"A spine-tingling mystery"

This gritty novel begins on an icy cold New England morning, with the police investigating the brutal attack on a couple of nuns inside a chapel, which left one young nun dead and an older one critically injured. Detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are both shaken to varying degrees at this unimaginable attack on someone as harmless as a couple of cloistered nuns and that too, inside the convent! The other aging nuns appear to have seen or heard nothing, and when very few clues are discovered, Rizzoli turns to Isles for help.

Maura Isles, better known as the Queen of the Dead, has always found the study of the dead and decaying easier than trying to make sense of the actions and words of the living. In her sterile lab, she cuts and dissects, and makes sense of it all. But her autopsy of the poor dead nun yields a most surprising clue -- it seem that the twenty- four year old Sister Camille had given birth just before she was murdered! This shocking discovery suddenly makes the entire case take on a new meaning. It now appears as though it wasn't an interrupted robbery, but rather a premeditated murder!

Then another most brutally murdered victim is found, and all of a sudden, Isles and Rizzoli find themselves looking at an ancient horror.

What does all this have to do with a factory being closed down in an isolated village in India?

The two principal characters, Rizzoli and Isles, have their own personal problems to contend with while trying to make sense of it all. Rizzoli's

Will they ever catch this most elusive killer?

Like all Tess Gerritsen's novels, this one too is gritty, filled with explicit medical details that become hard to stomach after a while, and boasts of complex characters and detailed characterizations that are simply stunning and a mystery which is a knockout! With such plus points, it is needless to say that the novel is an irresistible read.

Detective Rizzoli and ME Isles are two very different but equally multifaceted complex professional women working in predominantly masculine areas; and their struggles, not just within their work environment, but also with juggling their own feminine nature against their chosen profession, is something which is poignantly and skillfully brought out. Rizzoli is tough and hotheaded, while Isles comes across as cool and levelheaded. Together they prove to be a competent team for whom work always comes first. Their love lives are equally knotty and both of them deal with it in different ways.

The mystery is as complicated as the characters themselves. It begins as a simple but brutal murder and develops into something having massive, if not global, consequences. There are many possible suspects, and to guess as to the identity of the perpetrator is next to impossible. The author has also done a superlative job of bringing out with crystal clarity the gloomy and icy atmosphere of a winter- choked Boston, and this only serves to intensify the drama, which is being played out in such circumstances.

While the scientific and medical details of the autopsy and such are sickeningly described at points, they have a gruesome charm of their own and Gerritsen's thoroughness is immediately visible.

To sum up, it's a terrific thriller and while a bit macabre, is nonetheless very well written and presented.

Reviewed by Rashmi Srinivas
Posted September 11, 2003

Summary

Not even the icy temperatures of a typical New England winter can match the bone-chilling scene of carnage discovered in the early morning hours at the chapel of Our Lady of Divine Light. Within the sanctuary walls of the cloistered convent, now stained with blood, lie two nuns- one dead, one critically injured- victims of an unspeakable savage attacker.

The brutal crime appears to be without motive, and the elderly nuns in residence can offer little help in the police investigation. But medical examiner Maura Isles's autopsy of the dead woman yields a shocking surprise: Twenty-four-year-old Sister Camille, the order's sole novice, gave birth before she was murdered. Then the disturbing case takes another stunning new turn when another woman is found murdered in an abandoned building, her body mutilated beyond recognition. Together, Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli uncover an ancient horror that connects these terrible slaughters. As long-buried secrets come to light, Maura Isles finds herself drawn inexorably toward the heart of an investigation that strikes closer and closer to home - and toward a dawning revelation about the killer's identity too shattering to consider.

As spine-tingling as it is mind-jolting, The Sinner showcases Tess Gerritsen in peak form - bringing her intimate knowledge of the dark depths of criminal investigation brilliantly to bear. Beneath the layers of startling insight into the souls of its characters, and the richly wrought depiction of the everyday war between good and evil, beats the unstoppable heart of an irresistible thriller.