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The Apprentice

The Apprentice

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: "The Surgeon" is Back.....
Review: Boston Homicide Detective, Jane Rizzoli, still bears both the physical and mental scars of her last, and almost deadly encounter with Warren Hoyt, "the surgeon," who methodically tortured, mutilated, and viciously murdered his victims in a killing spree that ended last year. Thanks to Rizzoli, Hoyt is now behind bars, in a maximum security prison, and he's there for life. So you can imagine her horror, when she's called to an eerily familiar crime scene, and it becomes immediately apparent that a copycat killer, soon dubbed "the dominator," is on the loose and has taken over "the surgeon's" work. As the body count rises, Hoyt escapes from prison and joins forces with his apprentice. This very lethal pair are now hunting together, and their next target is Jane Rizzoli, the victim who got away..... Tess Gerritsen is back with a sequel to last year's best-selling and cleverly plotted thriller, The Surgeon. The Apprentice is a fast read, tense and suspenseful, and filled with vivid scenes, and graphic descriptions. But unfortunately, if you read The Surgeon, you'll find there's not much new here, just a rehash of last year's story. The characters are well drawn and interesting, but the large chip on Rizzoli's shoulder, her drive to be always one better than any of her male counterparts, and her constant whining starts to get old and detracts from the story. With a rushed and unsatisfying ending, that leaves several plot lines hanging and too many questions unanswered, The Apprentice is far from Ms Gerritsen's best. For those looking for an intriguing and compelling thriller, read The Surgeon.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gerritsen scores again!
Review: Another great thriller from Dr. Gerritsen! The suspense never lets up. The writing style's a mixture of art and craft; sometimes objects seem to be almost alive. The story is woven into a whole very nicely with thin strands of motifs and thicker strands tying together past and present. Gerritsen makes effective use of the senses: what the characters see, how things smell and feel to them. It adds another dimension to the reading. The medical and technical scenes are fascinating!

It's sort of a continuation of THE SURGEON, but you won't have to have read that book to enjoy this one. The salient points are covered.

A couple of reservations. The characters could've been fleshed out a bit more. At times they seemed more like 'types' than real people. I found the ending rather abrupt.

THE APPRENTICE is not only a gripping thriller, but one that will leave you with some haunting thoughts.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Hot Sequel!
Review: Detective Jane Rizzoli is back as the tough and determined homicide investigator we met in The Surgeon. This time, however, she carries with her the physical and emotional scars given to her by Warren Hoyt. This time around she is slightly broken, a victim survivor that still sees the predator that had once stalked her around every corner. To make matters worse, a series of violent crimes appear to be the Surgeon's handiwork-wealthy men are forced to watch their wives being brutalized, ending in death for both-but he's safe behind bars. The police can only assume that another madman has taken up Warren Hoyt's banner of sadism and murder-an apprentice the police moniker the Dominator. Rizzoli suddenly finds herself the lead investigator in a case that mirrors her nightmares. The investigation turns even deadlier when Warren Hoyt escapes from prison and somehow joins forces with his pupil. Now there are two predators, and their prey is Jane Rizzoli.

The Apprentice is a suspenseful and scary thriller that can even be enjoyed without having first read The Surgeon. Jane Rizzoli is a bundle of contradictions, from tough cop to recovering victim to lonely, single woman. You've got to love her and pull for her. The supporting cast is great as well, and the forensic science is superb. My only complaint is we don't get to learn more about the Dominator. He's only the sum of his crimes. This book seems to be more about Warren Hoyt than the new killer. But all in all, The Apprentice delivers the adrenaline rush it promises. You'll be hooked within the first few pages.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: "The Surgeon" is Back.....
Review: Boston Homicide Detective, Jane Rizzoli, still bears both the physical and mental scars of her last, and almost deadly encounter with Warren Hoyt, "the surgeon," who methodically tortured, mutilated, and viciously murdered his victims in a killing spree that ended last year. Thanks to Rizzoli, Hoyt is now behind bars, in a maximum security prison, and he's there for life. So you can imagine her horror, when she's called to an eerily familiar crime scene, and it becomes immediately apparent that a copycat killer, soon dubbed "the dominator," is on the loose and has taken over "the surgeon's" work. As the body count rises, Hoyt escapes from prison and joins forces with his apprentice. This very lethal pair are now hunting together, and their next target is Jane Rizzoli, the victim who got away..... Tess Gerritsen is back with a sequel to last year's best-selling and cleverly plotted thriller, The Surgeon. The Apprentice is a fast read, tense and suspenseful, and filled with vivid scenes, and graphic descriptions. But unfortunately, if you read The Surgeon, you'll find there's not much new here, just a rehash of last year's story. The characters are well drawn and interesting, but the large chip on Rizzoli's shoulder, her drive to be always one better than any of her male counterparts, and her constant whining starts to get old and detracts from the story. With a rushed and unsatisfying ending, that leaves several plot lines hanging and too many questions unanswered, The Apprentice is far from Ms Gerritsen's best. For those looking for an intriguing and compelling thriller, read The Surgeon.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: nothing new to see here - pass it by
Review: there is nothing here that hasn't been done before. Everything in The Apprentice has been done before, somewhere else (often better) and as a result this is really just like reading good bits from other serial killer thrillers that have just been cut out and stuck in here in a different order.

All the best crime novels are brilliant because they serve up a well-brewed mix of character, plot, and setting. This doesn't really fulfill any of those criteia, let alone all three. The plot is nothing new, Gerritsen has nothing original to say. This is highlighted not just by the fact that everything here can be found in a far better serial killer novel (I advise you to look toward "Mortal Fear" by Greg Iles, anything by Thomas Harris, or Val McDermid's "The Mermaids Singing" or Michael Connelly's "The Concrete Blonde" for really sublime serial killer books) but by the fact that "The Apprentice" is practically just a re-write of "The Surgeon"!. There is nothing particularly great about the setting, either. there is nothing here to really distinguish Boston from any other American city (or maybe that is just a factor of American cities, rather than Gerritsen's writing!), and the characters are quite bland as well. Rizzoli is nothing new at all. It's not even as if the depiction of a professional, gutsy woman-in-a-man's-policeforce hasn't been done before, either. Admittedly, Gerritsen does do it quite well, but in the end it actually becomes repetitive, tired.

The prose ain't special, either. Occasionally, she does sparkle, but that is only when she narrates the short passages from the killer's point of view.

Gerritsen doesn't exactly do anything WRONG here, but its all very run-of-the-mill, seen it before kinda stuff. It's a pageturner, too. I read it really quickly and it passed the time of day enjoyably. But that is not enough any more, certainly not in the field of serial killer novels. To be honest, it's a genre that's msotly had its day. Only really great writers who still have new things to say, original things, can still succeed in this genre, and they are the ones who are really getting down-and-dirty with humanity, reaching down into the murky, hellish depths of the souls of us all, and bringing back jewels.

My advice to Gerritsen would be to leave this kind of stuff to Mo Hayder, John Connolly and Thomas Harris. My advice to readers would be to pass this by unless you MUST read it, and pick up something by an of the other authors I've mention, who are still capable of bringing something new to this type of book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Thriller
Review: The Surgeon and Jane Rizzoli are back in "The Apprentice" by Tess Gerritsen. Ms. Gerritsen is tops when it comes to portraying a brutal killer. The Surgeon is so creepy, he gave me goose bumps. And now he's teamed up with another killer, the Dominator. Jane Rizzoli is a wonderful chracter and in this book, we get to see a more personal side to her, which I liked. She's a tough cop who's dedicated to her job, trying to deal with scars left behind by the Surgeon. Great thriller.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gory sequel to "Surgeon", be prepared for blood and guts
Review: While we usually hear this author's name mentioned alongside Robin Cook and Michael Palmer, we find this third (of her six) we've read so far to be more a typical, hard-core police procedural, focused far more on the psyche and activities of the book's brutal serial killers and their cop chasers than on medical speculation or intrigue. John Sandford's "...Prey" series jumps right to mind as a comparison -- and indeed, the plot and action are just as riveting, no small compliment. A direct sequel to the "Surgeon", Det. Jane Rizzoli is the central figure hunting what appears at first (but mostly to her) a copycat killer to bad guy Warren Hoyt she put away in the earlier novel. Lo and behold, Hoyt escapes prison mid-way through this novel, and the story picks right up as though he had never been gone, leading to the speculation that the "Dominator" killing people in the first half of this novel might be his apprentice (hence the title).

Along the way, Rizzoli gets help from an Agent Dean of the FBI for whom she feels some perverse attraction (because she otherwise can't stand the guy); and all book-long, we get a heavy dose (almost tiresome by book's end) of this policewoman's feelings and efforts to excel in a male-dominated work world. Will she save herself in the very gripping conclusion?? Unlike other reviewers, we didn't feel the end chapter was particularly short-changed or overly abrupt -- this story just can't go on forever.

We plan to try some of Gerritsen's earlier novels, but wish she would spend a little less time "selling" womanpower, provide us considerably less blood spilling, and provide us some creative medical scenarios ala Palmer. She certainly has the writing skills to pen great novels; we just find ourselves grossed out a little by these two monster stories.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: What a let-down!
Review: I was SO looking forward to reading this book, a sequel of sorts to The Surgeon, one of the best books I've ever read, but this just wasn't that great. Not that it wasn't real written, it is. I think that Ms. Gerritson's writing style is among the best out there, certainly blowing Patricia Cornwell out of the water, but the ending was horrible, not even developed completely. Perhaps if the first book hadn't been so good, this one wouldn't have been such a let down, but I was looking forward to another awesome book, and I just didn't find it here.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I didn't find it a brilliant best.
Review: Gerritson is a talented writer, but you wouldn't necessarily know it from this book. While she manages to keep the pace up, the plotting is sloppy (sudden endings, loose threads) and the characterization feels weak this time around.

Hope to see her back with a stronger entry next time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A real page turner
Review: I have not had the pleasure of reading any other books by Tess Gerriton, but after finishing this one, I am rushing out to my local bookstore or logging on to Amazon to buy the rest. Tess Gerritson writes in a style that is engrossing and informative at the same time.
She will be compared to the likes of Cornwell, Slaughter, Patterson and the myriad others who write well and write books full of violence, crime, drama and information. While this book is meant to be read after "The Surgeon", I did not find myself lost or feeling out of the loop. The continuity is tight and well written, and all the refrences to the past book(s) only make me want the read them that much more.
Mrs. Gerritson has written a story that will pull the reader in and take them on a journey that is as wild as it is violent. Little pieces of information are given to the reader and then left to brew until later. The revelations come together at the end, with the reader figuring it out at the same time as the main character, Jane Rizzoli. A great read and a thrilling mystery.
The only thing that detracts from this book is that it suddenly ends. You have pages and pages of buildup and information and investigation and then, BOOM! the end is there and its all wrapped up nice and neat with only a little string left hanging. All and all, this book is great, it is excellently plotted, tightly written and full of neat little details and scraps of information that will get your brain ticking. A great addition to any readers library. I cant wait to read her other novels.


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