Product Description

Within the walls of a cloistered convent, a scene of unspeakable carnage is discovered. On the snow lie two nuns, one dead, one critically injured - victims of a seemingly motiveless, brutally savage attack. Medical examiner Maura Isles' autopsy of the murder victim yields a shocking surprise, but the case takes a disturbing twist. The body of another woman has been found. And someone has gone to a lot trouble to remove her face, hands and feet. As long buried secrets are revealed so Dr Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, find themselves part of an investigation that leads to an awful, dawning realisation of the killer's identity...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8123 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 419 pages

Review
"Thou shalt not kill" but that doesn't apply to whoever brutally bludgeons to death two nuns in a New England nunnery. Detective Jane Rizzoli, called to the scene, is brought up short when an autopsy reveals an earth-shattering revelation, so closely linked to her own troubled personal life it taints the investigation, bringing it nearer to her heart and away from professionalism, and, worst of all, breaking down the impenetrable veneer she so closely protects. Accompanied by medical examiner Maura Iles, the two women embark on a hunt for the killer, with Maura too becoming inextricably linked when a global connection is discovered. Fast paced and a "one-session" read, it is another cracker from this talented American crime writer, expanding on previous characters and introducing the new. Rizzoli looks set to rival the best of American fictional detectives whilst Iles is a gentler version of Cornwell's Scarpetta. It is a partnership one hopes will continue into the future, with each complementing the other in their various different aspects of the job and personality. - Lucy Watson

From the Back Cover
‘I don’t think I’d like your job, Dr Isles. Why do you choose it? Why the dead over the living?’
‘Because they deserve attention. They want us to know why they died…’

Within the walls of a cloistered convent, a scene of unspeakable carnage is discovered. On the snow lie two nuns, one dead, one critically injured – victims of a seemingly motiveless, brutally savage attack.

As medical examiner Maura Isles’ autopsy of the murder victim yields a shocking surprise, the case takes a sudden and disturbing twist. The body of another woman has been found. And someone has gone to a lot of trouble to remove her face, hands and feet.

As long buried secrets are revealed so Dr Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli find themselves part of an investigation that leads to an awful, dawning realization of the killer’s identity…

About the Author
Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen was a physician and brings to her novels her first-hand knowledge of emergency rooms and autopsy suites.

Customer Reviews

Good but not great
This is the third book by Tess Gerritsen involving Jane Rizzoli.
The Surgeon and The Apprentice are much better.
At the end of The Apprentice we are just getting to see the real Jane Rizzoli. Tess Gerritsen has started to give us a broader insight into this character. Then The Sinner throws that all away.
The Sinner is more about Dr Maura Isles than about Jane and its a bit of a let down.
We get fed snippets of info about Jane through the book but its as if we are expected to drop one heroine for another. We may as well be reading a complete different series.

Apart from that The Sinner is not a bad book, is just not a fantastically good book.
Someone has horrifically killed two nuns, a young girl and an old bloke. What is the connection?
The religious undertones started to get a bit too much by the end of the book and i was glad when i got to the end.
There is no wow factor with this one as there was with The Surgeon and The Apprentice. It just trundles along and then finishes.

A bit of a let down.

Somewhat disappointing

This is my third Tess Gerritsen novel after reading The Surgeon and The Apprentice. While The Surgeon had me hooked from the get-go I was a little disappointed with the last two books.

This story starts with the discovery of a dead nun in a convent in Boston. Found beside her is another nun.....badly injured but still alive. Meanwhile, further across town the corpse of another victim is found in an abandoned building. Dr Maura Isles is the Medical Examiner on both cases and while she tries to figure out the why's surrounding each case she also finds herself having to handle the reemergence of somebody from her past.

Detectives Jane Rizzoli and Barry Frost are the investigating officers on both cases, bringing back the characters from The Surgeon and The Apprentice.

What I liked about The Surgeon was the page-turning drama involved in the search for a serial killer and the fact that the story wasn't focused on just one character. Ms Gerritsen has changed tact for The Sinner and I don't think it worked. The Sinner was disappointing because it didn't have that drama and instead the story seemed to focus more on the love-lives of Dr. Isles and Det. Rizzoli with the cases going on around them acting as mere background.

As for the ending.....it was obvious who the baddie was in the last few chapters but there was no build-up and we still know virtually nothing about our baddie and that in itself was disappointing.

I know this review seems negative and that's not my intention. The Sinner is still a very good book but it lacked the punch I expected after reading The Surgeon. I've now started reading Body Double so we'll see how that turns out before I abandon all hope!

Series that has reached 'critical popular mass'
Tess Gerritsen was a doctor and it shows in her writing.

The scenes in hospitals, morgues and the the descriptions of medical 'stuff' ooze authenticity, but, I feel, with this book she has 'cracked it' as a detective novelist. I don't suppose she will be too worried about this validation from me, sitting as she will be on the millions of dollars made from the earlier books in the series, but here, with Detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr Maura Isles, she has created characters that you really care about, which is the trick in making people buy not just one of your books, but all of them.

Let's be honest, this book is pants. The crime is ludicrous, the exposition silly, the coincidences amatuerish and the killer was a total 'well, who the Hell is he?' followed by frantic thumbing back. It doesn't matter.

I wanted to know how things were going to turn out for Jane and Maura. I like them (particularly Maura - foxy lady). They are real people. All that tosh about shooting people pales next to the thrill of their personal lives.

I don't feel this gooey about all detective fiction and that these characters do that to me means Ms Gerritsen has done it. Books that can be enjoyed whatever the shortcomings of the plot because the characters are involving. The Holy Grail. Nice one.

No five stars though. Write a decent plot and I'll relent