Book Review: The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen

Another review of a book from Tess Gerritsen! I know, I know, variation is important and all that but I wanted to finish reading all the books in the Rizzoli and Isles series before my summer vacation was over and I did so there will be some more of these coming!

The Sinner is the third book in the series and by now I have started to expect how the book is set up. The two previous books The Surgeon and The Apprentice are set during the summer and throughout the book they talk about how hot it is. In comparison, The Sinner is set during the winter and on almost every page there will be a mention of how cold it is.

I always like to add what is written on the back of the book (or as it is usually with the Kindle, on the first few pages of the book).

They want us to know why they died...  

Within the walls of a cloistered convent, a scene of unspeakable carnage is discovered. On the snow lie two nuns, one dead, one critically injured – victims of a seemingly motiveless, brutally savage attack. 

Doctor Maura Isles’ autopsy of the murder victim yields a shocking surprise, but the case takes a disturbing twist. The body of another woman has been found. And someone has gone to a lot trouble to remove her face, hands and feet.  

As long buried secrets are revealed Dr. Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli find themselves part of a terrifying investigation that leads to a shocking realization of the killer’s identity..

Sounds interesting, and let me tell you, it really was! After reading The Surgeon and The Apprentice right after each other I was a bit sick of the story, it was just so repetitive. The Sinner however, kicks everything back into action.

As I mentioned earlier, the story is set in the winter and there is a lot of description of the cold and just the weather in general. The change in season in comparative to the first two books is not the only change that we get to experience in this book, the first two books were focused on Jane Rizzoli but The Sinner is focused on Dr. Maura Isles' life instead, it is a nice change and we get a better look into Maura's life. That doesn't mean that we don't get to follow Jane around as well.

And to some quotes from the book, in these quotes, she is always Dr. Maura Isles.

The morning’s snowfall had turned into a treacherous mix of both snow and sleet, and the city plows were nowhere in sight.

The wind blew, rattling the windows, and the door creaked as though invisible hands were tugging at it, desperate to get in. Rizzoli's lips had chilled to blue, and her face had taken on a corpse like pallor, but she showed no intention of seeking a warmer room. That was Rizzoli, too stubborn to be the first to capitulate. To admit she had reached her limit.

For an instant, their gazes met through the window. She saw a lean and striking face, a head of black hair, ruffled by the wind. And she caught a glimpse of white, tucked beneath the raised collar of his black coat.

She heard a creak, and felt the whisper of movement, of another presence in the room. The hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood up and she gave a laugh. ‘God, Jane, don't sneak up on me like...’ Turning, her voice died in mid-sentence. No one was there. For a moment she didn't move, didn't breathe, just stared at empty space. Vacant air, polished floor.

She had chosen this suburb of Brookline, just west of Boston, because of the sense of security she felt in its quiet, treelined streets.

As before in Tess Gerritsen novels, the murder cases and the lives of the main characters are somehow connected. In The Sinner it is quite visible both with Jane Rizzoli and with Maura Isles.

I really liked this book and found that it actually showed that Tess Gerritsen talent really grew between the books. I would as well definitely recommend for you to read The Sinner, especially if you have read the first two books and were quite bored when reading the second book (The Apprentice) since The Sinner doesn't dwell on the past as much as The Apprentice.

Bisous