I needed to figure out a way to start reading series where I am not current or the series is finished but haven’t read them yet. So it’s a way to commit myself to read my backlist, particularly series.
Another police procedural series is the Rizzoli & Isles I want to read. I have watched a few of the tv series but it is very different.
The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen Narrator: Anna Fields
Series: Rizzoli & Isles #3
Published by Random House Audio on March 17, 2004
Genres: Mystery
Length: 9 hours, 6 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
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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.
The Sinners was the first book in which Maura Isles had a main point of view and got out of the morgue (that we saw) and worked a case with Jane Rizzoli. I enjoyed that very much. The two women also seemed to start developing a more personal relationship.
The case was murders at a convent. One nun was very young, another was a longer-term nun who had been a nurse out working in Africa, and another woman looked to be an immigrant. There were many complex aspects to figure out how they came to die.
The personal aspects were interesting as both Maura and Jane struggled with their feelings about men in their lives. We were just getting our first glimpse of Maura’s personal life here. In a way, it was also a more personal view of Jane.
Body Double by Tess Gerritsen Series: Rizzoli & Isles #4
Published by Penguin Audio on August 17, 2004
Genres: Mystery
Length: 11 hours, 1 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
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Dr. Maura Isles makes her living dealing with death. As a pathologist in a major metropolitan city, she has seen more than her share of corpses every day–many of them victims of violent murder. But never before has her blood run cold, and never has the grim expression “dead ringer” rung so terrifyingly true. Because never before has the lifeless body on the medical examiner’s table been her own.
Yet there can be no denying the mind-reeling evidence before her shocked eyes and those of her colleagues, including Detective Jane Rizzoli: the woman found shot to death outside Maura’s home is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical nuances. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. For the stunned Maura, an only child, there can be just one explanation. And when a DNA test confirms that Maura’s mysterious doppelgänger is in fact her twin sister, an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets.
Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await. But perhaps more frightening, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree. To stop the massacre and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject: the mother that she never knew . . . an icy and cunning woman who could be responsible for giving Maura life–and who just may have a plan to take it away.
We continue with more of Maura’s point of view here with a deeper background into her history. A woman who looks just like Maura is shot outside her home. The woman also turns out to have her same birthday, blood type and DNA, meaning she was her twin sister. Maura was an adopted only child, so the whole thing is shocking all around.
As Maura digs into her sister’s history, looking at other members of her biological family, things only seem to increase in danger. She goes to the town where she believes her family is from and Anna had rented a house. In the basement and surrounding area they find dead bodies. The women seem to have been pregnant, which has similarities to another case brought against Maura’s biological mother.
This leads the team to a search for missing pregnant women and surprisingly, there are too many. But Maura isn’t pregnant and didn’t know anything about her family. Jane eventually figures out the connections as to why Maura is in danger.
I’ll look forward to more cases. But the background of the personal lives is interesting also. Jane, has finally found a good guy and now will have a baby. Maura can’t seem to pick a decent guy other than a priest who is already committed to his work. So we will see how they make their way forward. I hope Maura and Jane will be doing more investigating together.
Narration:
Each book had a new narrator which was unfamiliar to me. I was comfortable with the voices for male and female characters. I was too focused on the story to pay more attention to the narration. I was able to listen at my newer 1.75x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Tess Gerritsen
Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.
While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction and in 1987, her first novel, Call After Midnight, was published. It was just the first of 31 suspense novels that she’s written over a 36-year writing career. She also wrote a screenplay, “Adrift,” which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.
Tess’s first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Her novels have hit bestseller lists ever since. Among her titles are Gravity, The Surgeon, Vanish, The Bone Garden, and The Spy Coast. Her books have been translated into 40 languages, and more than 40 million copies have been sold around the world.
She has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon). Critics around the world have praised her novels as “Pulse-pounding fun” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “Scary and brilliant” (Toronto Globe and Mail), and “Polished, riveting prose” (Chicago Tribune). Publishers Weekly has dubbed her the “medical suspense queen” and Time Magazine named her novel The Surgeon one of the best mystery/thriller novels ever written.
Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series “Rizzoli & Isles,” starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.
She is also a filmmaker. She and her son Josh produced a feature-length documentary, “Magnificent Beast,” about the ancient origins of the pig taboo. It aired on PBS channels around the country. Their previous film, “Island Zero”, was a feature-length horror movie that was released in 2018.
She lives in Maine.
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 26-Audio
- 26-COYER
Another series I love! And, I’m up to date. It gets better with every book.
I’m really enjoying them and yes each book gets better. It’s nothing like the tv series at all.
Wow, a twin sister she never knew about and killed right outside her house. That’s an attention grabber.
yes especially as we hardly got anything on Maura in the first 2 books and now she’s a POV.
So many goodies. So little time.
Isn’t that the truth?