Review: The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

The Surgeon (Rizzoli and Isles Book #1)

By Tess Gerritsen 

Published by Ballantine and distributed by Random House (2001)

Purchased and read on Amazon Kindle
Links: Amazon, B&N, Powell's
Rating: Three Stars (out of five)

Gerritsen is a great storyteller, and this book kept me hooked in spite of the fact that it has a couple of traits I don’t usually enjoy.  I read it because I like the TNT series Rizzoli and Isles and the book happened to be on sale for $2.99 for Kindle (sadly, the sale is over now).  If both of those things hadn’t been true, I probably wouldn’t have read it because it’s a serial killer book with a healthy medical component (pardon the... humor) and I don’t particularly enjoy serial killer stories or do well with gross things.  I don’t at all regret picking this up, though.

The novel follows Detectives Jane Rizzoli and Thomas Moore as they track a serial killer dubbed “The Surgeon” who is preying on vulnerable women in Boston.  Because the killer appears to be a copycat of a killer who went on a spree in Georgia a few years earlier, they enlist the help of Dr. Catherine Cordell, the last victim and apparent slayer of the Georgia killer.  As the Surgeon terrorizes Boston women in general and Dr. Cordell in particular, the detectives realize that there may be some unanswered questions about the Georgia killings.  Dr. Cordell has the answers, but they have to keep her safe from the Surgeon if she is to help catch him.

The book is suspenseful and gripping, and if you're a fan of the serial killer subgenre I suspect it’s an excellent read.  There are a lot of blood and guts, both plot-related and not; Gerritsen is a former doctor, Cordell is a surgeon, and the killer is a pseudo-surgeon, so the author has the expertise to describe the inner workings of the human body in detail and her story gives her ample opportunity to do so.  If you’re easily grossed out (I’m not ashamed to admit I am) you’ll want to skim some sections.

It’s important not to go into this book expecting it to be much like Rizzoli and Isles the TV show.  Maura Isles is not in the book, and while Jane Rizzoli is a central character, she’s not the only one—Moore and Cordell also play significant roles.  The TV show’s warm depiction of female friendship is completely absent here (maybe it shows up in later books?) and Rizzoli’s family is hardly the quirky, lovable crew we see on TV.  On its own merits The Surgeon is a good book, though unnecessarily frequent and graphic descriptions of violence, including sexual violence, and surgery undermined my enjoyment somewhat.