Dr. Maura Isles comes home to Boston from a medical conference in Paris to discover police investigating a murder just outside her home. The victim is her exact double.

DNA tests reveal the murder victim is, in fact, her twin sister, though Maura, an adoptee, wasn't aware she had any siblings. Subsequent investigation discloses she and her twin were sold to a baby broker by a psychotic woman serving a life term for a double homicide. Could that woman be their mother?

The story proceeds with more twists and turns than a country road to unravel a complicated plot full of surprises and with a nail-biting conclusion. Tess Gerritsen writes the kind of thriller that keeps you up at night, both because you're compelled to keep turning pages and because it's bound to give you goose-bumps and make you start at sudden noises.

Gerritsen left a medical practice to write romance novels for Harlequin and then traded that for murder and mayhem. Romance still plays a part in her novels, but it's secondary to some really heart-pounding action and suspense. As might be expected, there's also plenty of fascinating medical and forensics information.

This is one of a series of novels featuring Dr. Isles and feisty Boston Det. Jane Rizzoli. This was the first I've read, but it won't be the last. Besides, what can you say bad about an author who works in a garden and plays fiddle in her spare time?

by John R. Lindermuth
Rambles.NET
14 April 2007

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