Review Archive for authorThe Build Ups that start with ... G
Review Archive for authorThe Build Ups that start with ... G
Reviewed on this page: Maya (Jostein Gaarde), Strange
Police (Reg Gadney), Mirrormask (Gaiman and McKean), Hasty
Retreat (Kate Gallison), The Other Daughter (Gardner), The Third
Victim (Lisa Gardner), The Next Accident (Lisa Gardner), The
Survivors Club (Lisa Gardner),
The Killing Hour (Lisa Gardner),
Alone
(Lisa
Gardner), Gone (Lisa Gardner), Different Women Dancing (Jonathon
Gash), The Scandal of the Season (Sophie Gee), Love Song
(Nikki Gemmell), A Traitor To Memory (Elizabeth George),
The
Surgeon (Tess Gerritsen),
The Sinner (Tess Gerritsen),
Body
Double (Tess Gerritsen), Vanish (Tess Gerritsen), The
Mephisto Club (Tess Gerritsen), The Bone Garden (Tess Gerritsen),
Keeping The Dead (Tess Gerritsen), Vodka Doesn't Freeze (Leah
Giarratano), Voodoo Doll (Leah Giarratano),
Mouthing The Words
(Camilla Gibb),
Blind Submission
(Debra Ginsberg),
Dying
To Tell (Robert Goddard), Never Go Back (Robert Goddard),
A
is for Alibi (Sue Grafton), T Is For Trespass (Sue Grafton),
A
Touch of Mortality (Ann Granger),
Risking It All (Ann Granger),
Spy Girl (Amy Gray),
The Artist is a Thief (Stephen Gray),
Raising
Atlantis (Thomas Greanias),
Away With the Fairies
(Kerry Greenwood),
Death
By Water (Kerry Greenwood),
Critique of Criminal Reason (Michael
Gregorio), The Book of Names (Gregory and Tintori), The Butcher's
Son (Dorien Grey),
The Bar Watcher(Dorien Grey),
The Good
Cop (Dorien Grey), The Role Players (Dorien Grey),The Popsicle
Tree (Dorien Grey),
The Paper Mirror (Dorien Grey),
The Dream
Ender (Dorien Grey), Cold Flat Junction
(Martha Grimes),
The
Faces of Angels (Lucretia Grindle), Under Cover of Darkness
(James
Grippando),
The Summons
(John Grisham)
King Of Torts (John
Grisham), The Runaway Jury (John Grisham),
The Last Juror
(John Grisham),
Bleachers (John Grisham),
Skipping Christmas
(John Grisham),
The Broker (John Grisham),
The Innocent Man
(John Grisham),
Codex (Lev Grossman),
The Blue Zone (Andrew
Gross), Valley Of Bones (Michael Gruber), The Build Up (Phillip
Gwynne)
MAYA
by Jostein Gaarder
translated by James Andersen
Phoenix
ISBN 0-75381-146-4
$19.95
October 5 2001
reviewed by Denise Wels
It helps a reader to understand Norwegian Jostein Gaarder's work to know that he is a former schoolteacher who specialised in teaching Philosophy. His first book of fiction was an anthology of short stories (I shall only list his books by their English titles) The Diagnosis and Other Stories and was published in 1986. It was followed by two children's books, The Children from Sukhavati, and The Frog Castle. His award winning The Solitaire Mystery appeared in 1990 and the astonishingly successful Sophie's World in 1991. The latter has been described as a Philosophy primer for children yet it has been translated into more than forty languages, has become a musical, a CD-Rom and also a board game. Quite incredible for a book about a young girl's explorations into Philosophy. The success of the work enabled Gaarder to turn to full-time writing and he now produces a book every one to two years. Others of his books are The Christmas Mystery, Through a Glass, Darkly, Hello? Is Anybody There?, That Same Flower and Maya which was first published in 1999.
Unlike some of Gaarder's earlier books, Maya is intended for adults. It is told throughout in the first person although initially the narrator is English novelist John Spooke. The point of view changes early on as Spooke introduces a long letter (it takes up most of the book) written by Frank Andersen, an evolutionary biologist, to his estranged wife Vera. Spooke and Andersen are on a Fijian island through which the International Date Line happens to run. This oddity means that the Date Island will be one of the few places on earth to be first to enter the third millennium. Other people staying at the resort are Americans Bill and Laura and the more significant couple Spaniards flamenco dancer Ana and journalist José.
The first part of the book discloses that Spooke and Andersen are each bereaved: Spooke's wife has died and Andersen's daughter was killed in a car accident. The duo are, like Ana and José, seemingly fixated on the notion of eternal earthly life, a concept which plays a large part in the latter half of the book. Ana and José wander about the island spouting apparently incomprehensible aphorisms, the meaning of which both Spooke and Andersen individually decide they must penetrate.
It is not until the second half of the book that anything resembling a
plot emerges. Then it is a compound of science fiction and more ostensible
philosophy. Even the kindest reviewer would not be able to find a hint
of pace in the book. There is frustratingly, a large gap in the resolution
of the book (specifically, just what did happen to Ana?) Interestingly,
Frank spends large amounts of time conversing philosophically with a gecko
he namrs Gordon. Should readers be interested in simple philosophy, as
opposed to true mystery and pace, then no doubt this meandering tale will
attract.
Strange Police
by Reg Gadney
faber and faber
ISBN 0-571-20292-6
$26.00
reviewed by Denise Wels
The small amount of biographical material I was able to unearth on
Reg Gadney (Drawn Blanc , Somewhere in England, Seduction of a Tall
Man,
Mother, Son and Holy Ghost and others) shows that he has a strong interest
in Art
and Architecture, which would certainly account for his interest in the
Elgin Marbles.
I wonder where he gleaned his knowledge of the intelligence services of
Britain and
his love of Greece and Greek culture. I also wonder if the way he depicts
the
ruthlessness and tortuousness of the intelligence services is at all an
accurate
reflection.If so, heaven help anyone who may be caught up in their conflicts!
Before I get into the plot of Strange Police I would like
to take yet
another swipe at careless publishers. In this instance, the blurb announces
that 'In
Stealing Greece Reg Gadney has written a thriller'... In Strange
Police he has. I
can see the relevance of that title to the stanza of verse quoted on the
title page as
much as the eventual title, but I do wish publishers would take more
care of their
finished product. I usually criticise blurb writers for not reading the
work about
which they write but in this instance I can complain about the publisher
not reading
the work of its blurb writer.
This novel concerns itself with a plot to steal back the famed Elgin
Marbles and replace them in Greece. Lord Elgin removed the Marbles that
now bear
his name, in 1802. Their true ownership has been a bone of contention between
Britain and Greece ever since. There are strong arguments on both
sides as to who
should really have possession of the irreplaceable and beautiful artefacts
but their fate
so far has relied on the dubious premise of possession being ninety-nine
percent of
the law.
The book begins in an idyllic setting in the Greek Islands with Alan
Rosslyn, former official with the Customs and Excise of Britain, bringing
to a close
his stint of protection on Cleo Ipsilanti, a former member of the British
Secret
Intelligence Service. The brothers Campbell and Menzies Tunim had hired
Rosslyn
for Ipsilanti's security, although not for the affair that had flared between
the two.
A blood bath ensues on the Ipsilanti estate and Rosslyn is spirited back
to
England before he can be charged with the murder of Cleo and perhaps that
of her
daughter Olympia, who had certainly disappeared, if she had not been murdered.
Cleo's other daughter, Demetra, was in parts unknown in the company of
Cleo's
acknowledged lover, Nicos Nezeritis.
A Greek billionaire with ties to Cleo is masterminding a family project
of generations' duration to steal back the Elgin Marbles. This is being
done partly
with the knowledge of Britain's secret services and with a degree of cooperation,
unknown to the Greeks, with dubious goals.
The plot is extremely complicated. There is, certainly, gratuitous gore
by
anyone's standards (one particularly delightful scene finds someone with
fragments
of bone under fingernails). The degree of consanguinity between protagonists
is
complicated and difficult to follow. The characterisations seemed, to me
at any rate,
unconvincing, and the style of writing unusual, to say the least. Strangely
enough, I
enjoyed Gadney's descriptions of the Greek countryside.
I've no doubt those readers who delight in thrills a minute and glorious
grue will revel in this tale. As for me...well, I shan't go out of my way
to seek out
more of this author's work.
MIRRORMASK
by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean
ISBN 0747581118
BLOOMSBURY
October 7 2005
$27.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
November 25 2005
This is rather a different sort of children's book in that it is the novel taken from the movie MIRRORMASK -- but the movie has not been released at the time of the release of the book. The story is illustrated with the art of Dave McKean which is seen in the movie but the text comes in different fonts of various sizes; nor does the text always run in straight lines. The overall effect is dramatic although, from what I have read of the movie, not nearly as dramatic as the special effects on view in that art form.
Helena Campbell is a multi-talented circus performer. The Campbell Family Circus is owned by her parents and run by her father. Each performer fills a variety of roles. Helena, who longs to run away from the circus to live in other people's version of real life, fills her walls with art depicting a strange dark land inhabited by exotic creatures.
Helena has a fight with her mother. When her mother, in exasperation, tells Helena "You'll be the death of me," Helena replies, sotto voce, "I wish I was." Her reply was not sufficiently silent. Her mother hears then later in the evening collapses.
Helena dreams herself into the land of her illustrations. At the time she doesn't know that the princess of the dark land has usurped her own place in the light world. The Queen of Light is in a coma following her encounter with Helena's doppelgänger, the dark Princess. Helena thinks she can awaken the Light Queen (who looks very like her own mother) but she is told she needs to find the Charm in order to do that. In the meantime, Helena has met Valentine, a juggler, and he insists on helping her in her quest (provided there is a suitable reward, of course.)
Perhaps it was just my own knowledge that the upcoming cinema treat
is so full of astonishing effects that the story did not really come to
life on the pages of the book, the text seeming to be a little flat. Nonetheless,
I am sure children will thoroughly enjoy all the strange creatures and
characters to be found in the pages of this adventure.
No doubt, once they see the movie, they will be even more enthralled with
the tale.
Hasty Retreat
by Kate Gallison
Dell
Hasty Retreat, an altogether too slim volume of 247 pages ... I could have wished for double that... is the fourth in a series of clerical mysteries featuring Mother Lavinia Grey, an Episcopal priest.
Mother Vinnie is not a Vicar of Dibley clone, although her sidekick, Deacon Deedee teeters in that direction. The book begins as an expedition of parishioners bound for a religious retreat, led by Vinnie and Deedee arrive at a monastery run by Deedee's brother Prior Fergus. To Vinnie's horror, another group organised by her arch-enemy Father Bingley arrives at the same time. In previous books Bingley appears pretty much as an unalloyed villain, determined to rid the Church of women priests in general and Vinnie in particular. In this book his character is expanded sympathetically into a puzzled but well-meaning if hidebound and conservative cleric.
Not long after the arrival of the disparate parties one of the monks is murdered, the returned elderly missionary Brother Basil. Who would want to murder an eighty-six year old inoffensive and arthritic monk?
The book proceeds apace (with the obligatory jokes about bad and dirty habits) introducing an interesting mix of characters: the illegal immigrant Christophe; the lecherous politician Rodman Sedgewick (who, in a previous book attempted to murder Vinnie) and his wronged wife; the mystery brother and sister Berry and teenage Jonathon, a substance abuser and avid cameraman; a black woman lawyer Martine, one of Vinnie's flock; elderly and delicious Delight van Buskirk, a familiar face from previous novels; the middle-aged lecherous newly married Smartts and an assortment of monks who include reproduction antique furniture making and cooking amongst their activities but are not too removed from the fleshly world not to relish beating up a baddie.
Perhaps not the setting for a successful spiritual retreat but some of the incidents provide hilarious reading.
I love mysteries and I love funny books. Gallison combines the two very successfully as well as exhibiting a comprehensive knowledge of religious and clerical life. One mention of the congregation had me puzzled, however: a three year old communicant? Can life, even in America, be so very different from life in Australia? Perhaps it was simply a slip of Gallison's word processor keyboard
The nocturnal ramblings, reminiscent of a French farce of former times, of unidentified monks, both real and pseudo, had me laughing aloud. The puzzle was neatly done and the resolution was satisfactorily exciting.
THE OTHER DAUGHTER
by Lisa Gardner
Orion
ISBN 0-75283-707-9
February 2 2001
$16.95
reviewed by Denise Wels
Lisa Gardner, the nom de plume of Lisa Baumgartner, is a prolific writer, having produced numerous titles in romantic series as well as her other Orion title, The Perfect Husband. After working in a management consulting firm for only two years, she abandoned the non-literary world in favour of full time writing.
This book, The Other Daughter, falls very much into the curate's egg category. The basic idea, that a girl, aged nine, could, for whatever reason, lose her memory of all her previous years yet be, for the next twenty, a well adjusted person, requires some very adept scene setting and attention to detail. The further assumption that both she and the F.B.I. should simply accept she is probably the daughter of a serial killer, without resorting to D.N.A. testing (which does receive a passing mention) beggars belief.
Perhaps it is a necessary condition for reading the romantic genre, a bit like appreciating fantasy and science fiction, that one should suspend a huge amount of disbelief but it is also necessary that there be consistency within the acceptance of a novel. This book is not only romantic fiction but, more obviously, suspense fiction so that the restrictions of that category should be respected..Reading this work is a bit like attempting to follow the threads of a cobweb within which something has torn enormous holes.
The narrative begins gorily enough with a prologue detailing the execution in an electric chair of serial child killer Russell Lee (Trash) Holmes. It is vaguely reminiscent of Stephen King's execution scene in The Green Mile. The killer is unrepentant to the end.
At the same time as the execution is taking place, Dr. Harper Stokes, whose wife and young son are witnesses at the electrocution since Holmes confessed to the killing of the Stokeses' daughter, Meagan, is at work in a Boston hospital's Emergency Room. A nine year-old girl is treated there for anaphylactic shock and, when resuscitated, does not remember her name nor anything about her past life.
Twenty years later the young girl, now adopted by the Stokeses and known as Melanie Stokes, is accosted by the ne'er-do-well reporter who originally covered the Holmes story and has become obsessed with discovering all the facts (egged on by an anonymous tipster.) The journalist, Larry Digger, tells Melanie that she is the progeny of evil Holmes, news that she is not pleased to receive.
At the same time as Melanie is being given these unwelcome tidings, F.B.I. agents are investigating Dr. Stokes for healthcare fraud and one is masquerading as a waiter in the Stokes household. This special agent, David Riggs, becomes involved in Melanie's problems when he rescues her from Digger and his investigation widens to encompass her dilemma.
I had my usual problem with subediting blues... at one stage a driver 'eked' (presumably instead of 'edged') through traffic and throughout the text someone could not decide whether to talk about the 'sites' or the 'sights' of guns, so used both words indiscriminately. Despite all these flaws, I at no time felt inclined to abandon the book before I had finished reading it. Gardner's research was impeccable, as witnesseth her acknowledgments: it was simply that there was not enough attention to plot construction.
The book should not be condemned out of hand. Readers who can make the athletic jump over the holes in its fabrication will be rewarded. I can only urge the reader to sample the text and make up your own mind.
THE THIRD VICTIM
by Lisa Gardner
Orion
ISBN 0-75284-162-9
$24.95
July 6 2001
reviewed by Denise Wels
Romance novelist (writing as Alicia Scott) turned mystery-suspense author, Lisa Gardner has produced another book which should be well received by a wide audience. 'Prolific' is probably an inadequate word to describe Ms. Gardner's output since not only does she write in the suspense genre but continues to produce romance fiction. The Perfect Husband and The Other Daughter are her two previous thrillers while The Next Accident should soon be released.
The Other Daughter appeared, to my jaded palate at least, too contrived and unconvincing. Perhaps because of the topicality of school shootings and abuse of women and children, The Third Victim was less so. This novel held my attention from start to finish and I must confess I read it in one sitting, to the detriment of my sleep
The narrative begins with Officer Lorraine (Rainie) Conner being called to a shooting in Bakersville, Oregon. She is amazed to be put in charge of the investigation by Sheriff Shep O'Grady. The inadequately funded law enforcement operation of Bakersville has a company of volunteers, one of whom is Rainie's partner on this exercise.
When Rainie arrives at the school she is horrified to witness her boss, Shep, being held at gunpoint by the suspected perpetrator of the massacre... his own thirteen year-old son Daniel. Danny is overpowered and arrested and Raine sets out to try to discover what really happened. There are three victims, two little girls, best friends all their lives, and a teacher, Danny's favourite, Melissa Avalon.
Although many of the children claim that a 'man in black' was on the scene at the time of the killings, it seems clear that Danny, pressured at home by a father who seeks athletic prowess rather than academic achievement from his son, was the perpetrator of the horror. Danny and his little sister Rebecca have been favourites of Rainie's since their birth and she finds the situation almost impossible to come to grips with.
A State officer, obsessive compulsive Detective Abe Sanders, attempts to usurp Rainie's position as the lead investigator but he, in turn, has his nose put out of joint when Quantico's best profiler, F.B.I. Supervisory Special Agent Pierce Quincy (a protagonist from Gardner's earlier books and appearing also in her forthcoming The Next Accident), joins the team.
Most of the leading characters in the investigative contingent have complications in their backgrounds (haven't we all!) Rainie herself is thought by many of the townspeople to have murdered, when she was seventeen, her abusive mother ; Shep O'Grady's marriage is in the throes of breaking down; Quincy's daughter is dying, in hospital having been involved in a fatal car accident.
There are lots of issues raised in this book not the least being just where, if in any one place, can the blame for such murderous outbreaks be laid. What horrors would children surviving such an experience later suffer? What traps can be laid in the new world of the Internet, by perverted adults and how can children be protected from them?
The writing
is good, crisp and involving. Gardner is another romance writer who does
not fall prey to the temptation of using flowery language in her work.
The solution to the mystery is excellent... although perhaps still on the
rather contrived side... but on the whole should make a discriminating
reader await Gardner's next oeuvre with gleeful anticipation.
THE NEXT ACCIDENT
by Lisa Gardner
Orion
ISBN 0-75284-705-8
$27.95
January 11 2002
reviewed by Denise Wels
'Lisa Gardner', another nom-de-plume of 'Alicia Scott' turned her attention from Romance titles some years ago. Although she had been very successful in that particular genre and had, in fact, sold her first novel when she was twenty years old, her first forays into Romantic Suspense were to enhance her reputation as a writer. The Perfect Husband and The Third Victim proved popular vehicles for Gardner's series character, FBI Special Agent Pierce Quincy. The Other Daughter saw his reappearance, and now The Next Accident focuses on Quincy in a different role : that of victim.
The prologue of this novel makes it quite clear that Quincy's daughter Amanda is the subject of cold blooded murder by a callous killer who is determined to bring the greatest possible misery to his victim. Thereafter, Quincy contacts former potential lover Private Investigator Rainie Conner to help determine the circumstances of Amanda's death. Was it a clear case of death while driving under the influence - and the out of control car caused the death of an innocent by-stander as well as his dog - or was there something more sinister afoot? Soon another member of Quincy's family is targeted and it is made abundantly clear that the aim of the killer is nothing less than the total destruction of Pierce Quincy himself as everyone he holds dear becomes endangered and in the eyes of both police and FBI Quincy is seen as the possible killer.
I found Gardner's The Other Daughter to be a less than satisfying
read as my belief had to be suspended just a bit too much for comfort to
allow some of the premises on which the plot was built. While I had further
difficulty with some of the foundation of The Next Accident, I
did not feel my credulity was strained to the same extent. Gardner, having
been so steeped in the Romance genre from her early work, does not attempt
to discard her antecedents. For those who thrive on such, there is lots
of physical love, both brutal and tender. Unfortunately, there is also
a fair bit of detailed gore. The plotting of the mystery is ingenious and
a lot of the psychology involved all too convincing. The characterisation
was, for me at least, less than persuasive but I did feel that this novel
was considerably better than its predecessor. Frequently I find myself
having problems with various authors in that they tend to telegraph the
identity of the baddie too early in the piece; this is not an accusation
that can be levelled at the writer in this instance. Perhaps it would be
fair to say Gardner has not provided sufficient clues - or perhaps I was
merely inattentive. I'll be interested to watch for further improvement
in her forthcoming works.
THE SURVIVORS CLUB
by Lisa Gardner
ISBN 0-75285-225-6
358 pages
Orion
July 5 2002
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Wels
Lisa Gardner worked as a management consultant after obtaining a degree in International Relations. She began writing romantic suspense novels under the pseudonym of Alicia Scott, being so successful and garnering so many awards that she forsook the real world and consultancy after two years in favour of the fictional more romantic world. In 1998 she inverted her writing career and instead of creating novels of romance spiced with suspense she began, by now under her real name, producing suspense novels with a thick layer of love. The Perfect Husband The Other Daughter The Third Victim, and The Next Accident were extremely successful and launched the career of Special Agent Pierce Quincey. Now in The Survivors Club Gardner has turned her talents more to the police procedural. I was interested to note, too, that there is in this opus far less romance than her previous mystery tales.
Rape is not a pleasant topic yet it comprises the main theme of this oeuvre. Three women, Jillian Hayes, Carol Rosen and Meg Pesaturo have been the victims of the College Hill Rapist. Jillian, while not having been raped, was beaten severely when she interrupted the rapist who had been busy with her sister, Trisha. Trisha had an allergy to latex and suffered fatal anaphylaxis when the rapist used his trademark latex to bind and gag her. Carol Rosen came by her victim status serendipitously when the true target of the rapist was unavailable at the time the rapist struck. Her marriage has been threatened and is nearing destruction. Meg, the youngest of the women, was raped but she is fortunate in that she does not remember the act. Her previous life has become a total blank although occasionally there are faint stirrings of unproductive memory. The three women form the Survivors Club, seeing themselves in that role rather than as victims, and seek to aid the police in their investigations. Their efforts in detection culminate in the police arresting Eddie Como, a young family man, for the rape. The main action of the book begins when Eddie is assassinated on the morning on which he is about to stand trial. The narrative itself does begin with Gardner's customary mysterious prologue which sets the scene for the remaining action.
Detective Sergeant Roan Griffin, who is himself psychologically damaged by his life's recent vicissitudes, has been assigned to the case. Griffin's wife had died of cancer and the man who was Griffin's neighbour and close friend, David Price, had been discovered to be the Candy Man murderer, a paedophile who took great delight in killing off all witnesses to his crimes. Griffin, an overly large man with an equally large temper, has just returned to work and it falls to him to discover why, if Eddie Como is dead, the townspeople as well as the Survivors Club, are fearful that he is still assiduously pursuing his chosen career.
Lisa Gardner is not renowned for telling a simple story. While the plot of this novel may be marginally less convoluted than that of her previous suspense novels, it is still extremely circuitous and tortuous. This having been said, the book seemed to have rather more staying power than its predecessors. In her earlier books I found the plots so improbable that I tended to lose interest early on. This effort held my attention for much longer. Certainly there is plenty of action and the perils of the protagonists are sufficiently chilling to raise the hair on one's neck. I trust that in her future books Ms. Gardner will tend to discard her proclivities for complications and tell a straightforward story with a convincing plot.
THE KILLING HOUR
by Lisa Gardner
ISBN 0752852272
324 pages
Orion
August 1 2003
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Wels
August 2003
Despite having graduated magna cum laude with a degree in International Relations in 1993, Lisa Gardner spent a bare two years working as a management consultant before forsaking business for full time writing. Small wonder. She sold her first novel - romantic suspense - while still studying. She won awards for this sub-genre using the nom-de-plume Alicia Scott. Later she turned more to suspense tinged with romance than the reverse and in this field has proved very popular with her Pierce Quincy series: The Perfect Husband, The Other Daughter, The Third Victim, The Next Accident as well as The Survivors Club.
We have all been told about the advisability of sticking to a good thing when onto it and Ms Gardner has obviously learned the FBI plus suspense plus romance and a goodly spurt of arterial blood is the basis of a good thing. In The Killing Hour we have the formula revisited. The romantic possibilities of Pierce Quincy and his partner Lorraine Conner have apparently been all but exhausted so this new book concentrates on the surviing Quincy daughter, Kimberly who, predictably, has wanted since childhood to follow in her father's footsteps and become an FBI Special Agent.
Prior to the main action of the narrative, a murderous eco-freak has taken to kidnapping girls, in pairs, during heat waves. The first of the two he murders and leaves clues as to the whereabouts of the second on the first girl's body to give investigators a fighting chance at discovering the second girl's whereabouts. Since initially the goodies have no idea of his modus operandi, only one of eight girls is found alive. The original murders and kidnappings take place in Georgia but now, in Virginia, where Kimberly Quincy is undergoing training to be a Special Agent, four girls are taken - although their absence is not detected for some time.
GBI Special agent Mac McCormack was the lead investigator in the Georgia murders and is present when Kimberly discovers a body on the Quantico base. He sees similarities between Kimberly's very first corpse when under the auspices of the FBI to his own previous investigation. Of course, the fact that he has been getting phone calls from someone he suspects is the killer has given him an edge. He presses Kimberly into service as his investigation team and they begin their own search. In the meantime, Kimberly's dad, Pierce Quincy - of the piercing eyes, of course - and his partner Lorraine have been hired as outside consultants.
The heat intensifies and we are given brief glimpses into the killer's head. He seems a tad confused. We are also permitted glimpses into the mind of one of the kidnapped girls, pregnant Tina, who is determined to live despite the searing heat. She wants to save her baby as well as herself and see her own mother again.
A soupçon of the supernatural is laid down in this tale as the one survivor of the murderer's previous forays makes her way into the investigation. Of course, there are lashings of love, primarily between Mac and Kimberley but also a reprise from Pierce and Lorraine. The Geological Survey team is given a starring role in the investigation and attempted rescue. The difficulties Mac, Kimberley and their cohorts as well as the victims and the murderer encounter are no doubt reflections of what Ms Gardner has experienced in her hiking career.
For those who have enjoyed this author's previous experiments with the
FBI I have no doubt this oeuvre will prove irresistible.
ALONE
by Lisa Gardner
ISBN 0752852299
324 pages
Orion
February 4 2005
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
January 27 2005
Lisa Gardner cut her teeth on fiction whilst still a student. She earned her crust (one must supply something on which one's teeth may crunch) initially by writing romantic suspense. Gradually she swapped genres, romantic suspense occupying her writing talents. Now, in ALONE, the quantity of what could be deemed 'romance' is virtually minuscule - although a quantity of lust still graces her pages. To my delight, her previously favoured protagonist, FBI Agent Pierce Quincy, does not make an appearance.
Bobby Dodge is a State Trooper. He is at the end of his shift when a call comes in which needs his special skills. There is a domestic incident in which a man is threatening his wife and young son. Dodge is the first officer on the scene and when he observes the man's finger tightening on the trigger of his gun while his face exhibits what Bobby thinks of as 'the look', Dodge sees no alternative but to shoot. The man's wife frames the words 'thank you', something which subsequently gives the officer much to think about .
Bobby seems to receive plenty of support from his peers. After all, it could have been anyone's misfortune to have to kill Jimmy Gagnon, son of powerfulÝjudge James Gagnon. The support gradually dissipates as suspicion is cast on Bobby's motives. Did he, perhaps have some relationship with the beautiful but tragically warped Catherine Gagnon? Soon, after his liaison with girlfriend Susan ends, Bobby feels he is completely alone and entirely without support. Catherine, too, feels herself to be utterly without protection so turns to the only person she thinks would understand - Bobby. Her son Nathan is ill and some people see her as the cause of that illness. Her father-in-law is threatening her, determined to gain custody of Nathan and someone is murdering all who might exert themselves on her behalf.
This is an ingenious tale. I have criticised Gardner previously because of her tendency not to employ the surgically sharp Razor of William of Occam: she DOES tend to multiply twists and turns unnecessarily. I feel that in this work she may have done so at least once too many - the final twist of the story stretched my credibility just a fraction too much. This having been said, I can only admire the deft touch with which the author ensures the reader's breathless attention. Lisa Gardner has certainly needed to do a great deal of research, both in matters medical as well as those involving police snipers and support.
Readers who have followed this writer's career with interest will be
rewarded for their persistence since, to my mind at least, the standard
of her books is improving.
GONE
by Lisa Gardner
ISBN 0752873601
342 pages
Orion Trade
February 3 2006
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
February 6 2006
Lisa Gardner burst from the romance genre and into the crime fiction category some years ago now. Despite the overt switch, she has not relinquished heaving passions and burning body parts altogether. Wherever Gardner's characters roam free, so too will ardour. Thus, if you enjoy scenes of flesh being joined in love (or what passes for it) as well as being torn apart during the commission of nefarious crimes, you will no doubt take to Gardner's stories and her protagonists, former FBI Special Agent Pierce Quincy and his wife, former law officer Rainie Conner.
It is a dark and stormy night in Oregon when Rainie, whom Quincy has left in an attempt to force her to recognise and deal with her alcoholism, goes for a drive and vanishes, leaving her motor running and several of her essential possessions within the car. The automobile is seen by local cops who decide something is drastically wrong.
Pierce Quincy is summoned to the scene and becomes, very briefly 'a person of interest' to the law enforcers. He, in turn, summons his daughter, FBI agent Kimberly Quincy, and her lover, Mac, an investigator from Georgia, to his aid. It soon becomes apparent that Rainie is the victim of a kidnapping and when the kidnapper demands the meagre sum of $10,000, the Quincys become even more alarmed. Ransom can't be the sole motive for the crime.
Various choice characters are introduced to the tale including an exceptionally pushy journalist, a sad little boy with a violent passion for fire who, after the death of his single mother, was forced onto the foster family merry-go-round. a cop attempting to defend his case from intrusions and orders from unwanted, high-powered investigators as well as assorted unsanitary villains.
As Gardner gains experience, her books improve. Quite apart from anything else, the egregious errors that proliferated in THE OTHER DAUGHTER are now absent. She has honed her suspense making talents and the motives she attributes to her characters no longer need quite such a great leap of faith.
No doubt Ms Gardner's customary aficionados will find their hearts wracked
with pain and sympathy on behalf of that extremely unfortunate profiler,
Pierce Quincy, who really shouldn't have to surrender further family members
in the author's attempts to provide bloody victims for the entertainment
of enthusiastic readers craving mystery, excitement and suspense.
Different Women Dancing
by Jonathan Gash
Pan
copyright 1997
After reading Jill McGown's book, which devoted some space to prostitution in small English towns, I was somewhat taken aback to discover that Jonathan Gash's book Different Women Dancing concentrated largely on prostitution, but this time on male prostitutes for hire by women, as well as a lesser space for women prostitutes. The main action is, like all Gash's books, set in England.
John Grant is the real name of the prolific author who writes as Jonathan Gash, Jonathan Grant and Graham Gaunt. As a medical student, Mr. Grant (I use the title advisedly... among his many impressive medical achievements, he is a surgeon) worked in the London street markets off the famed Portobello Road. He employs the knowledge thus gained in writing the Lovejoy novels.
This book, unlike every other of Gash's books that I have read, is not a Lovejoy novel. I was hoping he had given up on Lovejoy but note that he has another The Rich and the Profanepublished. This is not to say that I have not enjoyed his Lovejoy books, but enough is enough! The plots of the individual Lovejoys are very similar, each to each, but one can only read with delight a limited number of Lovejoy's divvy, criminal and romantic exploits.
One could look on Lovejoy almost as a precursor to Bonn, the chief male protagonist of Different Women Dancing Lovejoy makes a precarious living, apart from his ill gotten gains in the antiques trade, from women. Bonn is a 'goer', a male prostitute, gigolo, cicisbeo who, early in the book is promoted to 'key'... one who manages three other goers. I very much appreciate Gash's glossary ... a definition of cant terms appears at the head of every chapter.
Bonn and Doctor Clare Burtonall are both present at the death of a man who alights, at the driver's suggestion, from a taxi driven by Oz. Salvo, who is associated with the network running both the goers and prostitutes as well as many other commercial enterprises, manoeuvres so that the victim, Leonard Mostern, is run over, then backed over to ensure death, by Oz. This is all very convincing to onlookers who see it as a tragic accident due to the victim's carelessness rather than the carefully planned murder that it is.
Bonn kneels by the victim's side and Clare comes up, announcing she is a doctor, to see if she can revive Mostern: impossible, of course.
Mostern's briefcase which is noticeably old and battered, is switched for a new one left at the scene of the 'accident' and later Clare is horrified to hear an intruder in her house then discover a briefcase identical to Mostern's on her hall stand. She tries to dismiss the similarity as a coincidence... her husband, property developer Clifford claiming the briefcase was delivered by a courier.
Clare tries to dismiss the mystery from her mind, but doubts... and fears... persist. Later she meets Bonn once again when he saves a child from an attack by a swan. She is intrigued by the fact that both police and security guards all try to pretend Bonn does not exist until Bonn discloses to her his profession.
Clare decides to investigate her husband and contacts Bonn through his agency to ask him to perform the investigation. What he discovers dismays her.
The book is fast paced indeed. The characters of Clare and Bonn are, at first glance, convincing. On reflection, I found doubts appear. Bonn is portrayed as coming from a very different background from that of prostitution (even though an indication of his history is given early in the book, I will not spoil the surprise of anyone who does not grasp the solution immediately). It seems to me implausible that one coming from an innocent background should fall so readily into a life of prostitution even taking into account his lack of funds. How, for example, did he learn his necessary new skills? The conversations that he has with his clients as he soothes their nervousness I found very seductive, but the power he has to quell thugs seems less than possible. The bog mindles when one attempts to consider how his physical education would be acquired.
In Gash's Lovejoy books the author tosses lots of antique scams into the action without slowing it. Here Gash injects quite a bit of medical talk, some of it a necessary part of the movement of the story: other, not. I have a feeling that some of it may, to a lay reader, hinder the narrative since Gash does not attempt a complete translation of his professional language. Sorry, Mr. Grant , unlike the antiques talk of the Lovejoy books, medical jargon is not as immediately translatable to the ordinary person.
Despite
these quibbles ... and I would be the first one to admit that they are
probably only personal reactions... I found the novel absorbing. The conclusion
of the book is not final... Gash intends this as the first of a series
featuring Dr. Clare Burtonall, the second of which, Prey Dancing
is due out soon. I look forward to it and hope somehow to be able to read
and review it immediately upon its release.
THE SCANDAL OF THE SEASON
by Sophie Gee
ISBN 9780701181178
291 pages
Chatto & Windus
May 1 2007
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
May 1 2007
Here is a treat for those of us who admire the satiric verse of Alexander Pope. Academic Sophie Gee, whose special subject is English and whose interest is in satire, filth and pollution in18th-century London, gives us a fictionised account of the writing of Pope's THE RAPE OF THE LOCK.
Most people who tackle the novel would be aware that the poem is a mock-heroic epic. Pope at once ridicules the poetical efforts of his contemporaries while at the same time holding up a satirical mirror to the antics of his social peers.
At the beginning of his career. the young Alexander has penned AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. This has met with some success and he persuades his father, who is not terribly happy about letting his son roam, to permit him to travel to London for the Season. The Popes are Catholic and, at that time, it doesn't pay to draw attention to their faith lest they be accused of conspiring with Jacobites.
Pope had, in his youth, fallen foul of an attack of tuberculosis, which left him crippled and hunchbacked. Perhaps this made him feel set apart from others and soured his perception of society.
Alexander's friends, the Misses Blount, Teresa and Martha, also travel to London for the Season and there they, and Pope, watch the pursuit of their cousin, the beautiful Arabella Fermour, by Robert Petre, Baron of Ingatestone.
At the same time as Petre courts Arabella (Belinda in the poem) he also flirts with a Jacobite plot which, perhaps, has more potential for his undoing than has his pursuit of Arabella.
Dr. Gee brings to colourful life eighteenth century plots and conspiracies, both political and social. Pope's longings, both professional and personal, are depicted vividly and his wonderful verse and waspish ways made utterly credible.
Given the length of time between Pope's life and the present day, the author has created a tale peopled with believable characters. The richness of the age is depicted in vivid detail while the less salubrious aspects of life are scarcely more than hinted at.
Should Dr. Gee decide at any time decide to write a fictional, semi biographical work of other literary figures of Pope's era, I, for one, will be anxious to read it.
LOVE SONG
by Nikki Gemmell
Vintage
ISBN 1-74051-040-2
$29.95
September 7 2001
reviewed by Denise Wels
Wollongong born Nikki Gemmell moved to Sydney when she was a child. Her subsequent journalistic career took her to various parts of Australia but it was the two month stint she spent with an expedition to Antarctica that provided the background for her first novel, Shiver, in 1997. The ABC newsroom had thoughtfully provided work for her in the Northern Territory and that was where she set her second book, Cleave. Both novels have been bought by Hollywood. No doubt the author's work at the ABC would have prepared her in some measure for her later employment with the BBC in London.
As a scholarship girl living in the exclusive Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, Gemmell saw herself as something of an outsider, a characteristic she passes on to the heroine of Love Song, Lillie Bird. The beginning of the first person tale finds Lillie recounting her story to her unborn baby. She wants her child to know about her history and that of the babe's father. She tells of scandal surrounding the death of a man as it pertains to her then refers to a different scandal that was part of her youth. It becomes a puzzle for the reader to guess the identity of the dead man.
Lillie speaks of her early life in the Australian village of Sunshine to which her parents, Tiriel and Rebecca move in order to take over the local newspaper. They are seen as outsiders by the strict religious Shiner sect but somehow make a home for themselves. Lillie reflects on milestones in her life and tells how she was permitted to be seen by the villagers only once a year, in church on Christmas Day. Lillie was a rebel and confessed to burning down the school when she was thirteen years old. As a punishment she is to be kept segregated until she is twenty-one. The only person, apart from her parents, permitted to see her is librarian Edie who brings her books and becomes her friend.
The girl keeps a journal, a feature of which is a list of words and their meanings, and she refers to it as she speaks to her yet to be born child. She remembers the feeling of triumph as she approaches her twenty-first birthday and how her parents plan her escape from the village and the villagers. They contact her maternal grandfather, Cedric, who lives in England, and ask him to care for her. Cedric, another outsider, is happy to do this as Lillie will be able to help him do research for a book he is writing on stately homes.
Lillie is escorted on the trip to England by fifty-ish Richard Daunt, with whom she falls in love. She is anxious to leave the countryside and move to London where she feels she will be able to learn to live. She meets a mysterious Australian photographer, Dan, in the ruins of the house Evendon on the grounds of which she and her grandfather have been living. Dan offers to run away with her to London and she accepts, although having serious qualms about leaving her grandfather whom she has grown to love.
This book is a true delight. The lyrical style of the writing is superb yet unpretentious. Every now and again there is the injection of idiom which at first surprises (e.g. 'Crikey Moses' early in the book plus a sprinkling of four letter words in other places) but to which the reader soon becomes accustomed. The characters are memorable and the story heart-wrenching without becoming maudlin. It is interesting to note that while Lillie relates her story to her child, Gemmell did not realise that she herself was pregnant.
Nikki Gemmell has earned well deserved praise for her books and this addition
to her cast of strong female characters will only serve to enhance her
reputation.
A TRAITOR TO MEMORY
by Elizabeth George
Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN 0-340-76723-5
$29.95
August 9 2001
reviewed by Denise Wels
Former schoolteacher Elizabeth George decided while she was still a pupil at school that she would become a writer.When she finally took to writing popular mystery novels she won the Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, and France's Le Grand Prix de Literature. Her Anglophilia dates from a school trip she took to England when she was sixteen.
George's mystery fiction includes A Great Deliverance, Payment In Blood, Well Schooled in Murder ,A Suitable Vengeance ,For the Sake of Elena, Missing Joseph Playing for the Ashes, In The Presence of the Enemy Deception on His Mind In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner and The Evidence Exposed. She delights in her series featuring the nobly born Inspector Thomas Lynley and his decidedly low born offsider, recently demoted (in this book) Detective Barbara Havers.
I used to feel decidedly uneasy when reading George's books in that her command of the English idiom was not quite right. Her mastery has gradually improved over the years although it does not yet bear the stamp of total authenticity, unlike the speech of her American protagonists which, unsurprisingly, is convincing.
A Traitor to Memory is a mammoth book, both in physical size and scope. The narrative begins with a hit and run accident involving Katie Waddington. This section is followed by a first person apparent journal entry, most annoyingly in italics, by Gideon Davies. at the behest of his psychiatrist, Dr. Alison Rose. Here I wuld take issue with the author in that it is not made clear until late in the book that Gideon's diary accounts are set at an earlier time than the unitalicised action.
Chapter One sees elderly Ted Wiley agonising over the actions of Eugenie, the woman he loves, since he fears she is in love with another man. Eugenie promises to divulge her secrets to him after she visits London, a promise she is unable to keep since she is run over... three times... by an unknown driver. Her murder has far reaching effects on the lives of several people, not the least being Superintendent Malcolm Webberly with whom she had had an affair many years previously. Webberly had investigated the murder of her Down's Syndrome sufferer daughter, two year-old Sonia. The affair had not begun, however, until after an East German woman, Katje Wolff, had been gaoled for the killing.
Eugenie's son Gideon, he of the journal entries, was a child prodigy with the violin. After Eugenie deserts her husband Richard as well as son Gideon, Richard devotes his entire life to his son's career. For no obvious reason, Gideon 'dies' on stage at Wigmore Hall when booked to play Beethoven's Archduke. After his failure, Gideon discovers he is totally unable to play the violin.. His psychiatrist is attempting to find the reason in his past for the block while Gideon's father, Richard, is attemtping to thwart investigations into that past. Manipulative Richard is now engaged to heavily pregnant Jill who is about to deliver his thrid daughter.
As the action proceeds, various people involved in the twenty year-old murder case are mysteriously knocked down and either killed or badly injured. Lynley, Havers and promising black Detective constable Winston Nkata investigate, finding increasingly unsettling evidence. Katja Wolff, now released from prison and living with her lesbian lover, seems to have the ideal motive and opportunity for the crimes.
To my mind the book is over-long. I have heard a British reader comment that Americans seem to need to have every i dotted and every t crossed in their books. Certainly, George, in this book, has metaphorically drawn little hearts and flowers over her i s. Other authors might simply have allowed implication to be sufficient, but not this novelist, hence the length. One instance that was not explained, but which puzzles me, is why it is emphasised throught the work that Richard Davies is adopted. The fact does not seem to advance the action at all and I find it a mystery in addition to those in the remainder of the narrative.
In the affairs of Lynley, Havers and N'Kata there is plenty of scope for yet another in the series and it is highly unlikely Elizabeth George would relinquish the characters in favour of a future stand-alone novel.
THE SURGEON
by Tess Gerritsen
Bantam Press
ISBN 0-593-04906-03
$30.45
October 5 2001
reviewed by Denie Wels
Have you ever noticed, Dear Reader, that medical practitioners and people associated with the health profession, when they turn to mystery and suspense fiction, somehow have little regard for the sensibilities of their readers in that they have a tendency to scatter more body parts and blood around their prose than, perhaps, your average writer? Of course, there are many exceptions. but perhaps a sense of glee accompanies the guts and gore in medicine associated mystery. One need only look at the work of, say, Kathy Reichs and, inescapably, Patricia Cornwell (who, while not a medical practitioner, did at least work in a coroner's office) to discover a tendency toward grue. I have not read Tess Gerritsen's previous novels, Harvest, Life Support, Bloodstream and Gravity but would be willing to bet Gerritsen's comfort with bloodthirstiness did not originate in The Surgeon, her fifth work of (one trusts) fiction since leaving her medical practice.
To begin with, the title of this oeuvre is ambiguous. The chief victim of the callous slayer is a surgeon and the serial killer himself has been dubbed by the press The Surgeon, a nickname thereafter adopted by the police to describe their 'unsub' (any true follower of mystery fiction does not need a translation of that term.) To my mind, the story is sacrificed to the pursuit of the sanguinary. There also seems to be a bit too much concentration on the jargon of the profession which could befuddle a reader not terribly interested in medical terminology or procedures. An example of a term I, for one, have never come across occurs during an instruction session with a medico lecturing the police. "This unsub is a classic Picquerist," said Dr. Lawrence Zucker.Admittedly this is followed by a definition "Someone who uses a knife to achieve secondary or indirect sexual release." And as for loving attention to the detail of grue, how would you rate this? The woman's abdomen had been flayed open. Loops of small bowel spilled out of the incision and hung like grotesque streamers over the side of the bed. Sorry, if you want more you will have to read the book.
Now for a brief outline of the tale. Doctor Catherine Cordell is now working in a hospital in Boston. Two years previously, in another town, she had been raped and it appeared she was about to be murdered but she managed to shoot her assailant, who had been an intern working in the same hospital. Naturally enough, she had fled the location of the horror and attempted to put it out of her head and behave as though she were anything but a victim. This is until it becomes obvious that women are being murdered by someone using the same modus operandi as the person who had victimised her and who had been revealed to be a serial killer. Catherine is extremely upset by this, even more so when it becomes obvious that the killer is also targeting her. A team of detectives including Thomas Moore and the aggressive Jane Rizzoli, are given the case.
Presumably Gerritsen , during her life as a medical practitioner, was made to feel that she was discriminated against by male colleagues. Certainly she portrays Rizzoli as struggling against this type of gender inequality. Perhaps a certain concentration on this aspect detracted somewhat from the pace of the narrative. I felt aspects of the plot were also inadequate. There were red herrings so far as love interests were concerned, thrown in. Also, the introduction of the villain, except for his musings in italics, was left until too late in the story. To me the book quite simply was not sufficiently tightly plotted. No doubt, however, that readers who enjoyed Gerritsen's previous outings will devour this offering with equal gusto.
THE SINNER
by Tess Gerritsen
ISBN 0593050487
342 pages
Bantam Press
August 1 2003
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Wels
August 2003
Tess Gerritsen's medical background perhaps makes it inescapable that invidious comparisons be drawn between her work and that of contemporary crime fiction writers such as Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell. Certainly like them she does not cavil at splashing around the gore, nor does she spare the action but I have, over the years, formed the opinion that her writing probes perhaps a little deeper than that of those other women writing about fictional things medical, that she, in fact, brings a more thoughtful approach to her narratives. Gerritsen is the author of Harvest, Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, The Surgeon, The Apprentice and now The Sinner, the last three of which feature Boston detective Jane Rizzoli.
This latest Gerritsen oeuvre opens in India, with a prologue showing Angus Redfield enduring intense heat, discomfort and danger in an attempt to document the site of a mass funeral pyre. Chapter One, by contrast, switches to the intense cold of a Boston winter and the unpleasant location of the medical examiner's office with Maura Isles, aka The Queen of the Dead, dabbling in a corpse's innards. A phone call summons her to Graystones Abbey, a Catholic convent, where the body of a young nun together with a badly injured older nun has been found. Detective Jane Rizzoli is investigating.
Rizzoli and Isles, both brought up Catholic, find themselves facing their own backgrounds in order to solve the case. Incredibly, they find links to other murders within their city as well as to what has occurred in Andhra Pradesh. Their professional life cannot be lived separate from their personal life for both women find their one-time (and perhaps current) loves enmeshed in the investigation. Rizzoli is horrified to discover that Special Agent Gabriel Dean, the man with whom she had had what she now regards as a brief fling but whose involvement with her might needs be extended, has been sent from Washington to investigate aspects of the murders.
Gerritsen's complicating the murdered nun's life by having made her a recent mother enables the author to expound on the humanity of religious, despite their vows, as well as family dynamics and just plain human cruelty.
The author's medical background lends authenticity to her narrative. She examines various sad aspects of modern life, not the least being corporate crime, the tragedy of those suffering from Hansen's Disease, or leprosy, the sad decline of once thriving religious communities who no longer attract new members, the alienation of minority groups within a population not to mention the effect on their domestic lives of women's professional careers.
This book contains lots of horrors, at every level. As previously indicated, Gerritsen does not shy away from depicting physical horrors; she may even be considered profligate with the personal problems she inflicts on her characters. The action of the book is fast-paced and the resolution a surprise. It is unfortunate that the motive for the murders is quite believable.
Gerritsen write a hugely involving tale. The reader is left with a craving for more knowledge about the life of detective Rizzoli for which the only medicine can be a further novel by this talented author.
BODY DOUBLE
by Tess Gerritsen
ISBN 0593050509
339 pages
Bantam Press
October 1 2004
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
September 19 2004
Although it seems unlikely, given her apparent enjoyment of all that is gory, Tess Gerritsen, a doctor by profession, began her writing career in the romance genre - well, romance with a bit of suspense chucked in for good effect. It was not until this past decade that she switched to the medical thriller sub-genre and began her flirtation with the best seller lists. Perhaps it has gone beyond a flirtation now as Gerritsen seems to have moved into a permanent relationship with bestsellerdom.
BODY DOUBLE follows hard on the heels of THE SINNER and THE APPRENTICE, tracking the adventures of characters in those works. The prologue is typical Gerritsen. Alice Rose is a new girl in school. She is tormented by her class-mates - all but the very goodlooking Elijah who invites her to his house to help him with a biology assignment. Instead, Alice finds she IS his biology assignment as he imprisons her in a deep hole he has dug.
Many years later Dr. Maura Isles has been to a conference in Paris. At once fascinated and repelled, she has investigated the Catacombs there but is more than happy to return to the light of day then fly home to Boston. The typical fate of the long distance traveller has befallen her - her luggage has been mislaid, so disgruntled and luggage-less, she returns to her home. Or rather, she attempts to return to her home. The block where she lives is cordoned off and she is only able to gain access to her house when Detective Jane Rizzoli instructs priest Daniel Brophy - a man for whom Maura feels more than a religious closeness - to take her inside.
Maura is told that a woman has been found dead in a car outside her house. She is horrified to see, when she examines the body, that the woman could well be her twin. She attends the autopsy although she doesn't conduct it herself, and discovers the body is identical to her own. DNA evidence later reveals that the dead woman is indeed her twin.
Maura is determined to find out who the woman is and why she tracked Maura down. Dr. Isles is befriended by a detective who had been helping her sister in her search and who makes it clear his own interest is more than that of a simple guardian. Then the pathologist identifies and confronts the woman her sister determined was their mother.
In the meantime, someone has kidnapped a heavily pregnant woman, Mattie Purvis. Mattie is incarcerated in a box in a manner reminiscent of the fate that befell Alice Rose so many years previously. But is this, perhaps, a contract killing paid for by her husband or a kidnapping made in order to wring a ransom from him? And could the fact that Mattie is pregnant imply danger for Jane Rizzoli who is also in the late stages of pregnancy?
This novel is as exciting as any of Gerritsen's previous efforts. It is, of course, equally brutal with its bloody detail. It would be unfortunate were readers to skip the work of this excellent writer just because she doesn't stint on grue. Gerritsen's writing really is worth the effort to clothe one's sensibilities in a suitable insulator to exclude the horror of the spattered gore. Gerritsen is excellent at plotting and characterisation and has a deft touch with the brush of suspense. I did have something of a problem with the way Rizzoli, Brophy et al broke the news of the look-alike corpse to Maura. Would it, in the real world, have been done in such a heartless and intimidating manner? A small and insignificant criticism, this.
This book is definitely one for the connoisseur of apprehension.
VANISH
by Tess Gerritsen
ISBN 0593053524
336 pages
BANTAM PRESS
October 3 2005
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
September 30 2005
Pregnancy causes fortunate outcomes for many people but in the case of Tess Gerritsen, it is the crime fiction audience that has cause for gratitude. It took pregnancy and maternity leave to cause the former medical practitioner to turn to writing. Her first novel, CALL AFTER MIDNIGHT, published in 1987, was romantic suspense but she eventually put her medical knowledge to fictional use and began producing medical thrillers in 1996 with HARVEST, a story which grew from a dinner conversation with a former policeman. Others of Gerritsen's books, such as VANISH, had their genesis in newspaper stories.
Chapter One of VANISH is told in the first person by Mila, a young girl who leaves Belarus in the expectation that wealth and happiness await her in the United States. Instead, she and six other young girls are dropped in the Mexican desert and forced to walk across the border to two vans and some brutal American men. The girls are raped then set to work as prostitutes. One of their duties is to entertain rich and powerful men, some of whom demand very young, possibly pre-teen girls for their delight and delectation.
Boston Medical Examiner, Maura Isles, is horrified when the corpse of a beautiful young woman exhibits vital signs. The girl is hospitalised, coincidentally in the same place where Detective Jane Rizzoli, pregnant with her now overdue baby, is in for examination. Equally unsettling to all present, the unidentified young woman steals a gun from a hospital security guard, kills him with his own weapon and takes hostages, including Jane. The hostage taker is soon joined by a man and together they make demands of the police, saying that Jane's FBI agent husband and a journalist, Peter Lukas, must be sent in to talk to them.
This is, as is customary for Tess Gerritsen's work, a real spine-tingler. The author has the happy knack of winding up the tension to almost unbearable tautness. Unlike characters produced by some other, less accomplished authors, all of Gerritsen's speak with very distinct and different voices. Some of the cast familiar to readers of the writer's previous books, Jane Rizzoli and her husband Gabriel as well as Maura Isles do develop from book to book but remain consistent, never exhibiting clashing changes of personality from one w