While Jane tends to her mother, there’s nothing Maura can do for Amalthea, except endure one final battle of wills with the woman whose shadow has haunted her all her life. Though succumbing to cancer, Amalthea hasn’t lost her taste for manipulating her estranged daughter—this time by dangling a cryptic clue about the two bizarre murders Maura and Jane are desperately trying to solve.
But whatever the dying convict knows is only a piece of the puzzle. Soon the investigation leads to a secretive young woman who survived a shocking abuse scandal, an independent horror film that may be rooted in reality, and a slew of martyred saints who died cruel and unusual deaths. And just when Rizzoli and Isles think they’ve cornered a devilish predator, the long-buried past rears its head—and threatens to engulf more innocent lives, including their own.
Comment: This is the latest installment of the Rizzoli and Isles series by incredible author Tess Gerritsen. The book was published last year but since my collection is in paperback, I've waited for this edition to be released.
In this 12th adventure, Jane and Maura have a new case of people being murdered and although at first it seemed nothing was in common between the deaths, some clues finally reveal the secret behind several situations and the truth is quite disturbing. But using method and dedication both ladies will find the truth and catch the villain before someone else innocent is killed too.
Tess Gerritsen is an amazing writer. Her books make sense because she has the medical knowledge for many things to make sense and to be well explained to the average reader. But she also has talent to portray things in such a way that everything seems it couldn't be presented any way else! I find this fascinating and she certainly knows how to put things in a good sequence.
Once again, two details stood out for me and made me really enjoy this story:
1) the mixing up of the murders investigation with the domestic lives of the protagonists. I know this annoys some hard core fans of thrillers but I love it, I really appreciate being a part of the main characters like this.
2) Everything we are told has two sides and this amazing author can write in such a way we are NOT supposed to take one instead of the other. We get all the information about things and we make up our mind in general and in relation to the context in hand. In this investigation we get to know a lot about the characters, about those who died, those who are key to understand them (like parents and friends) and it's truly a fascinating exercise to wonder about the psychology of all this. I think Tess Gerritsen is perfection incarnated in how she manages to convey things not in terms of morals or horror scenes but the whys, the hows, the details about this and that.
These two details combined make an incredible story and I really liked the way the author has taught us some things at the same time. The investigation isn't as secretive as others were (to my understanding) and I think one key detail was a little easy to predict from a certain point on, which retracted some impact from the end but it was interesting the same.
I'd actually say what this book lacked was a bigger oomph in the end. The villain was punished but there was a detail left in the air, a detail without a moral resolution that, despite interesting on its own, felt rather diminishing when thinking about the overall plot: yes, morally challenged people or sociopaths as one might prefer to call them can be harmless but there's a fine line and I think the author could have done something better regarding this.
Well, fans of the series can't complain I think for for a new reader this isn't the best book to start. ll the murder investigations are started and finished in most books but there are tons of things to read between the lines and I swear it's worth it to go through all of them!
Another winner, for the most part, for me.
Grade: 8/10
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