Product Description

Can you really see evil when you look into someone's eyes? In a rundown house, a woman has been dismembered in an act of carnage that leaves veteran cops in shock. Drawn on the wall, in blood, are ancient symbols, and a mirror-image word in Latin that, translated, says: "I have sinned." Then a second woman is found butchered on Beacon Hill, just outside the home of the leader of the Mephisto Club, a secret society dedicated to the study of evil. On the door yet more ancient symbols have been scrawled. This is evil that the Boston PD has never encountered before. And the only way Maura Isles can defeat it is by turning to the people who understand the devil himself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #451799 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-12
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 560 pages

Amazon.co.uk
For a considerable time Tess Gerritsen has been producing some of the most challenging -- and disturbing -- crime novels being written today. A speciality, of course, is her preparedness to go further than most authors would dare to -- male or female -- and with The Mephisto Club, she once more seems prepared to face the reader and say: if you can take it, I can dish it out. While Gerritsen has found new things to say in the genre of the serial killer novel, what really distinguishes her work is the brilliant characterisation of her twin heroines, medical examiner Dr Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli. Both protagonists feature in this latest novel, and while it might not crank up the tension to the same degree as the remarkable Vanish, it will be a rare reader indeed who will be able to put this one down.

Christmas in Boston brings horror rather than good cheer when a woman's body is found dismembered in a crime scene that leaves even hardened cops queasy. Doctor Maura Isles is assigned to the case, but soon another brutal murder takes place: a woman has been mutilated and murdered on Beacon Hill, near the home of the director of the Mephisto Club. This is a clandestine society whose subject is the study of evil -- and its agenda is to confront it in its most unadulterated forms. As Detective Jane Rizzoli becomes involved, it’s quickly apparent that both women (no strangers to the bloodiest extremes of human cruelty) are up against something which is close to a distillation of the purest evil.

This isn't quite Tess Gerritsen on her very best form, but it’s still more compelling and audacious than most thrillers being written today. The legions of Tess Gerritsen fans need not hesitate. --Barry Forshaw

Peter Millar, The Times
'Gruesome, seductive and creepily credible - way better than
anything by Dan Brown.'

From the Publisher
If the darkest impulses could live and breathe and walk among us, what face would they wear? And who would dare stand against them? Tess Gerritsen delivers the answers in her terrifying new bestseller.

Customer Reviews

Well researched, well written and fascinating
This was truly a pleasure to read. It started deep in gore at a particularly gruesome crime scene, and developed numerous threads of the story at a wonderfully rich pace. The back drop of Italy and all the ancient history references were interesting and most enjoyable, they added a wonderful dimension to this crime thriller. It was a little predictable, and is not for the faint hearted, but having read everything else Tess Gerritsen has written, I remain an ardent fan.

Another terrific book by a very gifted thriller writer!
This is another book that I read over the holidays and just could not put down! Tess Gerritson has an enthralling style, and her books just seem to get better and better!

If you haven't read this one yet, i encourage you to give it a go. I really don't think that any Tess Gerritson fans will be left disappointed.

If you haven't read any of her books yet, this is as good a one as any to start on. You don't need any prior knowledge - (I passed it to a friend who had never tried her books before during the holidays, and she enjoyed it too!)

Enjoy! I certainly did!

The crime queen holds onto her crown
A new Tess Gerritsen novel is now a hugely significant event for lovers of the crime/thriller genre. Over the course of the Rizzoli/Isles novels, beginning with the unputdownable The Surgeon, Gerritsen has drawn us into her world. It's a world where evil comes to the fore, no more so than in this latest novel in which Gerritsen explores the nature of evil itself and asks whether it is an inherited trait.

The Mephisto Club features Detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles, two immensely likeable female leads who have significantly grown as characters during the course of the series. Their personal lives are intertwined with this story, but not overbearingly so. Here, they investigate a series of deaths with apparently Satanic connections. Meanwhile, in Italy, we observe a character called Lily as she flees from an unknown man. It is evident that the strands of the story will eventually weave together, and Gerritsen is an expert at this by now.

If you're already a fan of this series, you won't need any convincing to buy this book. If you're not, The Mephisto Club comes highly recommended. It's not absolutely essential to read the books in order, but since the characters' personal lives develop throughout, you couldn't really do any better than start with The Surgeon and race your way through the rest before devouring The Mephisto Club with equal fervour.

Gerritsen is virtually untouchable in the genre at the moment, and shows no signs of wavering. Fabulous.