ICE COLD - Tess Gerritsen

FIRST LINE: "She was the chosen one."

In the eighth book of the Rizzoli & Isles series, Maura Isles heads west to Wyoming for a medical conference. Leaving Daniel, her not-so-secret lover, behind in Boston on bad terms, Maura decides to be adventurous when she meets up with her old college pal, Doug. She joins Doug, his two friends and his daughter on a ski trip. However, extreme weather conditions strand them in an isolated area and the group goes looking for help. They find a small community with a sign labeling it "Kingdom Come." The clutch of houses provide some shelter from the elements, but details about the homes make the community scarier and scarier. It appears that everyone just picked up and left: windows are open, pets frozen out in the snow, food left on dinner plates at kitchen tables. The travelers only thought they were having a bad day until they found their way to Kingdom Come. Maura Isles' adventure has only just begun.

Lately I've been slower than even normal when it comes to reading, but ICE COLD kept me riveted to the pages, one right after the other. Gerritsen has a gift when it comes to developing suspense. ICE COLD is a layered plot, but the reader can't see the layers until the very end when Gerritsen has carefully unfolded them all. It's very much like driving on a constantly curving road. You know a curve is coming up, but you have no ability to see what's on the other side until you're right in the midst of it. And that is a large element of what keeps the reader glued to this book. Another component that makes this novel so rich is depth of conflict. Gerritsen doesn't overlook any opportunity for conflict, but on top of that the conflicts start conflicting with themselves. Doug's conflict with himself runs smack into his conflict with nature AND with other man. And all of those conflicts have to interact for the end result to be possible.  That complexity works to heighten the suspense.

Another component of Gerritsen's glue are her characters. Of course her series characters Jane and Maura are consistent and have secured their places in the hearts of series fans, but someone coming to the series fresh, could start with ICE COLD and not be lost at all.  I can say this with confidence because, while I have read Gerritsen's work before, it has all been her medical thriller stand alones; this is the first Rizzoli & Isles book I have read. And I have now ordered all of the previous ones because I enjoyed ICE COLD so much.

Gerritsen does an outstanding job of bringing out the supporting cast and making them as essential to the plot as Jane and Maura. The reader connects with them as much if not more so than Jane and Maura because they aren't flat images in the story. They have depth and dimension; they are vital to the plot and aren't interchangeable. I'm actually curious if some of the supporting cast will show up in future novels.

ICE COLD goes beyond the title; it functions as a theme throughout and has meaning on many different levels of the book. Gerritsen weaves it into the plot as well as characterization and even into the relationships among characters. The one place ICE COLD didn't manage to reach, however, was to me the reader. This book was HOT, and I could not put it down. It comes with my highest recommendation.

ICE COLD is available now from Ballantine Books in hardcover (ISBN: 978-0-345-51548-3). It is also available as an audiobook in both CD and MP3 format from Brilliance Audio (978-1-423-39207-1).

Guest Blogger - Tess Gerritsen

I am beyond thrilled to be welcoming one of crime fiction's great writers today as my guest blogger. She's here to talk about one of my favorite elements of fiction, character. Tess Gerritsen came to crime fiction via medicine. She began writing while on a maternity leave and hasn't looked back. For that, we are extremely grateful. She has contributed an incredible amount to the genre and has given millions of devoted fans hours of thrilling entertainment. Her newest Isles and Rizzoli book, ICE COLD, is now available, and I will be reviewing it for you tomorrow. Today is also special for Tess because the television show RIZZOLI & ISLES premieres tonight on TNT. Please help me welcome, international bestselling author, Tess Gerritsen!

I'm often asked: "Where did you get the idea for this book?" But I'm seldom asked where my characters come from. Some authors write up extensive biographical pages for their characters. Before they write a single line of dialogue, they know every detail about that character, from where he went to school to what he had for breakfast. I've tried that method, and it's never worked for me. Instead, I've learned that the most vivid characters are the ones who walk on the page and just start talking.

Ten years ago, while I was writing THE SURGEON, that's exactly what happened. The story was about a female surgeon named Catherine Cordell who had survived an attack by a serial killer two years earlier; now a copycat killer is stalking her, and he knows shocking details that were never revealed to the public. While I was focused on telling Catherine's story, another character sneaked in ... and took over. Her name was Jane Rizzoli.

Jane was only a secondary character, a brash and bitchy homicide detective who was so unpleasant that I had every intention of killing her off by the story's end. I scarcely paid attention to Jane's development yet somehow, she emerged on the pages fully formed. It's as if I was channeling her spirit, without having to think about it. When I was writing her dialogue, the words effortlessly popped out of her mouth. She swaggered, she glowered, she caused headaches for her colleagues, and she seemed to do it all on her own. I was just taking dictation.

A cruel and bloody end was coming for her. I had planned it, hadn't I? An attack in a dark cellar, a slash to the throat. But when I finally reached that scene in the book where Jane was supposed to die, I found that I couldn't do it. I had come to know Jane as a real person. She wasn't just a troublesome cop; she was a woman who'd struggled all her life to be heard. Despite her flaws, she'd proven herself both brilliant and courageous. She had the heart of a lion, and she deserved to live.

So she survived her creator's intentions and lived to star in the next book, THE APPRENTICE.

Now, eight books later, Jane's still alive and kicking -- and about to become a TV personality! "Rizzoli & Isles" is a new TV series based on my characters, and it stars Angie Harmon as Jane and Sasha Alexander as medical examiner Maura Isles. I've seen the pilot episode, and Jane's spirit is perfectly captured in the series, even if Angie Harmon is far more gorgeous than the Jane I'd imagined. An able team of writers will be coming up with the weekly episodes while I, like every other TV viewer, will just have to sit back and watch what happens to her next.

Jane's now out in the world and on her own, the gal who walked onto my pages one day ... and refused to die.

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You Have the Right to Six Words - Week 20?

I'm still finding this hard to believe everyone. We are up to Week 20 in this series and you're still coming back. Thanks for sticking with me, we're going to be on the downhill side of this project now with about 6 to 8 more posts, but they're going to be some doosies. I hope you hold out to the end, and I hope you enjoy the fun.

This week, let's start out with a man who's known he loved crime fiction for a very long time. As a matter of fact, Bill Crider did his Ph.D. dissertation on the hardboiled detective novel. After successfully completing the Ph.D., Bill went on to teach English at the collegiate level. He retired from his position as English Department Chair in 2002 and began working full time at his writing career - or part time as a bum, according to Bill.

Bill has spent his whole life in small Texas towns. And he sets his books in much the same location. He has three series, something for everyone. Dan Rhoades is a small-town Texas sheriff who doesn't deal with serial killers but rather alligators, naked men in dumpsters and missing false teeth. Oh, yeah, and the occasional murder as well. Rhoades most recent capers can be found in MURDER IN FOUR PARTS which was released in February of this year. The first Dan Rhoades novel, TOO LATE TO DIE, won the Anthony Award for best first novel. Bill also has an amateur sleuth, Carl Burns, who happens to be an English teacher. And finally Bill has his P.I., Truman Smith, who earned a Shamus nomination for best first P.I. novel in 1991 for DEAD ON THE ISLAND.

In his free time, Bill runs, enjoys music and travel, is as much a mystery fan as a writer, and he tends to the needs of his three cats. He's summed up this array of achievements with

I came. I read. I wrote.

And that says a lot!

Our next memoirist, like many of the authors included in the project, has a variety of jobs on her resume. Michelle Gagnon has worked as a modern dancer, a dog walker, a bar tender, freelance journalist, personal trainer, model and Russian supper club performer? Doesn't that sound exotic? These days she calls San Francisco home where she indulges in stale popcorn and Hollywood blockbusters. When she isn't enjoying the movies she's bringing FBI Special Agent Kelly Jones to life in her IMBA bestsellers. Next month, Michelle will be releasing the third and newest Kelly Jones novel, THE GATEKEEPER.

Michelle is active in the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. And if that wasn't enough to keep Michelle busy, she's also blogging at The Kill Zone on Thursdays. Well grab your stale popcorn and sit back for the Michelle Gagnon show:

Dancer turns to life of crime.

Linwood Barclay was born in the United States but moved to Canada at the age of four when his father accepted a job there. Unfortunately, Linwood's father died when Linwood was only 16. He helped to run a cottage resort and trailer park until he snagged his first newspaper job with the Peterborough Examiner in Ontario. Linwood would join the Toronto Star, Canada's largest circulation newspaper, in 1981. Working there until 2008, Linwood wore many hats: assistant city editor, chief copy editor, news editor, Life section editor, and finally humor columnist. But, the world of novel-writing was calling him and in 2008 he hung up his newspaper hats to work exclusively on his books.

In the midst of all these newspaper experiences, Linwood earned his Bachelor's degree in English and met his future wife at Trent University in Peterborough.

Linwood's Zack Walker thriller series was born in 2004 and in 2007 Linwood's first stand alone thriller was published, NO TIME FOR GOODBYE. NO TIME FOR GOODBYE earned Linwood a nomination for the Arthur Ellis, the Barry and the International Thriller Writers awards. TOO CLOSE TO HOME, which came out in 2008 earned the coveted Arthur Ellis award for Best Novel. And this year his third stand alone thriller, FEAR THE WORST, was released in the U.S. in August.

And so how does Linwood sum up all this success?

Trailer park; father died; joined
newspaper.

And the rest, they say, is history!

And rounding out this distinguished group is a woman who came to writing via medicine. Tess Gerritsen earned an M.D. from the University of California and went on to practice as a physician. While on maternity leave the inkling to write snuck up on her and she began her first novel. In 1987 CALL AFTER MIDNIGHT, a romantic thriller, was published. She followed that book up with eight more romantic suspense novels and a television screenplay.

In 1996, Tess found her way onto the New York Times Best Seller list with her first medical thriller, HARVEST. And she just continued to role from there with eleven novels up to the most recent THE KEEPSAKE. Tess has teamed up medical examiner Maura Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli for seven of those eleven novels and two of them have won her prestigious awards. For VANISH she received the Nero Wolfe award and for THE SURGEON she was awarded the Rita award.

These days Tess is retired from medicine, writing full time and residing in Maine. This international best selling author was

Told it was impossible. Tried anyway.

And the genre is richer for it! Thanks Tess, for doing the impossible!

I am so thrilled with this line-up this week. Michelle, Bill, Linwood and Tess, my sincerest and warmest thanks for taking the time to write your memoirs for this project. Your involvement has added tremendously to the series. I am honored to host you today.

And readers, thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed Week 20 as much as I have. And I hope you will join me next week. I'll be doing the mad scramble to make sure I have everything ready for Bouchercon, but I'm going to do my darnedest to get Week 21 posted. If by chance, I'm not able to get it done, please don't jump ship. I promise I'll have my act together for the week after and we'll resume!

GRAVITY - Tess Gerritsen

Dr. Emma Watson is training for her dream trip, a trip to the International Space Station. When tragedy strikes the family of an astronaut already on the space station, Emma's trip is fast-tracked. But when Emma reaches the Space Station her dream trip turns into a nightmare. A deadly virus is attacking the astronauts. Will Emma be able to stop the virus before it destroys the entire space station?

Gravity turned out to be a little more in the realm of science fiction than what I normally read, so you'll have to take into consideration my bias as you read my review today. I listened to it on audio book, read by William Dufris. I thought he did a very nice job with one exception. He had a tendency to get overly dramatic. For people who like sci-fi more than me, this may be o.k., but the Doubting Thomas in me found it a tad over the top.

For the most part, Gravity is very well written. This is the second Tess Gerritsen book that I've read and the style is strong in both. As a layman, I didn't notice any problems with logic. What I didn't particularly care for in this novel was the use of a couple of cliches. To avoid any spoilers (even though the book is 10 years old), I'll not mention what the cliches were exactly, but I will say they pretty much gave the plot away for me. I really didn't incur much surprise. What the plot does contain is food for thought. There are some rather disturbing issues that come up in the course of the plot. And you can't help wondering, which choice is the BEST choice? Is there a RIGHT and a WRONG?

What Gerritsen doesn't disappoint on in this novel is character. She has a knack with developing sympathetic characters. She is also rather creative in naming her characters, but I'd like to see her have faith that her readers will connect the significance of their names, without her needing to point it out specifically.

There was also a sub-plot in this novel that I really would have liked more development for. Typically I'm saying the sub-plot could be eliminated. In this case, it was paramount to the main plot, but I found myself wanting to know more about the characters involved in that part of the book.

I think Gravity is probably an excellent choice for someone who appreciates the science-fiction element more than I do. I'm going to check out more of Gerritsen's medical thrillers that are a little more grounded in the crime fiction a little less in the science-fiction.

Harvest - Tess Gerritsen

I guess it was the week of Tess's for me! This time the author is Tess. Harvest is the first book by Tess Gerritsen I've read/listened to. According to the audio case, Harvest is Gerritsen's debut novel.

Abby DiMatteo is a top-notch second-year resident at Bayside Hospital in Boston. Dr. Wettig, the supervisor of the residency program, is known to be a hard-nose who never compliments any of the residents, but he shows a lot of respect for Abby. In addition to the respect she is receiving from her supervisor, the organ transplant team is also showing interest in Abby. They want her to be a part of their team when she finishes her residency.

Abby is ecstatic about the attention she is receiving from the transplant team, and even more excited when her boyfriend Mark, who is also on the transplant team, asks her to marry him. But all the wonderfulness starts to fade after Abby helps a teenage boy get the heart transplant that is rightfully his over a 40-year-old woman who's husband is wealthy and wants to "pay" for the heart. The teenage boy is saved but the cost may be Abby's life.

I'll just start this review by saying Tess Gerritesen knows how to write a thriller! Even though she writes the story so that the reader can make connections early on, the approach doesn't deter from the anticipation or excitement at all. It is kind of like watching a scary movie where someone enters a dark room with eerie music playing. You KNOW something is going to jump out at the person, but you still jump out of your seat when it happens. That is what this book easily compares to.

The concept of buying and selling organs in this book is nothing short of terrifying. Gerritsen writes in such a way as to evoke a tremendous amount of emotion from the reader: fear, horror, anger, mortification.

Gerritsen also has a gift when it comes to characterization. I absolutely fell in love with Yakov, a young Russian orphan who was so smart and had so much curiosity. He yearned for companionship, looking for it where ever he could find it.

And Abby is another great female character. She is faced with multiple lawsuits that the wealthy husband is arranging with all his money. She is a resident; she has no money to even begin to try to fight them, but she feels that she must do something. I found myself identifying with her frustration over the fact that money is the controlling factor, not what is RIGHT. Abby isn't a superwoman, she doesn't have the super powers to trump the evils of money. And sadly, everything doesn't turn out happily ever after. But it turns out believable, which in the end makes the book that much more frightening.

Again, I listened to this book on audio. This one is a Recorded Books version, read by George Guidall. One of the elements of Guidall's reading that stood out for me was how his pace increased with action that was taking place in the plot. I find myself doing that when I read myself, so I appreciated his tendency to do the same thing. While I enjoy Guidall's readings and I think he did a very nice job on this book, I also think his sound is a little too old for the characters that this book centered on. And I'm also a little curious why they chose a male reader over a female reader for this particular book. But, as with In Big Trouble, these factors aren't enough for me not to highly recommend it. I had a great experience listening to this audiobook.

Happy Reading!