Tess Gerritsen

IN BOSTON, THERE'S A KILLER ON THE LOOSE...

A killer who targets lone women, who breaks into their apartments and performs terrifying ritualistic acts of torture on them before finishing them off. His surgical skills lead police to suspect he is a physician - a physician who, instead of saving lives, takes them.

But as homicide detective Thomas Moore and his partner Jane Rizzoli begin their investigation, they make a startling discovery. Closely linked to these killings is Catherine Cordell, a beautiful doctor with a mysterious past. Two years ago she was subjected to a horrifying rape and shot her attacker dead.

Now the man she believes she killed seems to be stalking her once again, and this time he knows exactly where to find her...

The Surgeon (Rizzoli & Isles #1)

The Surgeon

Barbara Williford

Typically I like to read the books before the Movie or in this case the TV series. Although the characters are portrayed differently in each, I did enjoy the book. It was a suspenseful and thrilling read. Love the author and look forward to seeing how these characters evolve through her writing.

Colleen

3 Stars
 
*A decent debut pulled a few too many directions and in need of better character development*


After binging the TV show Rizzoli & Isles, I was excited to read the book series. Unfortunately, it turns out that the show is majorly different from the books. I started The Surgeon with the wrong expectations. I won’t make this review all about the compare and contrast between the book and the show. But I will say that what I enjoyed most about the show was the characters and the rapport between them. In contrast, the characters were by far the weakest part of the book. And there is a big discrepancy that Rizzoli is basically a side character and Isles was not in the book at all!

While there were many parts of The Surgeon that showed great promise, there was a lot about the writing that made it clear this was a debut effort. The writing style and structure was significantly inconsistent. It started with an interlude from killer in first person, present tense (which is pretty much nails on a chalkboard to me). Then most of the story was in close third person to another detective named Moore. He had an annoying habit of reimagining the crime in second person, present tense which made me want to throw the book at times. And sometimes the narrative focused on other side characters. It was just all over the place and so erratic. 

Rizzoli’s character was the biggest disappointment. Aside from not being a main character, she was written in an entirely off-putting way. Instead of being independent, skilled, and snarky with a heart of gold, she was described as "prickly," "insecure," "resentful," and prone to sexual harassment claims. It was constantly implied that she was petulant, difficult, and too sensitive. Honestly, if I hadn’t already known who had written this, I would have guessed this was written by a man. And probably in the 70’s or 80’s based on the portrayal of women. Things got super cringe-worthy at times. If I hadn't watched the show, I would have been tempted to abandon this in the first chapter. Because it had big vibes of “see what happens when a women tries to do a man’s job?” There was nothing empowering about Rizzoli.


  “She was the only woman in the homicide unit, and already there had been problems between her and another detective, charges of sexual harassment, countercharges of unrelenting bitchiness.”

Interestingly, that sexism did not carry over to the female surgeon character. She was miraculously adored and respected by all of her colleagues. Speaking of the medical side of the story, it often felt like it was meant to be a medical drama rather than a police procedural. Both of these things made more sense once I found out that the author was a doctor. There were many scenes that seemed to be there just to show off the author’s medical knowledge. And I kept wondering if she couldn’t decide what type of book she meant to write.

The story also over-explained things. Which was one thing when it was the medical portions of the story, but there were other things that were explained in illogical ways. Since most of the information was relayed by characters asking questions, this often meant characters asking things they should already know. For example, a cop wouldn't ask what PTSD stands for. There were a lot of little examples like that.

Despite many rough aspects of the story, I have to admit that the plot was exciting and interesting. Even with the disappointing elements of the story, my attention never wandered. I won’t give away anything about the plot, but if you like police procedurals (with some extra medical stuff) and stories about serial killers, then this is an easy read.


  “Evil doesn't die. It never dies. It just takes on a new face, a new name. Just because we've been touched by it once, it doesn't mean we're immune to ever being hurt again. Lightning can strike twice.” 

I’ll still check out the next book to see if the series gets better, but I did find the first one a little disappointing despite the interesting plot. 


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Dr. Catherine Cordell, recovering from a brutal attack and hiding her fear behind a mask of professionalism, is the only one that can stop a psychotic killer known as "The Surgeon," due to his horrific methods of murder, before he kills again. 100,000 first printing.

Izza

4.5. I will be back with a review

First of all, I want to say that the cover is a bit misleading. You can see a picture of the TNT show on the front, and it says “A Rizzoli & Isles novel.” However, not only is Det. Jane Rizzoli barely present in the first three quarters of the book, but Dr. Maura Isles isn’t even in this book! Nothing (well except one) in this book was ever talked about on the show though, so I can forgive the fact that Maura wasn’t in this one.

50 pages in, and the disappointment was gone. Gerritsen has a very particular way of telling this story, and it sucks you in. I could barely put it down.

Full review over @ the hungry bookster

If it s gripping, it s Gerritsen. The terrifying first Jane Rizzoli bestseller.

Sian Wadey

Having been familiar with the Rizolli and Isles series, I already had characters in the head when I started reading this. This is the first of the books, but I'm glad I didn't start with it otherwise I may not have read any others!! 
It has a good pace, a sadistic murderer and suspects a-plenty. But it was all a bit too procedural for me. Not to mention that Isles wasn't even in it!! It was exactly the kind of story you'd expect on Criminal Minds or Law & Order, nothing that made me sit up or take notice. Plus Rizolli goes on and on about 'the job being a way of life', and I'm sure that is the case, but it just got dull!! 
I'm sure I will read more in the future, but I'll get my mum to read them for me first!!

Yulande Lindsay

laura

Very good excited to meet maura in the next book :)

Georgiana.aysha

I don’t remember anything about this book ... I could read it right now and I would be : wow this happened? Amazing:))

The Surgeon (Rizzoli & Isles #1)

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