The Surgeon - Tess Gerritsen (The Surgeon - Tess Gerritsen)

Member Name: chicklitreviews

Product:	The Surgeon - Tess Gerritsen
Date:	11/05/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great characters, great plot, great baddy!

Disadvantages: Nothing

*****THE SYNOPSIS*****
A serial killer is on the loose in Boston. The victims are killed in a particularly nasty way: cut with a scalpel on the stomach, the intestines and uterus removed, and then the throat slashed. The killer obviously has medical knowledge and has been dubbed "the Surgeon" by the media.

Detective Thomas Moore and his partner Rizzoli of the Boston Homicide Unit have discovered something that makes this case even more chilling. Years ago in Savannah a serial killer murdered in exactly the same way. He was finally stopped by his last victim who shot him as he tried to cut her. That last victim is Dr Catherine Cordell, who now works as a cardiac surgeon at one of Boston's prestigious hospitals.

As the murders continue, it becomes obvious that the killer is drawing closer and closer to Dr Cordell, who is becoming so frightened that she is virtually unable to function. But she is the only person who can help the police catch this copycat killer. Or is it a copycat? To complicate matters even further, Detective Moore, often referred to as Saint Thomas as he continues to mourn the loss of his wife, is getting emotionally involved with the doctor.

*****MY REVIEW*****

Having been a chick-lit reader, it never occured to me to pick up any other genre of book. My mum bought Tess Gerritsen's The Surgeon and I picked it up one night after reading the synopsis and thinking it sounded a great read and I wasn't wrong - I've read The Surgeon three times along with the rest of the Rizzoli/Isles series and am never disappointed.

We open with a Prologue written by the Surgeon telling us how the body will be found and carry on from there alternating from the actual dialogue to snippets from the man they call the Surgeon.

What makes The Surgeon different from the other books in the series is: there is no Maura Isles and doesn't focus on Rizzoli as much as the later books do, this one features more on Detective Thomas Moore and Catherine Cordell and I liked it like that - I liked Catherine's character more than Jane's in this novel however at the end Jane becomes more likeable.

The plot is brilliant: Catherine Cordell was attacked years earlier and killed her attacker - however The Surgeon attacks in exactly the same way only no knowledge of what Catherine's attacker did was made public: how on earth does the Surgeon know the details of Catherine's attack?

I liked the way the Surgeon was able to slip in and out of hospital rooms, offices, and constantly evade the detectives. The suspense was brilliant and I could not stop reading.

I also loved all of the support characters: Frost, Marquette, and the rest of the police detectives. There was also the underlying lovestory between Catherine and Thomas which was really great. The ending racks up the suspense level a lot more and I raced to finish the novel and was not disappointed.

All in all it was a fabulous novel and the rest of the series are just as great - although I have my reservations about The Sinner, that was my least favourite however once I get the chance to re-read it, we'll see about that! If you're a fan of suspense novels I guarantee you'll love this novel.

Summary: A really great read