Tess Gerritsen - Author
About the 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, and was awarded her M.D. in 1979. After completing her internal medicine residency, Tess worked as a physician in Honolulu, Hawaii.
While on maternity leave, she began to write fiction. On a whim, she submitted a literary short story to Honolulu Magazine’s statewide fiction contest¯and won first place!
In 1987, Tess`s first novel was published. She has now written 19 novels and is a Sunday Times bestseller. She also wrote a screenplay, ""Adrift,"" which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.
Having lived in Hawaii, she now resides in Camden, Maine, with her husband and two sons.
Featured books by Tess Gerritsen
I Know a Secret (Rizzoli & Isles 12)
When a young woman is found dead, Detective Jane Rizzoli and Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles are called to the scene of the murder. Though the body bears startling wounds, the actual cause of death is not immediately clear. A few days later, another body is discovered - a seemingly unrelated crime, but the lack of an obvious cause of death shows they have more in common than it would first appear. As Rizzoli and Isles race to discover the link between the victims before the killer can strike again, a mysterious person watches from the sidelines. She has the answers they're looking for. But she knows she has to stay quiet, if she wants to stay alive . . . '
Playing with Fire
There, Julia uncovers a heartbreaking, long-buried tale of tragedy and devastation - a discovery that puts her in serious danger. Some people will do anything in their power to keep the truth silent...
Last to Die (Rizzoli & Isles 10)
Three children, strangers to each other, are brought together by seemingly motiveless and extreme acts of violence. Orphaned and alone, they are taken in as students at Evensong, a boarding school for emotionally traumatized children in the remote Maine wilderness. A PLACE OF SAFETY? Forensic pathologist Maura Isles already has a connection with the school - Julian 'Rat' Perkins, the 16-year-old boy she met during a previous case, is now living there. But she suspects that the Evensong founders may be using the school for their own agenda. And her concerns grow when Detective Jane Rizzoli is asked to investigate yet another attempt on the life of one of the orphans at the school ...OR A PLACE OF DANGER? What both Jane and Maura soon discover is that even a school protected by locked gates and acres of forest cannot shut out a gathering threat. When three blood-spattered twig dolls are found hanging from a tree, they wonder if the threat comes from outside the school ...or from within.
The Silent Girl
A Violent Death: When a hand is found in an alley in Boston's Chinatown, it is detective Jane Rizzoli who finds its owner - a woman whose throat has been slashed so deeply that her head is nearly severed. A Revealing Clue: Two strands of silver hair cling to her body. They are Rizzoli's only clues, but they're enough for her and pathologist Maura Isles to make a startling discovery. This violent end had a chilling prequel. A Secret Better Left Buried: ...Years earlier, a horrifying murder-suicide took place in a Chinatown restaurant, leaving five people dead. But one woman connected to that massacre is still alive: a mysterious, beautiful martial arts master who knows a deadly secret. A secret that will kill again - unless Jane and Maura can track it down, and defeat it...
Presumed Guilty
Tess Gerritsen began her career writing romantic fiction and this, one of her early ones (published in 1993 in America) has that feel to it. It’s fun and it is interesting to see how she has developed, but if you are expecting a gritty chiller this is not it. It’s cosy crime with a bit of a spark. If you are a fan you really should read it for interest sake; if you enjoy romantic crime, you’ll love it. Comparison: Tami Hoag, Mary Higgins Clark.
The Killing Place
A Maxim Jakubowski Great Female Crime Sleuth. JANE RIZZOLI & MAURA ISLES - The female investigating duo of detective Rizzoli and forensic archeologist Isles is a unique and great combination and over nine books so far has established itself as a much-loved detecting pair. The hardy duo invariably encounter the grisliest of cases and are often obliged to put their very lives on the line in the exercise of duty. A spiky relationship between the two women peppers the books with sardonic flashes of wit, but the page-turning qualities of their exploits is never in doubt. Gripping stuff. The Lovereading view... Gory and gripping this is Tess Gerritsen's most bone-chilling story yet in our opinion. Gerritsen’s much-loved series heroines, forensic anthropologist Maura Isles and detective Jane Rizzoli are core to this nail-biting crime mystery. Gerritsen plays on the reader's fears as she dishes out her unputdownable meal of non-stop nightmare in which both Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli are pushed well beyond where they've been pushed before.
The Bone Garden
One of Lisa Gardner's favourite books. January 2011 Guest Editor Lisa Gardner on Tess Gerritsen... While I’m a huge fan of her characters Rizzoli and Isles, my favourite novel remains The Bone Garden, a historic thriller that captures gruesome medical practices in the 1830s, when surgeons unwittingly cross-contaminated their patients and the demand for black market medical cadavers kept grave robbers in business. The Bone Garden is a thriller that both entertains and informs, my favourite kind of book.
The Sinner
We think she is a stunning thriller writer, so much so we are featuring this, her paperback and her new hardback Body Double this month
Body Double
Bostonskomu sudmedehkspertu Maure Ajlz ne privykat' k vidu mertvyh lyudej. Odnako na ehtot raz ee ohvatyvaet nastoyashchij uzhas. ZHenshchina, najdennaya ubitoj v mashine vozle doma Maury, pohozha na nee kak dve kapli vody. Vskore vyyasnyaetsya, chto ubitaya - ee sestra-bliznec, o sushchestvovanii kotoroj Maura, usynovlennaya eshche v mladenchestve, dazhe ne podozrevala. No ch'ya zhestokaya volya razdelila sester? I kto na samom dele byl mishen'yu ubijcy? Rassledovanie ehtogo neobychnogo prestupleniya uvodit v dalekoe proshloe, polnoe temnyh tajn i neveroyatnyh otkrytij...
Girl Missing
The first body is a mystery.Shes young. Shes beautiful. And her corpse, laid out in the office of Boston medical examiner Kat Novak, betrays no secretsexcept for a matchbook clutched in one stiff hand, seven numbers scrawled inside.The next body is a warning.When a second victim is discovered, Kat begins to fear that a serial killer is stalking the streets. The police are sceptical. The mayor wont listen. And Kats chief suspect is one of the towns most prominent citizens.The final bodymight be hers.With the death toll rising, Kat races to expose a deadly predator who is closer than she ever dreamt. And every move she makes could be her very last.
Die Again
Bostonskij detektiv Dzhejn Riccoli s pomoshch'yu patalogoanatoma Maury Ajlz rassleduet zhestokoe ubijstvo Leona Gotta - taksidermista i zayadlogo ohotnika. Ego syn EHlliot propal vo vremya puteshestviya po Afrike za shest' let do ehtogo. Mezhdu dvumya proisshestviyami neozhidanno obnaruzhivaetsya svyaz'. Policejskie vyhodyat na Milli Dzhekobson - edinstvennuyu vyzhivshuyu v tom samom safari. Kazhetsya, strah navsegda izuvechil ee. No Dzhejn prosit Milli o nevozmozhnom: shagnut' navstrechu samomu opasnomu hishchniku na svete - cheloveku, stat' dlya nego primankoj... Vpervye na russkom yazyke!
Other books by Tess Gerritsen
The Shape of Night
'This will haunt you. Riveting!' Shari Lapena, author of THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR If the walls could talk . . . they'd tell her to leave. Now. When Ava arrives at Brodie's Watch, she thinks she has found the perfect place to hide from her past. Something terrible happened, something she is deeply ashamed of, and all she wants is to forget. But the old house on the hill both welcomes and repels her and Ava quickly begins to suspect she is not alone. Either that or she is losing her mind. The house is full of secrets, but is the creeping sense of danger coming from within its walls, or from somewhere else entirely? 'Beguiling! Gerritsen is at her atmospheric best in this spine-tingling tale of a lone woman, an old house, and all the secrets everyone tries to hide.' Lisa Gardner 'A close-knit community, a gothic house, and a shadowy stranger inside . . . I love Tess's writing and The Shape of Night is as compulsive as it gets.' Lesley Kara 'Written with verve.' i magazine
I Know a Secret
'Expect a white-knuckle ride to very dark places.' Paula Hawkins When a young woman is found dead, Detective Jane Rizzoli and Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles are called to the scene of the murder. Though the body bears startling wounds, the actual cause of death is not immediately clear. A few days later, another body is discovered - a seemingly unrelated crime, but the lack of an obvious cause of death shows they have more in common than it would first appear. As Rizzoli and Isles race to discover the link between the victims before the killer can strike again, a mysterious person watches from the sidelines. She has the answers they're looking for. But she knows she has to stay quiet, if she wants to stay alive . . . 'A fast-paced, dark, edgy mystery/thriller filled with unremitting suspense.' Huffington Post
THE KEEPSAKE
Arheologi vsego mira predvkushayut sensaciyu: v zapasnikah odnogo iz bostonskih muzeev byla najdena prekrasno sohranivshayasya egipetskaya mumiya, kotoruyu nazyvayut Gospozhoj Iks. Pri tomografii nahodki prisutstvuet special'no priglashennaya sudmedehkspert Maura Ajlz. Kakovo zhe udivlenie Maury i drugih uchastnikov ehksperimenta, kogda v noge drevnego ehksponata oni obnaruzhivayut... pulyu! Kak okazalos', Gospozhe Iks vovse ne dve tysyachi let... Vskore detektiv Dzhejn Riccoli nahodit v muzejnyh podvalah eshche neskol'ko pugayushchih artefaktov, i stanovitsya yasno, chto mumificirovannye zhertvy - ehto delo ruk ubijcy, obladayushchego osobymi znaniyami i navykami. Roman "e;Hranitel' smerti"e; - sed'moj v serii, posvyashchennoj Dzhejn Riccoli i Maure Ajlz.
I Know a Secret
Jane Rizzoli and Maura Islesthe inspiration for the smash hit TNT seriescontinue their bestselling crime-solving streak, as they pursue a shadowy psychopath keeping secrets and taking lives.Two separate homicides, at different locations, with unrelated victims, have more in common than just being investigated by Boston PD detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles. In both cases, the bodies bear startling woundsyet the actual cause of death is unknown. Its a doubly challenging case for the cop and the coroner to be taking on, at a fraught time for both of them. As Jane struggles to save her mother from the crumbling marriage that threatens to bury her, Maura grapples with the imminent death of her own motherinfamous serial killer Amalthea Lank.While Jane tends to her mother, theres nothing Maura can do for Amalthea, except endure one final battle of wills with the woman whose shadow has haunted her all her life. Though succumbing to cancer, Amalthea hasnt lost her taste for manipulating her estranged daughterthis time by dangling a cryptic clue about the two bizarre murders Maura and Jane are desperately trying to solve.But whatever the dying convict knows is only a piece of the puzzle. Soon the investigation leads to a secretive young woman who survived a shocking abuse scandal, an independent horror film that may be rooted in reality, and a slew of martyred saints who died cruel and unusual deaths. And just when Rizzoli and Isles think theyve cornered a devilish predator, the long-buried past rears its headand threatens to engulf more innocent lives, including their own.
Vanish
Patologoanatom Majra Ajlz obnaruzhivaet, chto v morge po oshibke okazalas' zhivaya zhenshchina - Alena. Kakim obrazom ona okazalas' pri smerti, kto ona - ne izvestno nichego, krome imeni. Ee udaetsya reanimirovat', no, ochnuvshis', ona zahvatyvaet zalozhnikov v bol'nice. V ih chisle - i detektiv Dzhejn Riccoli, kotoraya vot-vot dolzhna stat' mater'yu. Kak spasti zalozhnikov? Pochemu molodaya zhenshchina vzyalas' za oruzhie? Kto ej pomogaet, zachem?Mnozhestvo voprosov dolzhny razreshit' policejskie i agenty FBR, no rassledovaniyu neozhidanno nachinayut okazyvat' soprotivlenie mogushchestvennye silovye struktury
Playing with Fire
What if your child wanted you dead? Julia is terrified by her daughter's aggressive behaviour. Lily has changed from an angelic little girl into someone she is afraid to be alone with. What scares Julia most, though, is that she knows why Lily is acting this way, but no-one will believe her. If she is going to help Lily, she will have to find the answers alone, embarking on a search that will take her to the shadowy back streets of Venice. There Julia finds far more than just answers, and uncovers a heartbreaking, long-buried tale of tragedy and devastation. And this discovery has put her in serious danger . . .
Rizzoli & Isles Series 11-Book Bundle
';Suspense doesn't get smarter than this,' raves Lee Child—and countless readers agree. The inspiration behind TNT's hit show Rizzoli & Isles, Tess Gerritsen's New York Times bestselling thrillers featuring Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles just keep getting better, leading William Landay to praise her latest as ';Gerritsen at her dark, addictive best.' Discover why in this riveting eBook bundle, which collects the first eleven novels of the series: THE SURGEON THE APPRENTICE THE SINNER BODY DOUBLE VANISH THE MEPHISTO CLUB THE KEEPSAKE ICE COLD THE SILENT GIRL LAST TO DIE DIE AGAIN Also includes an excerpt from Tess Gerritsen's riveting standalone thriller Playing with Fire! Praise for Tess Gerritsen and her Rizzoli & Isles series ';[Gerritsen] has an imagination that allows her to conjure up depths of human behavior so dark and frightening that she makes Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft seem like goody-two-shoes.'—Chicago Tribune ';One of the most versatile voices in thriller fiction today.'—The Providence Journal ';A briskly paced, terrifically suspenseful work that steadily builds toward a tense and terrifying climax.'—People, on The Surgeon ';Richly suspenseful and provocative . . . leaves the reader breathless.'—The Philadelphia Inquirer, on Body Double ';Gerritsen, as always, puts her medical training to ghoulish use.'—The Boston Globe ';The kind of book you'd read in one sitting.'—Chicago Sun-Times, on Ice Cold ';Suspense doesn't get smarter than this. Not just recommended but mandatory.'—Lee Child, on The Silent Girl ';Gerritsen has a knack for creating great characters and mysterious plots that seem straightforward but also dazzle with complexity and twists.'—Associated Press, on Last to Die ';Tess Gerritsen always delivers, and this is Gerritsen at her addictive best.'—William Landay, on Die Again
Die Again
THE VICTIMS - In Boston, Detective Jane Rizzoli and Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles investigate a bizarre murder. A man has been found gutted and hanging in his home. When the remains of another victim are found, it is clear that this murderer has been at work for years, and not just in Boston. THE KILLER - Five years ago, a group of travellers set off on an African safari. None of them was seen again - apart from one woman who stumbled out of the bush weeks later, barely alive. The only woman to have seen the killer's face. THE SURVIVOR - Has the 'safari killer' resurfaced in Boston? Jane is sent to Africa to find the one link between the two cases - the only survivor - and convince her to face death once again...
Girl missing
V gluhom pereulke vozle musornogo baka najdeno telo krasivoj molodoj zhenshchiny. Ocherednaya narkomanka, umershaya ot peredozirovki? Vozmozhno. No patologoanatom Keht Novak schitaet, chto ne vse tak prosto. Veshchestvo, posluzhivshee prichinoj smerti, ne pohozhe ni na odin izvestnyj narkotik. A vskore v tom zhe rajone nahodyat eshche odno telo s temi zhe priznakami. V zazhatom kulake pervoj zhertvy Keht obnaruzhivaet knizhechku kartonnyh spichek s nacarapannym na nej nomerom telefona. Nomer prinadlezhit vladel'cu farmacevticheskoj kompanii Adamu Kuontrellu. Keht nachinaet podozrevat', chto imenno on i ego kompaniya prichastny k sozdaniyu novogo strashnogo narkotika-ubijcy.
surgeon
On pronikaet v doma po nocham i neslyshno vhodit v spal'ni zhenshchin, kotorye, probudivshis' oto sna, popadayut v ozhivshij koshmar. Sudya po tomu, chto on prodelyvaet so svoimi zhertvami, mozhno predpolozhit', chto on blizko znakom s medicinoj, i gazetchiki prisvaivayut emu prozvishche Hirurg. V hode rassledovaniya detektivy Tomas Mur i Dzhejn Riccoli obnaruzhivayut, chto prestupnik kopiruet pocherk serijnogo man'yaka, ubitogo dva goda nazad, prichem kopiruet do mel'chajshih podrobnostej, izvestnyh ochen' nemnogim. Oni reshayut vstretit'sya s vyzhivshej zhertvoj ubitogo man'yaka - doktorom Kehtrin Kordell. Imenno ona zastrelila svoego muchitelya, i, pohozhe, imenno ona stanovitsya glavnoj cel'yu podrazhatelya. S kazhdym ocherednym ubijstvom on podbiraetsya k nej vse blizhe...
Last to Die
For the second time in his short life, Teddy Clock has survived a massacre. Two years ago, he barely escaped when his entire family was slaughtered. Now, at fourteen, in a hideous echo of the past, Teddy is the lone survivor of his foster familys mass murder. Orphaned once more, the traumatized teenager has nowhere to turnuntil the Boston PD puts Detective Jane Rizzoli on the case. Determined to protect this young man, Jane discovers that what seemed like a coincidence is instead just one horrifying part of a relentless killers merciless mission.Jane spirits Teddy to the exclusive Evensong boarding school, a sanctuary where young victims of violent crime learn the secrets and skills of survival in a dangerous world. But even behind locked gates, and surrounded by acres of sheltering Maine wilderness, Jane fears that Evensongs mysterious benefactors arent the only ones watching. When strange blood-splattered dolls are found dangling from a tree, Jane knows that her instincts are dead on. And when she learns of Will Yablonski and Claire Ward, students whose tragic pasts bear a shocking resemblance to Teddys, it becomes chillingly clear that a circling predator has more than one victim in mind.Joining forces with her trusted partner, medical examiner Maura Isles, Jane is determined to keep these orphans safe from harm. But an unspeakable secret dooms the childrens fateunless Jane and Maura can finally put an end to an obsessed killers twisted quest.
John Doe: A Rizzoli & Isles Short Story
Razor-edge suspense in this original eBook short story from ';one of the most versatile voices in thriller fiction today' (The Providence Journal) It should have been a night to remember, but Maura Isles can't recall a thing. Maura is longing to ditch a ritzy cocktail party, along with her four-inch heels, when a handsome, charming stranger appears. But somewhere between sipping a fresh glass of champagne and waking up the next day on her sofa lies a black hole of forgotten time. As Boston's medical examiner, Maura regularly teams up with police detective Jane Rizzoli on homicide investigations, and Jane's latest case makes Maura's blood run cold. A brutally murdered man has been found in a city park with Maura's address tucked in his pocket. Maura IDs the victim as the charmer she met at the party. Her alarm turns to terror when she learns the murdered man was a predator with victims of his own. Fearing she may be guilty of a lethal crime she can't recall, Maura races to recover the missing hours that hold the truth—and that hide a shocking secret. Includes an excerpt from Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli & Isles novel Last to Die.
John Doe (A Rizzoli and Isles short story)
It should have been a night to remember, but Maura Isles can t recall a thing.Maura is at a party. A handsome man approaches. He s charming and sophisticated. She flirts and drinks champagne. And then nothing. Total blackness. Nothing, that is, apart from these two facts: a man is dead and her address is found in his pocket . . .