The Sinner

Rating:
Summary: Chilling, Fast paced and Original
Review: In a remarkably original and fast-paced plot, a series of seemingly unrelated murders slowly unravel themselves. It will be an injustice to a potential reader to give any specifics regarding the plot, lest it reduces the suprise elements of the plot. The twists and turns in the plot are well timed and it seems they couldnt have come a moment too soon or too late. The characters are developed very well over the entire novel and are dealt with considerable depth to make them look very original and human. The narrative style is brisk and never seems artificial...A terrific read!

Rating:
Summary: Not her best, but still darn good
Review: I have read all of Tess Gerritsen's novels and I never tire of her story-telling ability. She can weave mystery into the fabric of an excellent medical thriller as well, if not better, as Robin Cook. While this, in my opinion, is not one of her very best, she still has the magic of story-telling prose.

The plot and story line are solid, there are enough twists and turns to keep you turning the pages. It was fun watching Ms. Gerritsen bring together events that in the beginning didn't seem related at all. To me, this is the sign of a great writer. Her characters are believable and while she injects a lot of medical knowledge and jargon into her stories, she brings it all down to a level that most people can understand.

While I have enjoyed some of her other books more than this one, I still must recommend this book. It is a good solid read and reads easily enough to finish in a night or two. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Chills Up My Rachis
Review: This book gave me the chills. At the end of nearly every break in scene or end of a chapter I was forced to read on, not simply to satiate the clawing of suspense at my hungry curiosity, but also to ward off nightmares that would most certainly fall upon me. This is one of the best mysteries I've read in a while. Granted, I haven't read many, but this one was truly amazing.

Tess Gerritsen's medical knowledge provided such intricate detail into the world of Maura Isles, it was brilliant. She used such terms as "endometrium" and "perineum" as if they were common vocabulary, but not in such a way that she alienated the reader. She offered explanation where explanation was due, and did not dwell on minor details. I admire and appreciate this my first Tess Gerritsen read, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good murder mystery.

Rating:
Summary: Good Story, But Disturbing Trend
Review:
I've got to admit this is a fairly interesting read. But as a Tess Gerritsen fan who has been with her since her first medical mystery, HARVEST, I find the trend of her latest three books disturbing, particularly this one. This is the third time we have Detective Jane Rizzoli and the second time Medical Examiner Maura Isles; and the teaser plus the "Look Inside" for Gerritsen's next book, BODY DOUBLE, show me we're going to have this same pair together again. Gerritsen seems to be turning into a typical series author; and I, for one, think that would be a great shame for a writer of her talents.

Having Rizzoli in both THE SURGEON and THE APPRENTICE made sense since THE APPRENTICE is an excellent sequel to THE SURGEON with the same baddie hooked up with a new one. But with THE SINNER she uses the same pair of heroines to try and solve a crime done by baddies that are totally unrelated to those two stories. What I enjoyed about a Gerritsen medical mystery in the past was that with each new book she would take us to totally different settings peopled with totally different characters. That's a lot harder for a writer to do, but it makes for a far more interesting read for me than those dealing with heroes and settings I've already experienced umpteen times. So, as I was reading THE SINNER, I found myself getting increasingly bored with the character and problems of Jane Rizzoli.

I'm sure I'll read BODY DOUBLE when it comes out in mass paperback, too. But after reading THE SINNER, I'm not looking forward to reading it with anywhere near the anticipation I had with Gerritsen's earlier medical thrillers.


Rating:
Summary: awsome!
Review: The first book I read by Tes was The Surgeon, and love it..I have been reading her books since then and this one is just as great as the ones I've read in the past. The Sinner was everything I expected and more! The plot was awsome and It got my heart racing there for a minute!! Talk about a good Thriller!!!

Rating:
Summary: Queen of the Dead
Review: "Queen of the Dead." Boston Medical Examiner Maura Isles knows that's what they called her behind her back, but she shrugs it off, pretends she doesn't hear. She has a tough job to do, but still it hurts. However she can't let words get to her, because crime in the city doesn't stop, bodies keep coming in, she's seen it all. At least she'd thought she had, but when she gets the call on a cold and snowy December morning to go out to Boston's Graystones Abbey, home of a contemplative order of nuns, because one of them had been brutally murdered, another badly beaten, she is shaken. Who would break into the Abbey grounds and do such a thing?

When she arrives she finds that the order is all older women who had spent most of their lives sheltered from the world, except for their new novice, the young and very dead, Sister Camille. Maura quickly finds out that Camille had been pregnant and suspects Father Brophy, the priest who says mass for the nuns once a week and hears their confessions. But there are much darker forces at work. With her friend, Detective Jane Rizzoli, she dives into the secrets of Sister Camille and learns that the intended victim had been the other nun, the aging Sister Ursala, who'd left the order for a couple of years to work with lepers in India and who had recently returned because the leper village had been wiped out by a group of guerillas or maybe it was bandits. Or maybe it was something else much more sinister.

As usual Tess Gerritsen delivers with her usual flair. Her characters are as real as the guy next door. Her story razor-sharp and Teflon-slick. And as far as why whodunit did it, well, she'll have you guessing right up until the end.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Rating:
Summary: India + Nuns + Murder = Thrilling Suspense
Review: FROM THE CASE: "The cloistered grounds of the convent have traditionally represented a place of faith and peace. Now, that peace is shattered as two nuns are found, one dead, one mortally wounded. The killings appear to be without motive, without an obvious suspect, and are further complicated by the murder and mutilation of a third woman. Together, medical examiner Maura Isles and intense, moody homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, both introduced in earlier Tess Gerritsen novels, uncover an ancient horror that connects these terrible slaughters. As long-buried secrets come to light, Isles finds herself drawn inexorably towards the heart of an investigation that strikes closer to home - and towards a dawning revelation about the killer's identity too shattering to consider."

What do India, Nuns and murders have to do with each other? That is the very question that homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles have to answer in this wonderful novel by Ms. Gerritsen. Set in Boston in winter, this novel starts off with Dr. Isles being called to a murder scene. Nothing out of the ordinary for a medical examiner you say. A true statement except that this murder scene is inside the chapel of a convent and the victim is a young nun. From here it gets even stranger when Dr. Isles is called to yet another murder scene and finds a victim who has been mutilated. Is this murder related to that of the young nun? You have to read or listen to this book to find out.

In this novel, Ms. Gerritsen takes us down three separate paths only to rejoin them for a wonderful climax. This isn't what I typically think of as a medical thriller. I guess because when I think about medical thrillers I think of novels where healthy patients are dying from some unknown medical cause, not one where a medical examiner is the main character.

This was a wonderful audio book. Though it didn't keep me glued to it one hundred percent of the time, I found myself in parts hoping to get stuck in traffic or looking forward to the end of the day so I could get back in my car to continue.

The narrator for this audio book combined with the writing style of Ms. Gerritsen did a superb job at bringing the cityscape of Boston in the winter to life. One who has never been to Boston, I found myself making wonderful visualizations. I could picture the convent as if I were standing in front of it and the twinkling lights of Christmas on the snow. Another thing I liked about this book was the characters. I found myself picturing Maura looking like Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra.

Being one of the Detective Rizzoli novels it seemed to me that she took a back seat to Dr. Isles who ended up being the main character in this book.

All in all, this was a good book though not great. I really enjoyed the way the reader is drawn down several paths which make it very hard to figure out who the murderer is and why. I really enjoyed the writing style of Ms. Gerritsen and the narration.

Unfortunately Ms. Gerritsen has never been nominated for any literary awards for her work. This is a shame, as this is the third novel by her that I have enjoyed and any one of them is worthy of a nomination. In addition to The Sinner, I have enjoyed Bloodstream and Life Support by Ms. Gerritsen and would recommend any of these. It dosen't matter if you enjoy medical thrillers, mystery, or just plain good suspense, then you don't want to leave this or the other two Tess Gerritsen novels I mentioned off of your list.

Take it from one who likes medical thrillers; if you like authors such as Robin Cook, Michael Palmer, Peter Clement or Iris Johansen, then you will not be disappointed by the works of Ms. Gerritsen.

For you folks in the literary awards areas, I think it is time that you give Ms. Gerritsen serious consideration for her work.

Rating:
Summary: A Gerritsen Fan
Review: I bought this book two weeks before going on holiday and as I am a huge Gerritsen fan I then tortured myself by not reading it until I hit the beach on my first day. As with all her novels, it took me one day to read it from cover to cover (still recovering from 2nd degree burns!!).
The Sinner concentrates more on Dr Maura Isles character than progressing Rizzoli's' psyche and her need to alienate anyone who tries to relate to her. I found this disappointing as Rizzoli is the central character in previous books and after reading the Surgeon and the Apprentice I felt that I was just getting to know what made Jane Rizzoli click.
The book revolves around the murders within a convent so there is a strong religious element which the two women deal with in their own way. They are both strong women and lapsed Catholics so are not predisposed to treating the nuns with sympathy.
Maura remembers suffering from emotional torment meted out during her years at the Holy Innocents Academy but is still incapable of uttering a curse in front of the cross or being rude to a nun. Whilst Jane constantly snipes at the church - one of my favourite lines is "Lets' see, shall I wear the black or the brown habit today?"
Like most thriller readers I like to pitch my wits against the author and work out who the killer is before it becomes too obvious in the book. Whilst the ending of this was quite poor (in comparison) I still didn't manage to identify the killer.
The characters are convincing, the pace is exciting and there are some chilling twists and whilst the Sinner does not have the intensity and darkness that I enjoyed in the first two books, I was still unable to put it down once I'd started.