Body Double

How would you like to have to perform your own autopsy? That is the conundrum that faces Dr. Maura Isles in Body Double when she returns from a conference in France to find that the identical twin she never knew she had has been murdered in front of her house. The investigation into the murder leads Maura to a mental institution to confront the woman who gave the identical twins up for adoption 40 years before, and also leads Maura into the chilling discovery that a serial killer has been murderng pregnant women. This book moves quickly as Maura follows the investigation to its very surprising conclusion. It's a pleasure to see Maura team up with Dr. Jane Rizzoli-- Maura seems to take some of the hard edges off of Jane and Jane seems to make Maura a little less of an ice princess. This is an enjoyable book that you will find is hard to put down until the end.

Dr. Maura Isles left her practice as a pathologist at Stanford University because her marriage and life was too complicated. Her husband Victor kept far too many secrets from her... She's been in Boston for two years---and suddenly she's finding Victor isn't the only one with secrets in their past. When Maura returns from Paris to discover a woman who could be her shot dead in a car parked in front of her home, the first mystery begins. Then, 9 months pregnant Mattie Purvis is taken from her home. She awakens in what feels like a box. She has food, water, a flashlight---all it takes to survive, but she's not sure what the kidnapper really wants--is it a ransom or something else? "Body Double" is an extremely well-written medical thriller from internist-turned-author Tess Gerritson. Every chapter has hooks designed to imbed deep and leave you guessing, wanting to read on. Maura Isles, the main voice of the novel and pregnant cop, Jane Rizzoli, as well as Mattie Purvis in her captivity keep the fast-paced action human and personal. These three heroic women take a mundane novel and turn it into something hard to put down. Definitely going to check out the rest of the Maura Isles novels by Gerritson.

I don't believe in giving book reports so I'll just say that this book was awesome, one of the best of her books that I've read recently. The twin sub-plot kept me riveted to the page and just when I was sure I had the murderer figured out, I was fooled! God, I love it when that happens! A worthy read, worth your valuable time!!!

In the prologue to Gerritsen's latest Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli thriller, a bullied, unhappy schoolgirl is lured into the woods by a handsome classmate and then cast into a pit to die. Gerritsen then switches to Isles, a Boston medical examiner, returning from a Paris conference (where she takes us on an eerie tour of the catacombs) to find Homicide Detective Rizzoli among the cops on her front lawn, blue lights flashing, shocked to see her. They've just been examining her murdered corpse. Having got your attention some writers might have trouble maintaining this front-loaded pace, but Gerritsen deepens the mystery then ratchets up the suspense and horror right to the final nail-biting page. Isles' character emerges through her actions. She is wary of introspection and her shock at her double's murder shows in her altered view of daily details and her dogged pursuit of the mystery wherever it leads, be it an isolated Maine cabin with human bones in the ground outside, or a maximum security prison. Isles, adopted, has found her twin too late. As she begins to peel away the layers of family identity, similarities strike her - a failed marriage, a career in science. But these poignant revelations are soon disrupted by far more sinister implications. Rizzoli, eight months pregnant and working on the murder, has found Isles' mother, maybe. And she's not a mother to love. Meanwhile there's a serial killer at work, one the reader is aware of before the cops. His latest victim is the very pregnant wife of a slimy BMW car dealer. Snatched from her home, she wakes up in a coffin-like box where we revisit her from time to time until she goes into labor - the moment the killer has been waiting for. Point of view shifts between Isles and Rizzoli, with briefer digressions to the terrified woman in the box. Rizzoli is a cop who can hold her own - with a frightened angry friend or a belligerent suspect. Isles, competent and strong, has an appealing vulnerability that is expertly handled in this intense, personal story. Gerritsen has had a busy career. A former internist and romance writer (Isles juggles a forbidden passion and a budding romance with the cop who loved her sister), her medical examiner is emerging as a formidable rival to Patricia Cornwell's.