Saturday, August 21, 2021

Tess Gerritsen

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“If Nina Cormier’s wedding had taken place, she would be dead. But after the bride was left at the altar, the church stood empty when the bomb exploded. It wasn’t until a stranger tried to run her off the road that Nina realized someone actually wanted to kill her.

But who?

That’s what Detective Sam Navarro has to find out … fast. With a nightmare all around them, Sam and Nina must try to decipher the terrifying truth: they are at the mercy of a brilliant madman, one who is playing for keeps …"

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I was planning to go somewhere by train. I’ve been stayed home for almost three months after the Covid crisis in May. But I decided, again not to go out due to the weather. So, I stayed home to finish this book.

I have finished all the Rizzoli & Isles series, up to the latest I Knew A Secret. So I think it’s time I can focus on Gerritsen’s standalone books. And this was not the first standalone book of her I’ve read, either.

If you ask me what category I think this book falls into, I’ll say it’s more a romance than a detective novel. Not very impressive. It’s a romance novel, so you could guess that the bride and the detective eventually would have a happy life ever after. The person, whose crimes brought Nina and Sam together, was a bomber. So you could know there would be a bomb in the end to threaten their lives. And it would definitely be at the last second, not minute, when the bomb was disarmed. Such a cliche.

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Tess Gerritsen

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It is a boiling hot Boston summer. Adding to the city’s woes is a series of shocking crimes, in which wealthy men are made to watch while their wives are brutalized. A sadistic demand that ends in abduction and death.

The pattern suggests one man: serial killer Warren Hoyt, recently removed from the city’s streets. Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the madman he so admires. At least that’s what Detective Jane Rizzoli thinks. Forced again to confront the killer who scarred her–literally and figuratively–she is determined to finally end Hoyt’s awful influence . . . even if it means receiving more resistance from her all-male homicide squad.

But Rizzoli isn’t counting on the U.S. government’s sudden interest. Or on meeting Special Agent Gabriel Dean, who knows more than he will tell. Most of all, she isn’t counting on becoming a target herself, once Hoyt is suddenly free, joining his mysterious blood brother in a vicious vendetta. . . .

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While there is a very long list of books waiting in the libraries and on my bookshelf, I want to read the Rizzoli & Isles series again. Well, a least the first few books.

This series of books, in Chinese and even in English, are all so popular, this is the only English book I can find in the libraries. Look at the battered cover, you can know how popular it has been. I’ve just checked. There are four people waiting for this book! Haha, I’d better return the book ASAP.

In this second book, Rizzoli is more the woman cop I remember in the rest of the series. She is no longer just an angry cop who tries so hard to make other hear her; so hard that she makes you annoyed sometimes.

I skipped the monologue of the monster Warren Hoyt. I didn’t want to understand how a monster’s mind worked. No!!

Thursday, February 11, 2021

Tess Gerritsen

Ballantine Books

“He slips into homes at night and walks silently into bed rooms where women lie sleeping, about to awaken to a living nightmare. The precision of his methods suggests that he is a deranged man of medicine, prompting the Boston newspapers to dub him ‘The Surgeon.’ Led by Detectives Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli, the cops must consult the victim of a nearly identical crime: Two years ago, Dr. Catherine Cordell fought back and killed an attacker before he could complete his assault. Now this new killer is re-creating, with chilling accuracy, the details of Cordell’s ordeal. With every new murder he seems to be taunting her, cutting ever closer, from her hospital to her home. And neither Moore nor Rizzoli can protect Cordell from ruthless hunter who somehow understands – and savors – the secret fears of every woman he kills."

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According to the author, in her “The origins of Rizzoli and Isles", Rizzoli “When she first walked on to the pages of The Surgeon I didn’t even realize that Jane was a heroine. Det. Thomas Moore was the protagonist in that story, and Jane was merely his annoying partner, a plain and scruffy woman with a huge chip on her shoulder. I saw no reason to make her likeable because I was going to kill her by the end of the book."

I have finished all the Rizzoli and Isles books, up to the latest book in the series, I Know A Secret. I didn’t particularly like it. However, I decided to read the series all over again, since so many people recommended Gerritsen’s book, especially The Surgeon.

While reading, I wondered why Rizzoli was such a misfit and so annoying and annoyed most of the time. She was not the Jane Rizzoli I read in the other books in the series. Because she was supposed to be killed in the end of The Surgeon. From the beginning to the end, she was not any important character in this book. The Surgeon, however, was more or less a romance novel about Thomas Moore and Catherine Cordell.

The Rizzoli and Isles series actually began with The Apprentice, I think. I have reserved the book. Have to wait for like two months. I’ll know if it is true when finish The Apprentice.

Saturday, January 9, 2021

Tess Gerritsen

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“After an unspeakable tragedy in Boston, Ava Collette flees to a remore village in Maine, where she rents an old house named Brodie’s Watch.

In thatt isolated seaside mansion, Ava finally feels at peace … until she glimpses the long-dead sea captain who still resides there.

Rumor has it that Captain Jeremiah Brodie has haunted the house for more than a century. One night, Ava confronts the apparition, who feels all too real, and who welcomes her into his world – and into his arms. Even as Ava questions her own sanity, she eagerly looks forward to the captain’s ghostly visits. But she soon learns that the house she loves comes with a terrible secret, a secret that those in the village don’t want to reveal: Every woman who has ever lived in Brodie’s Watch has also died there. Is the ghost of Captain Brodie responsible, or is a flesh-and-blood killer at work? A killer who is even now circling closer to Ava?

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This book, too sad, turns out to be an another disappointment of Gerritsen’s books, after the latest book of the Rizzoli & Isles series, I Know A Secret.

While reading this book, I kept thinking maybe I should just give up finishing it, since I really don’t like the main character, Ava something. And I so detested the ghost of the captain. I hate any books with main characters dealing with drinking problems. Like Harry Hole in Jo Nesbo’s books; Rachel Watson in The Girl on the Train; and now this, Ava something. I hate to read all the craps about why they ended up drinking so much; how hard they, if they really did, had tried to quit, and all sorts of excuses they found for themselves.

The only and one thing I like in the book was when Ava something tried her recipes in the fabulous kitchen. I always think it really wonderful when you can take your time to do things you like in a comfortable place.

And the rest, …. well…