical thriller that has made Gerritsen a multiple-time New York Times bestselling author. Although The Sinner certainly is readable, I would recommend spending your time on one of Gerritsen's more acclaimed titles instead.
Rating:
Summary: Good But I Expect More From Gerritson
Review: After the nonstop focused excitement of Gerritsen's two previous books I wasn't quite as taken with this one. In other words it would have been pretty good from anyone else but just a bit of a let down from her. The law enforcement types were mostly familiar from her last couple of books. She advanced some of their personal lives and maybe that was the problem. The personal matters seemed to be of equal importance to the suspense plot and this seemed to drag things down a bit. The plot is suitably complicated though and Gerritsen does a great job of connecting the dots to bring it all together.
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