Rating: 
Summary: HE'S BACK
Review: He being the nasty villain of Gerritsen's "The Surgeon." And even though he's in prison for his nasty deeds, he's working with someone outside to continue his bloody domain.
Gerritsen has brought Jane Rizzoli back, and given her an adversary/attraction in Gabriel Dean. Some madman is out there raping women in front of their incapacitated hubbies, and then he kills both the husband and the wife...taking the wife off to some unknown destination to finish his job.
The pace is a little slower in this one, and Jane does spend a lot of time musing on her sexual harrassment issues.
I found myself most disappointed with the rather anticlimactic ending. After spending a whole book waiting for the final confrontation, it seems rushed and unfulfilling.
However, it is still a commendable book and I look forward to her next Rizzoli opus.
RECOMMENDED.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad...but not great either
Review: Like all Tess Gerritsen novels, The Apprentice is an easy and quick read. The pace is fast and you find yourself saying: "It's really late, but I'll just peek at just one more chapter."Ninety-five percent of the book kept me thoroughly entertained and on the edge of my seat. In retrospect, I can agree with the other reviewers concerning the attitude of the main heroine, but it didn't bother me while I was reading the novel. The climax, however, is where things fell apart. About 20 pages from the end, the heroes were no closer to finding the bad guys - it felt like I should have been near the middle of the book. The main characters had done extensive forensics work and psychological profiling and then *poof* it was over. All their work contributed nothing to the climax of the book. The ending felt thrown together and came before the story was ready for it. Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any fan of the genre. I was just left wanting a more fulfilling ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Edge of your seat thriller
Review: "The Apprentice", like other Tess Gerritsen novels, are easy reads, yet gripping and entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the ending of this one. I have read, and will in the future, everything that this author writes... I have yet to be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Tess Gerritsen's Roots Are Showing
Review: This book is a bit less focused than it's predecessor, the Surgeon. The Surgeon was a slam\bang, toe curling horror story (in the nonsupernatural sense) about a man who preyed on emotionally damaged women. Tucked securely into prison, the Surgeon still dreams of the one who got away. Meanwhile, a predator is stalking couples in upscale homes, but using the Surgeon's signature. Drawn into this case by its similarities of her investigation the summer before, Jane Rizzio, homicide detective, has further problems in the form of an FBI agent who mysteriously appears and questions her ability to handle the case. Jane's problems with her co-workers and her family are shown in a few choice scenes. Gerritsen is very good at fleshing out her characters this way. However, the reason I feel the book lost focus was because Gerritsen's past as a romance writer seemed to come back to haunt her here. A bit of tension about the love interest's role in the deaths might have spiced up the story. Anxiety about an ending helps in a suspense novel. The resolution of that seemed a bit pat and the final ending actually seems a little anticlimactic. All in all, not the same punch as the Surgeon but still a better than average read and I'm forward to her next effort.
Rating:
Summary: Not a bad way to spend a Saturday
Review: Sequel to "The Surgeon," this mystery starts with a copycat murder following "The Surgeon's" (serial killer Warren Hoyt) m.o. to a tee. Of course, Detective Jane Rizzoli is brought in on the case. After all, nobody knows more about Hoyt than her -- she was nearly killed by him and was the cop who ultimately took him down. But when Hoyt escapes from prison and the murders escalate, it's clear that this isn't just your every day normal copycat killer. It's a team of two dangerous men -- and they're coming after Jane next. This was a fairly entertaining thriller. Better written than "The Surgeon," but still not exactly what you'd call literature. Gerritsen still has an annoying tendency to overuse catchy phrases (okay, enough with "coup de grace," already!). But hey, I was entertained and that's all I was really lookin' for with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Kept me interested
Review: This book I finished in two days without first reading The Surgeon. Since the author referred to The Surgeon so much I wish I had read it first but it will be on my list of books to buy in the future. She kept the murders coming and the questions and suspense built but the personal character needed more of a life. She finally has a relationship moment towards the end and the book was wrapped up neatly but I can't help but feel cheated since another one in the series is a must-buy too... :-)
Rating:
Summary: Chilling, vivid, great writing style.
Review: One of the best stories I've read in a very long time. While other stories build you up and then drop you like a bomb, this one delivered to the very end... some would say it make it a predictable plot but then again some of us like it like that sometimes; is it mainly because it make sense? Or because we are so tired of being fed so much garbage that when someone like Gerritsen comes by once in a while and does her best at making all the pieces fit together, it is a comforting event? If we break the story into functional components (which I am not very good at I will admit), we end up with three very important elements. 1st) The characters, how they are "built" how credible and real they are and how much do we know about them. Here Gerritsen does in my opinion a great job given how much elbow room a writer would have for a story of this length. Her main 'actor' Jane Rizzolli has a ton of personality yet she is real and human. I like that she didn't make her super woman like so many other female novelists who when trying to create female law enforcement related characters make them into these bionic beings. The evil player, her nemesis the "heart" of the story is again, real and with substance... not just mean for the sake of the story, but well though out, well put together. 2nd) The story. I agree with other reviewers that the logical prequel to this should be "The Surgeon" without which this story still stands on its own but which I now see would have made it much bigger, richer, fuller. I am now planning on reading that, but I am going in knowing I have ruined it for myself and by now know the outcome. On this previous topic I wish to point out to the author, that this seems to be a terrible marketing decision (like I know); to let the reader into so much of the prequel book thus almost making it pointless to pick it up. I would have suggested threading it in, whetting the appetite but not giving away the ending!!! come on!!! I also want to add that it takes away from the story a bit the fact that it relies so much on the previous book and it totally wouldn't stand on its own at least not as it is written. 3rd) The ending. Great, logical, no loose ends... almost, but who doesn't right? I usually never finish a book very fast... I tend to read a little at a time, say 60 to 100 pages per day/session... I had this book done pretty much in one day (two in practical terms), so I say this to convey the idea that it is a very easy flowing story, a page turner if you will, but also well written which helps in the overall achievement of this goal.
The negative: perhaps a little to much gore! The crime scene descriptions and the autopsies go into a level of detail that I believe is not entirely necessary. The story could have done without, but it otherwise brings home the point. Conclusion: Great story, read "The Surgeon" first if you can (even though I never did and I am now planning to).
Rating:
Summary: Not her best
Review: I'm a huge fan of Tess's previous works 'Surgeon' and 'Gravity'...this one not so much. First, Tess needs to make up her mind on the psychological charcterization..she wants to give both, a tough and a sensitive side to her lead character, Jane Rizolli, but ends up making it inconsistent page to page...She just makes Jane a very confused character portrayed in the extremes...sometimes Jane is too tough, sometimes she is too emotional and vulnerable. It may be realisitic but does not make an interesting read unless the personalities blend a little bit more. Second, I had to really plod my way thru the book..usually I stay up at night and finish her books in 3 hours, this one din't hold my attention like that..I took more than a week. Did not hold me to the edge of my seat. Like a thriller should. Third, just stop with the "feminist" whining already or atleast reduce it a bit. I noticed it in previous boks and it was the right tone and amount. In this one, there's just too much, every line is about Jane's obsession with competing with males. For the record, I'm female, I understand how difficult it is for women working in a male dominated field etc..but we get it already, it doesn't have to anvilled over us in every page, without furthering the plot. No cop has so much time to think about female-male psychology in the midst of a serial killer invesigation. Sure, Jane is sometimes vulnerable because of this. But it is a tad overdone.
Rating:
Summary: A Real Thriller
Review: First, if you have not read 'The Surgeon' by Tess Gerritsen I do not recommend reading the Apprentice first. I made that mistake and probably ruined the plot of the previous book.
The Apprentice was a great thriller. It's the kind of book you get to read once in a while that leaves you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Through the whole book, I was constantly asking myself "who dunnit"? The book is about a Jane Rizzoli, a Boston detective who gets teamed up with an FBI agent to try and solve a recent string of murders. All the killings are nearly the same but there's more it than what the FBI agent is letting on. This was a great book and a real quick read.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific and Well Written
Review: This is a terrific book that does fiction proud. It displays the horror that is possible from human nature. This is my first exposure to Gerritsen and I'm eager to get more. If you love mystery/crime novels, this is a must!
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