| | |  | Amazon Kindle | Home » » » Body Double: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel (Gerritsen, Tess) | | | | | | | Description: | | BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Tess Gerritsen's The Silent Girl.
Boston medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles literally meets her match–and must face a savage serial killer and shattering personal revelations–in the brilliant new novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of The Surgeon and The Sinner.
Dr. Maura Isles makes her living dealing with death. As a pathologist in a major metropolitan city, she has seen more than her share of corpses every day–many of them victims of violent murder. But never before has her blood run cold, and never has the grim expression “dead ringer” rung so terrifyingly true. Because never before has the lifeless body on the medical examiner’s table been her own.
Yet there can be no denying the mind-reeling evidence before her shocked eyes and those of her colleagues, including Detective Jane Rizzoli: the woman found shot to death outside Maura’s home is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical nuances. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. For the stunned Maura, an only child, there can be just one explanation. And when a DNA test confirms that Maura’s mysterious doppelgänger is in fact her twin sister, an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets.
Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await. But perhaps more frightening, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree. To stop the massacre and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject: the mother that she never knew . . . an icy and cunning woman who could be responsible for giving Maura life–and who just may have a plan to take it away. | | | Product Details: | | | Average Customer Rating:
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Average Customer Review:
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42 of 42 found the following review helpful:
 Downright Scary!!Sep 25, 2005
By Jana L. Perskie
"ceruleana"
Boston medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles returns from a Forensic Pathology conference in Paris to find four Brookline police cruisers, lights flashing, outside her home. When her neighbors, the cops, and finally friend and colleague, homicide detective Jane Rizzoli look at Maura in disbelief, she knows something is really wrong and that it must involve her. A dead woman has been found, sitting in the driver's seat of a car parked in front of her home. The Jane Doe, shot through the head, is Maura's body double. The two could be twins. And, in fact, the corpse shares her blood type and birth date. Further tests will show their DNA is a match. Maura was adopted in infancy and knows nothing about her birth mother or blood ties. The discovery that the same lawyer who handled Maura's adoption also handled the placement of the dead woman, another adoptee, is the final straw which sends Maura on a quest to discover her roots.
Boston Police Detective Jane Rizzoli, in her eighth month of pregnancy, realizes that her search for the killer converges with Maura's own personal investigation. Her findings, which are inextricably linked to Isles' past and present, are gruesome and point to many more than one untimely, violent death. As Maura delves deeply into her history, it becomes clear she may be the killer's next target.
"Body Double" is the first book I have read by Tess Gerritsen, but it won't be my last. Although this compelling suspense thriller is apparently part of an ongoing series featuring Dr. Isles, Detective Rizzoli, etc., it is definitely a stand alone novel. As I found myself riveted to this dark tale, I was glad to know that if I wanted to read more about the fascinating characters, I could do so in the author's previous books. Gerritsen's narrative is extremely well written, and at times, downright scary. Highly recommended!
JANA
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 Move over Patricia Cornwell!Aug 30, 2004
By Lynn Harnett
In the prologue to Gerritsen's latest Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli thriller, a bullied, unhappy schoolgirl is lured into the woods by a handsome classmate and then cast into a pit to die. Gerritsen then switches to Isles, a Boston medical examiner, returning from a Paris conference (where she takes us on an eerie tour of the catacombs) to find Homicide Detective Rizzoli among the cops on her front lawn, blue lights flashing, shocked to see her. They've just been examining her murdered corpse.
Having got your attention some writers might have trouble maintaining this front-loaded pace, but Gerritsen deepens the mystery then ratchets up the suspense and horror right to the final nail-biting page.
Isles' character emerges through her actions. She is wary of introspection and her shock at her double's murder shows in her altered view of daily details and her dogged pursuit of the mystery wherever it leads, be it an isolated Maine cabin with human bones in the ground outside, or a maximum security prison.
Isles, adopted, has found her twin too late. As she begins to peel away the layers of family identity, similarities strike her - a failed marriage, a career in science. But these poignant revelations are soon disrupted by far more sinister implications. Rizzoli, eight months pregnant and working on the murder, has found Isles' mother, maybe. And she's not a mother to love.
Meanwhile there's a serial killer at work, one the reader is aware of before the cops. His latest victim is the very pregnant wife of a slimy BMW car dealer. Snatched from her home, she wakes up in a coffin-like box where we revisit her from time to time until she goes into labor - the moment the killer has been waiting for.
Point of view shifts between Isles and Rizzoli, with briefer digressions to the terrified woman in the box. Rizzoli is a cop who can hold her own - with a frightened angry friend or a belligerent suspect. Isles, competent and strong, has an appealing vulnerability that is expertly handled in this intense, personal story.
Gerritsen has had a busy career. A former internist and romance writer (Isles juggles a forbidden passion and a budding romance with the cop who loved her sister), her medical examiner is emerging as a formidable rival to Patricia Cornwell's.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
ME comes home to find her spitting image shot in front of her house...Aug 10, 2005
By R. Kyle
Dr. Maura Isles left her practice as a pathologist at Stanford University because her marriage and life was too complicated. Her husband Victor kept far too many secrets from her...
She's been in Boston for two years---and suddenly she's finding Victor isn't the only one with secrets in their past. When Maura returns from Paris to discover a woman who could be her shot dead in a car parked in front of her home, the first mystery begins.
Then, 9 months pregnant Mattie Purvis is taken from her home. She awakens in what feels like a box. She has food, water, a flashlight---all it takes to survive, but she's not sure what the kidnapper really wants--is it a ransom or something else?
"Body Double" is an extremely well-written medical thriller from internist-turned-author Tess Gerritson. Every chapter has hooks designed to imbed deep and leave you guessing, wanting to read on. Maura Isles, the main voice of the novel and pregnant cop, Jane Rizzoli, as well as Mattie Purvis in her captivity keep the fast-paced action human and personal. These three heroic women take a mundane novel and turn it into something hard to put down.
Definitely going to check out the rest of the Maura Isles novels by Gerritson.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 Good plot, but sub-plot about twin reduces suspenseDec 28, 2004
By Gerald M. Bull
"Jerry Bull"
We've had mixed feelings about Tess Gerritsen's medical thrillers. We find her stories tend toward violence and gore, of which we could use less and still be entertained. But her characters Boston ME Maura Isles and, in this novel, a very pregnant homicide Detective Jane Rizzoli, are interesting; and the serial killer plot of "Body" is well crafted. What detracts from the story line is ironically what first grabbed our attention -- at the start, a dead woman is discovered at Maura's curbside who is such a look-alike it fooled all her colleagues into thinking it was her. Then half the book is consumed with a side story about whether she's really a long lost twin, about who was the real mother (Maura was adopted), etc. This meandering preoccupation almost snuffed out the ongoing suspense of the hunt for the killer and discovering his true modus operandus. A satisfying ending helped make the read worthwhile, but we think sharper editing could have increased the thrills with less distraction.
Gerritsen's work is frequently "edgy" and therefore often not for the faint of heart. While she is a good writer and a good story teller, we often come away thinking what we just finished could have been better with just a little more effort. Fearing it might be a matter of taste, perhaps we should stick to Michael Palmer and Kathy Reichs. For sure, Patricia Cornwell has gone over the edge, so it seems this genre might be open for more women to get our attention. We're just not convinced Gerritsen should remain on our "A" list.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Gruesome but gripping!Aug 24, 2004
By Balaji Balasubramaniam
'Body Double' starts off with Dr.Maura Isles finding a woman who looks exactly like her, shot point-blank in front of her house. With Detective Jane Rizzoli's help, she begins digging into the woman's - and eventually, her own - past.
Gerritsen starts off with a plot that doesn't seem to have much room to grow but surprises us with the path she takes it. The book is filled with several twists and surprises and has a feverish pace that has us turning the pages from start to finish. Even the romances are low-key and never damage the pace.
That said, the book is not for the squeamish or easily grossed out readers. Gerritsen's descriptions (for instance, of autopsies) are detailed and the crimes in the book are of a very ghastly nature. But she manages to throw in something positive too and the chase that happens towards the end is both wonderfully written and has a climax that delivers a very warm feeling.
Overall, 'Body Double' is a gripping read from the ever-reliable Gerritsen.
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