Review: The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen

The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen

Ballantine Books

July 2003

Format: Paperback, 400 pages

First line: Today I watched a man die.

From the back cover: It is a boiling hot
Boston summer. Adding to the city’s woes is a series of shocking crimes
in which wealthy men are made to watch while their wives are
brutalized – a sadistic demand that ends in death. The
pattern suggests one man: serial killer Warren Hoyt, recently put behind bars. Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a
maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the
madman he so admires. At least that’s what Detective Jane Rizzoli
thinks. Forced to re-confront the killer who scarred her – literally
and figuratively – she is determined to finally end Hoyt’s awful influence. But this time around, the vendetta is more vicious than she ever would have imagined.

My thoughts:  This is the 2nd in Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli and Isles series and it was good. I absolutely love the television show Rizzoli and Isles with Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander, and I love that the tv show is different than the book series. There are different dynamics between the characters, so it is easy to keep them separate.

The Apprentice is basically a sequel to the first book, The Surgeon. A new body’s been found just outside of the Boston precinct. Rizzoli gets a call from Korsak, believing this has something to do with the
Surgeon – even though he’s behind bars. The way everything is laid out at the crime scene convinces Rizzoli that the Surgeon is somehow involved. It soon becomes apparent that a new killer has taken the Surgeon’s signature and modified it for his own use.

Things
are further complicated when an FBI agent inserts himself into the
investigation. Gabriel Dean isn’t forthcoming with too many details as
to why he’s there and it seems he knows much more about the case than he’s willing to share. So, now Jane must not only tackle her resurfacing demons
but hold her own with her own team and this FBI agent, who at one point thinks she should be removed from the case. 

This was a page-turning read filled with suspense at almost every turn, so much so that I had a hard time putting the book down. Another aspect that I found interesting is that having read a later book in the series, I found myself questioning certain things – something I usually don’t find myself doing as I like to read series in order. This is also the first book that Maura Isles makes an appearance and it is a brief one at that. I am hoping she will be more prominent in the rest of the series.

I cannot wait to read the next book in this series, The Sinner. I find that I love the forensic detail that Tess Gerritsen gives us as well as the police procedures – for some reason I find these two areas very fascinating, although at times things can be a bit gory.

(I purchased this book.)

Books in this series:

1. The Surgeon                                7.  The Keepsake            
2. The Apprentice                          8.  Ice Cold
3. The Sinner                                    9.  The Silent Girl
4. Body Double                                9.5  Freaks
5. Vanish                                            9.7  John Doe
6. The Mephisto Club                    10.  Last to Die