Nun the wiser....another gripping and enthralling thriller from a very talented writer (The Sinner - Tess Gerritsen)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	The Sinner - Tess Gerritsen
Date:	01/10/08 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Grips you with it's twists and turns as a bigger and bigger mystery is revealed

Disadvantages: Can be a bit graphic in places with it's autopsy descriptions...

Every time I pick up a TESS GERRITSEN novel, I kind of wonder why I'm reading it.... but by the time I have reached the end, I always remember; it's because her novels are just sooo good and GERRITSEN is clearly an author who knows how to write a bloody good thriller. THE SINNER, the third novel to feature Detective Jane Rizzoli and Medical Examiner Maura Isles, who is obviously supposed be a fictional representation of TESS GERRITSEN from what I can make out. GERRITSEN gave up a career in medicine to look after her children and pursue her writing career and I get a strong sense from these novels that Maura Isles is very much the strong-hearted woman that TESS perhaps would have liked to see herself as if things had happened differently in her life....

This time around, the pair find themselves called in to the investigation of an assault on two nuns in their convent. One is dead, the other on deaths door and fighting for her life. An autopsy on the deceased produces some startling results that were certainly not expected and then the body of another woman is found in a deserted building with her face, hands and feet removed. Somehow this new case seems to be connected with the attempted murder of the two nuns but how? The answers when they come quick and fast are shocking and surprising and lead Maura Isles back into the arms of her ex-husband who himself has plenty of secrets he has no desire to share.....

Once again, GERRITSEN proves that she is a formiddable force with this excellent, tense and enthralling thriller that kept me glued to the edge of my seat. The good sign of a thriller is when you are reading it on your break at work and are reluctant to put it down to return to your job and this book certainly had that effect on me. I quite literally had to tear my way away at some points and was desperate to return to find out how it ended. And you can't get a more glowing reccommendation than that!

Her style of writing is a little P.J.TRACEY in places and her books are obviously aimed at a more female audience judging from the emphasis on relationships and the two main characters' love lives but still, as a bloke, I was still able to throughly enjoy this latest installment in the series that has established GERRITSEN as one of the big hitters of crime fiction and really made her name. Shew is defenitely without any doubt now high on the list of my top ten favourite thriller writers and I can't wait to read the next GERRITSEN novel that I am fast-tracking to the top of my to-be-read pile!! The ending when it comes feels a little sudden and a tad rushed but then this appears to be the current vogue with thriller writers- to have a lengthy build-up with a short, sharp climax at it's end! This is no bad thing but does mean the novel is over far quicker than you expect especially as, with an extract of the next book in the series featured in the last few pages, the book looks like it has further to go than it has.

But this is a mild complaint and this wouldn't be a balanced review if I didn't include some negative comments- rest assured, on every other level this novel delivers and you could do no better than picking this up if you see it in your local charity shop or on EBAY. It can be read as a stand alone but you may find it more enjoyable to start at the beginning of the series with THE SURGEON. This also enables you to see how GERRITSEN's writing just gets better and better with every book she writes and personally, having already read the book that comes after this, BODY DOUBLE, I can't wait to pick up the fifth book, VANISH.

Summary: A highly reccommendable thriller from an author who just gets better and better!!