Short description
After two nuns are brutally attacked leaving one dead and the other critically injured, medical examiner Maura Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli uncover an ancient horror in the chapel of nuns' convent that leads them toward the killer's identity.
Long description
Not even the icy temperatures of a typical New England winter can match the bone-chilling scene of carnage discovered at the chapel of Our Lady of Divine Light. Within the cloistered convent lie two nuns–one dead, one critically injured–victims of an unspeakably savage attacker. The brutal crime appears to be without motive, but medical examiner Maura Isles’s autopsy of the dead woman yields a shocking surprise: Twenty-year-old Sister Camille gave birth before she was murdered. Then another body is found, 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 close to home–and toward a dawning revelation about the killer’s identity too shattering to consider.
Review
A RICHLY TEXTURED THRILLER WITH A DARK CORE OF MASS MURDER AND AFFAIRS OF THE HEART.
- St. Petersburg Times
[Gerritsen] has an imagination that allows her to conjure up depths of human behavior so dark and frightening that she makes Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft seem like goody-two-shoes.
- Chicago Tribune
Satisfying . . . The Sinner is as busy and bumpy as a storm-filled sky.
- Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice)
MAY JUST BE THE THRILLER OF THE YEAR . . .
THIS IS ONE YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS.
- Herald Journal (NC)
A suspenseful, white-knuckle tale all the way to the end . . . Gerritsen is not only talented with words, she has unusual medical and scientific expertise, which gives all her books a precious credibility. . . . It's not only a terrific story, it provokes thought about a lot of other issues of international import. And it's real, without special effects, a story that emanates from the real life around us.
- Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT)
Gerritsen's weaving of unusual crime scenes, complicated investigations, lurid medical details, and moments of visceral fear is truly unique. . . . [ The Sinner ] will keep the reader quickly turning pages. . . . Into these terrors forges Maura Isles, Queen of the Dead, and riveted, we readers follow her.
- Sun Journal (Lewiston, ME)
Dark emotions and dangerous secrets permeate this unusually chilling novel. . . . Another gut-wrenching tale from a true master.
- Romantic Times (Top Pick)
Gerritsen just keeps getting better with each book. . . . [ The Sinner ] moves at a heart pounding pace without a word wasted.
- The Drood Review of Mystery
Assured, richly shaded.
- Publishers Weekly
Another captivating, horrific thriller in her extremely popular canon.
- Booklist
Well-executed and entertaining.
- News Tribune (Tacoma, WA)
Customer reviews & ratings
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Intriguing
Reviewed by Mrs Lee-Ann Knowles on 23 August 2007
25 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
An intriguing addition to this genre, a wonderful delving and probing inverstigation, with twists and turns. Foresically rich and with full and solid characters, this story definately grabbed my attention from the first page and by last I just HAD to have more by this author. 'Patricia Cornwell-esque' and yet new and fresh and undeniably 'just as good, yet different' - Cornwell fans will soon hungrily add Tess to their bookshelves!
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