Vanish

July 25, 2005
Retired internist Gerritsen serves up another prescription for bad dreams in her latest thriller to feature Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (Body Double).
The catalogue of terrors this time out includes sexual slavery, hostage-taking and torture; there are also government bad guys, post–9/11 red herrings and a heart-tugging cadre of young Eastern European women known only by their first names. Fierce Olena, thought dead, wakes up in Maura's morgue, recovers in the hospital, and—with the help of a mysterious colleague—takes a group of hostages, including Jane, who's about to give birth. Jane's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, tries to reason with the hostage-takers, and learns that Olena wants publicity to bring down the Washington bigwig responsible for sexually enslaving, then murdering, her friends. Maura feels a frisson for Tribune
columnist Peter Lukas, and he seems to be the guy to tell the story, but readers will quickly apprehend that he's playing both sides. As usual, the medical details are vivid and read authentic, while the action is just this side of super-hero comic exaggeration. Does it work? The book clubs say yes: Doubleday, Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild have all made it a main selection; the bestseller lists can't be far behind.

August 15, 2005
In her latest thriller (after "Body Double"), Gerritsen graphically illuminates a crime invisible to the average American: the international sex trade. Olena and Mila, two young women lured to the United States from Belarus, narrowly survive a horrific mass murder in a rural Virginia brothel and subsequently partner up with the local paranoid anti-government nut. Flash ahead six months, when ever-feisty Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli finally goes into labor only to find herself a hostage in a bizarre hospital takeover with one of the perpetrators -Olena -stepping in as her birthing coach. Faster than you can say "It's a girl," Jane is on the case, determined to ascertain her late captors' motives. Series protagonists FBI agent Gabriel Dean (Jane's husband) and medical examiner Maura Isles become heavily involved as the two seemingly random stories intersect. The plot almost drowns in an alphabet soup of government agencies, but Gerritsen successfully speedboats it ashore. Her signature international angle keeps this medical suspense series distinctive and edgy. Recommended for fans of Linda Fairstein, Lisa Scottoline, and Iris Johansen. Expect high demand. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 4/1/05.] -Teresa L. Jacobsen, Santa Monica P.L., CA

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2005
Dr. Maura Isles has barely had time to recover from the startling revelations about her family in " ody Double" (2004) when she discovers one of the corpses in her morgue is very much alive. The young woman is rushed off to the hospital, where the doctors are able to save her life. Maura pays the young woman a visit only to witness the woman grab a security guard's gun, shoot the man, and take Maura hostage. Maura manages to escape, and the woman flees into the bowels of the hospital, where she takes six other people hostage, including Detective Jane Rizzoli, who is about to give birth. The woman refuses to communicate with the police, but she manages to get a signal out through a local radio station to a man who slips past the police barricade to join her in the hospital. Jane's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, becomes very suspicious when the situation attracts the attention of the highest levels of government. Hoping to save his wife, Gabriel begins his own investigation and is startled when he uncovers a shocking conspiracy. Drawing on current events, Gerritsen's latest novel is a tense, taut thriller that grabs readers from the get-go and never lets up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)