May 30, 2022
The case of Sofia Suarez, a widowed nurse found bludgeoned to death in her home, drives bestseller Gerritsen’s engrossing 13th mystery featuring Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles (after 2017’s I Know a Secret). The inoffensive Sofia appears to have had a blameless past, but why was she, as Jane and Maura discover, making surreptitious calls to burner phones in the days before her death? Following leads painstakingly gathered from police reports and interviews with people who knew Sofia, Jane eventually links her murder to a cold case several states away. Meanwhile, Jane’s mother, Angela, is worried about changes she sees in the neighborhood in which Jane grew up. Angela can’t understand why the parents of a missing teenage girl seem so unconcerned or why the new couple across the street never seem to leave the house. The tension rises as Angela’s vigilance leads her to draw false conclusions and puts her in personal danger. Gerritsen smoothly shifts between her complex plotlines as the action builds to a surprising conclusion. Newcomers will find this entry easily accessible. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.
May 15, 2022
The snoop is the star as Rizzoli and Isles make their 13th appearance together. A hit-and-run driver injures young Amy Antrim in downtown Boston, and Sofia Suarez, a middle-aged critical care nurse, is bludgeoned to death. Amy's father, a doctor, had worked with Sofia, but otherwise the two events appear unconnected. Boston PD Homicide detectives Jane Rizzoli and her partner, Barry Frost, investigate the murder, and medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles dissects poor Sofia's corpse for clues. And a teenage girl goes missing for the fourth time. Will she return on her own, or has something horrible happened to her? As Jane tries to work, she's pestered by her mom, Angela, the neighborhood snoop. Angela knows everybody's business and is friends with most of her neighbors. Her mantra is, "if you see something, say something," and she sees a new couple that has moved in close by, pulled the shades down, even installed bars on the windows. She wants her daughter to investigate, but Jane is busy dealing with real crime. Yet something fishy is going on over there, perhaps a woman being held captive and abused. The characters are certainly colorful. Isles escapes her daily view of death by playing piano and doing it to perfection. A colleague is surprised that she "chose cadavers over Chopin." Jane is miffed that her good friend Maura had never mentioned her musical pastime, but music "was her safe space, where death did not intrude." Meanwhile, a self-proclaimed former SEAL pumps iron in his front window, the better to impress the women. Angela gossips with her Scrabble friends and mildly resents the snotty wordsmith who has a master's in English. For her part, Angela has "a life degree in motherhood." She knows that the way to get men to help her is to offer them zucchini bread, and she knows how to tactfully fend off a neighbor's unwelcome advances. Gerritsen combines her knowledge of medicine and police procedure with an intricate plot, clever twists, and strong women. Solid entertainment by one of the best.
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June 1, 2022
Has it really been five years since the last Rizzoli and Isles novel? Fans who have been eagerly awaiting a new installment in the ever-popular series can breathe easy: this one is worth the wait. A woman has been murdered. At first, detective Jane Rizzoli and forensic pathologist Maura Isles are stumped. Who would kill a respected and widely liked nurse? Soon they discover the victim might not be entirely whom she seemed to be, and the investigation gets really hot, really quickly. Meanwhile, Rizzoli's mother, Angela, has some concerns about her new neighbors, but with her daughter otherwise occupied, Angela might have to investigate these newcomers all by herself. Gerritsen juggles both storylines adroitly, leaving one at a tantalizing moment to move on to the other. Result: all-night reading sessions to get the book finished. The interplay between the two lead characters is as entertaining as always, and the writing feels effortless. A fine entry in this popular series.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The latest Rizzoli and Isles novel in the long-running series will draw fans back with gusto.
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