Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down!!
Review: This was a GREAT book! I have 4 kids and finished this book in 2 days! Needless to say, I stayed up way too late and didn't do anything I should have!
Rating: 
Summary: A Frightening Story
Review: Tess Gerritson gets better with every book, and this one is her best. Her medical knowledge is apparent but she has also mastered the art of writing a thriller.Other reviewers have already told enough of the story so that I need not repeat it here. Suffice to say that I am a fairly demanding reader of thrillers and look with a critical eye at some of the ones that have just too much coincidence/manipulation (used by some authors to facilitate the story whether it makes sense or bears any relationship to reality). The twists and turns that this story takes really could happen! You do not find any manipulation in this book. It is written in such a realistic manner that you are immediately drawn into the lives of the characters and the horror that has been unleashed in Boston. And there are so many possibilities to consider as to who is committing these gruesome murders. Gerritson's portrayal of Dr. Catherine Cordell's almost- paralyzing fear was outstanding and is sure to cause readers to wonder about their own safety in today's world. My only "complaint" is that I could not put this book down-- so my reading enjoyment was confined to only one night!
Rating:
Summary: Another excellent book!
Review: Tess Gerritsen has that great ability as a writer to literally grab you at the very beginning of her books and keep you going until the end. She has done it again with "The Surgeon" and again uses her knowledge as an internist to bring harsh reality to the story. It is a very quick read because you won't be able to put it down! I loved it and highly recommend...looking forward to the next book!
Rating:
Summary: The Surgeon is sure to induce a panic attack.
Review: Tess Gerritsen is on top of her game. On the heels of her previous bestsellers, Life Support, Harvest, Bloodstream, and Gravity, she demonstrates that no one can come close to her in delineating medical plots that start and stop like a cardiac massage. Her attention to medical details brings the reader into the operating theatre of Dr. Katherine Cordell's skilled hands. Her psychological profiling of the antagonist takes the reader inside the mind of Cordell's assailant and nemesis. The ending is spellbinding. Her use of first person POV in the carefully scripted psyche of her protagonist and killer is crucial to the climatic build-up and ending. Everything is here: fear, love, greed, power, envy, impotence. Jane Rizzoli is gutsy and persistent in her pursuit of the killer and could carry a storyline herself. Thomas Moore's character could have been stronger, but his vulnerability to love matches Katherine's and forever binds them.
Rating:
Summary: The Surgeon Cuts Close to the Bone
Review: As a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I am overwhelmed by the power of Tess Gerritsen's THE SURGEON. Having spent some time in her first career as an internist, Tess Gerritsen puts her medical kowledge to good use in this thriller. A serial killer strikes Boston, and a detective named Thomas Moore (called by some Saint Thomas because he is faithfully mourning his deceased wife) begins his investigation. This serial killer is no Boston Strangler. He butchers his victims with expert medical knowledge. The press labels him The Surgeon. While doing background research, Moore discovers that a serial killer in a distant city operated in a similar manner years earlier. That killer was finally stopped when he made a run at the wrong woman, and she shot him. Dr. Catherine Cordell, that woman, now practices in Boston, and the current killer seems to be working his way closer to Catherine. Catherine knows it. So does Saint Thomas, who is becoming emotionally connected to Catherine following his lengthy period of mourning. It soon becomes obvious that Catherine's assistance will be necessary to stop The Surgeon's butchery. She is buried under fear of this copycat killer. Or is killer really a copycat? THE SURGEON is a thrilling thriller. Read it soon.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Sequel
Review: Dr. Catherine Cordell is working once again after months of fighting to overcome the fear and insecurity caused by being attacked in Savanah when one of her interns tried to kill her. She had killed her attacker, but the fear remained, and when women began dying in Boston in the same manner that she had been taken, the fear returns. There is a stalker on the loose who seems almost to be the same man that she had killed. The story is well written, intense and suspenseful. A thriller to be read quickly and with the doors locked.
Rating:
Summary: THE BANALITY OF EVIL
Review: Tess Gerritsen is the master of the medical thriller in the 21st century and The Surgeon proves it. The fact that she herself is a doctor, as well as an author, adds an authenticity to the book that is unparelleled. Very rarely do I read a book that actually scares me but this one did. How can women in Boston get a good night's sleep when there is a lunatic running around surgically removing their uteruses and doing it while they are still alive and tied up? When Dr. Catherine Cordell arrived in Boston from Savannah two years ago, she thought she had left a nightmare behind her. She had shot and killed a serial killer as he was about to make her his fourth victim. Now it seems that either his ghost has shown up in Boston or there is a copycat on the loose as women are once again being killed and the modus operandi is the same as it was in Savannah -- chloroform/Rohypnol, duct tape and the removal of the woman's womb. There's always a detective willing to go that extra mile to solve a crime and in this case it's Thomas Moore, a cop who is so well respected that he is referred to as Saint Thomas in his precinct. There's a good mix of other supporting characters and just as the serial killer has made Dr. Cordell the center of his focus, so have all the characters in this book. Gerritsen's cast will be jealous and envious and lonely and chauvinistic but they will all pull together to get the job done. I found myself locking the doors in my home this weekend as I finished reading this book. Gerritsen points out that evil can be so ordinary that people you see on an everyday basis could be thinking of ways to kill you. It's an eerie thought. If I have one complaint about this book, it's the fact that there were some obvious clues sitting right there that the cops were not following up on. At one point, I wanted to take their hand and help them solve the crime. Authors can manipulate their stories any way they please and this reader will gladly be manipulated by Gerritsen as I see her as a primo author in this medical thriller genre.
Rating:
Summary: As Good As Patricia Cornwell
Review: This book was impossible to put down. I have always enjoyed Tess Gerritsen's books as they are always suspenseful. I like a good medical thriller and I consider her to be one of the best when it comes to that genre. I believe she deserves more recognition for her talent. She also throws in a bit of romance and out of all the authors that once wrote Harlequin Romances, she is by far one of the best. This book sucks you into the life of a doctor named Catherine and a killer that is out to get her. It is very scary and realistic. It is a race against time to find the killer and I became very involved with the characters. It is a fast, thrilling read and worth hardcover price!!
Rating: 
Summary: Great premise, adequate execution
Review: Tess Gerritsen's "The Surgeon" starts out with a bang and the first 150 pages are as tense as any I have ever encountered. Unfortunately, the rest of the book doesn't hold up to the promise of these early pages. This is due in large part to flaws in presentation and characterization, rather than with holes in the plot. As I mentioned, the book starts off well enough; women around Boston are being found mutilated in a particularly gruesome and yet surgically precise manner. Even more baffling, these killings are nearly identical to ones that occurred two years earlier in Savannah, GA. What makes it baffling is that that killer is undeniably dead. The only connection seems to be the one surviving of the first killer and as the "Surgeon" draws ever close to her the tension mounts. Unfortunately, Gerritsen proves to be unable to maintain this tension throughout the whole novel. The primary reason for this is that her characterizations vary markedly. Those of Detective Moore and Dr. Cordell, the two main characters, are superb. They both show tremendous depth and have very complex personalities. Unfortunately, many of the other primary characters and most of the secondary characters are just cliches: the beaten down female cop, the man hating women's clinic doctor, the chauvinistic male cop, the laconic New England store owner, the insular southern cop, etc., etc. It's not that I don't expect such slap-dash characterizations in most "popular" fiction, it's that Gerritsen is clearly capable of writing much better ones. Furthermore, as the book heads towards its climax, Gerritsen seems to be writing more of a tribute to "The Silence of the Lambs" than her own work. There are several undeniable similarities that I won't cover in detail for fear of ruining the plot; I will say, though, they left me rather deflated. In the end, "The Surgeon" is not a bad read. It kept me up late a few nights, especially early in the novel. By the conclusion, however, I felt that the author had largely abandoned what seemed to be a really original premise. If you're just looking for a quick read on the beach or the plane, you won't by any means be disappointed by this novel, but it could have been much more. If your looking for a mystery that leaves you thinking, I would recommend "Raveling" by Peter Moore Smith, or "Bombay Ice" by Leslie Forbes. "The Surgeon" seemed to be heading down the same path as these two novels, but just came up short in the end.
Rating:
Summary: A TERRIFIC WRITER!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller! The prologue begins with words of the serial killer which appear throughout the book. "Today they will know we are back." Who does the "we" refer to? The main character, Dr. Catherine Cordell, killed her attacker two years ago. Now someone is back, ready to finish her off. The character of the woman detective, Rizzoli, is beautifully portrayed as a woman in a man's world who has to prove herself much more than any man, meanwhile trying to keep a low profile to avoid the pranks of the boys in the squad. St Thomas Moore, who falls for Catherine, has his own personal dilemma. All of this takes place while the cops try to solve the mystery of the serial killer before he kills again. A wonderful read! I could not put it down!
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