My Reading Blog

Good Reads Summary:  "A blessed event becomes a nightmare for pregnant homicide detective Jane Rizzoli when she finds herself on the wrong side of a hostage crisis in this timely and relentless new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Body Double. A nameless, beautiful woman appears to be just another corpse in the morgue. An apparent suicide, she lies on a gurney, awaiting the dissecting scalpel of medical examiner Maura Isles. But when Maura unzips the body bag and looks down at the body, she gets the fright of her life. The corpse opens its eyes.  Very much alive, the woman is rushed to the hospital, where with shockingly cool precision, she murders a security guard and seizes hostages . . . one of them a pregnant patient, Jane Rizzoli.  Who is this violent, desperate soul, and what does she want? As the tense hours tick by, Maura joins forces with Jane’s husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, to track down the mysterious killer’s identity. When federal age...

Goodreads summary: "Evil exists. Evil walks the streets. And evil has spawned a diabolical new disciple in this white-knuckle thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen. PECCAVI The Latin word is scrawled in blood at the scene of a young woman's brutal murder: I HAVE SINNED. It's a chilling Christmas greeting for Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli, who swiftly link the victim to controversial celebrity psychiatrist Joyce O'Donnell, Jane's professional nemesis and member of a sinister cabal called the Mephisto Club. On top of Beacon Hill, the club's acolytes devote themselves to the analysis of evil: Can it be explained by science? Does it have a physical presence? Do demons walk the earth? Drawing on a wealth of dark historical data and mysterious religious symbolism, the Mephisto scholars aim to prove a startling theory: that Satan himself exists among us. With the grisly appearance of a corpse on ...

Book Cover:  It is a boiling hot Boston summer.  Adding to the city's woes is a series of shocking crimes in which wealthy men are made to watch while their wives are brutalized.  A sadistic demand that ends in abduction and death. The pattern suggests one man:  serial killer Warren Hoyt, recently removed from the city's streets.  Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the madman he so admires.  At least that's what Detective Jan Rizzoli thinks.  Forced again to confront the killer who scarred her - literally and figuratively - she is determined to finally end Hoyt's awful influence...even if it means receiving more resistance from her all-male homicide squad. But Rizzoli isn't counting on the U.S. government's sudden interest.  Or on meeting Special Agent Gabriel Dean, who knows more than he will tell.  Most of all, she isn't counting on becoming a target herself, o...

After reading "The Surgeon" by Tess, I had to read more of her work. Book Cover:  "The overnight ER rotation at Springer Hospital is a calm one, which suits Dr. Toby Harper just fine.  While Toby is fiercely proud of the stripes she earned as a resident in a big-city ER, she's come to appreciate the pace at Springer  But no hospital could have been prepared for the man Toby admits one quiet night.  Delirious and in critical condition from a possible viral infection of the brain, he barely responds to treatment.  And then he disappears without a trace.  Under fire from the hospital administration for literally losing a patient, and fearful that she's missed a life-threatening diagnosis, Toby knows she must find the patient.  Her hunt is intensified when a second delirious patent dies in the hospital's care.  But even more chilling is the discover that the infection an only be spread through direct tissue exchange.  As this disturbing new thr...

Again, when perusing Sandra's library, I found an author that I have never read.  This is a medical suspense novel.  Very well written.  Kept me turning page after page and not wanting to put the book down.  A bit gory in places, but that was part of the suspense.  This book is part of a continuing series and I look forward to reading more books by Tess in the future. She made some of her characters very likable and others very standoffish.  The main character, Jane Rizzoli, is a woman detective working in homicide with all male detectives.  She has to prove herself every step of the way, which is just a continuation of her years growing up with 3 brothers.  No one in her family or on the force took her seriously and therefore, she was always down on herself and pushed herself to be the best. I wonder if the author grew up in a similar situation.  At first I didn't like Jane because she was so down on herself and everyone else.  But ...