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It's right at the end of Chapter Four of THE SINNER, Tess Gerritsen's fine new novel, that readers --- whether familiar with Gerritsen's previous work or not --- will have to resist mightily the temptation to stop reading to acquaint or reacquaint themselves with the other titles in her bibliography. Continued reading of THE SINNER will ultimately will out, if only by virtue of the fact that it's difficult to hold two books open at once, and THE SINNER is impossible to lay down without reading it from cover to cover. But once a reader is done, it's time to look back at the others.
The opening of THE SINNER takes place in a cloistered convent where the sins of the outside world have suddenly and violently intruded. Boston medical examiner Maura Isles is called to a bloody scene where a young novitiate lies dead and an older nun is grievously wounded. There are a host of questions surrounding the vicious attacks: How did the killer breach the security of the convent? Who would attack the two nuns, and why? Isles and Boston Police Detective Jane Rizzoli slowly and painstakingly answer these questions from the perspective of their respective fields.
When a third, apparently unrelated victim is subsequently found, horribly mutilated, across town, the case suddenly dovetails into the respective pasts of Rizzoli and Isles, in ways neither of them suspected. Both women must at the same time deal with personal issues that by turns interfere with their abilities to make progress on the cases while holding the key to their resolutions. What ultimately makes THE SINNER a great, riveting read, however, is Gerritsen's ability to draw seemingly disparate elements together into a connective storyline while utilizing those elements as an explosive propellant to carry the reader rapidly forward.
THE SINNER continues the evolution of Rizzoli, who was previously featured in Gerritsen's THE SURGEON and THE APPRENTICE, and utilizes Isles to keep this novel moving down parallel paths toward its ultimate resolution. If you haven't discovered Tess Gerritsen yet, THE SINNER is a great place to start.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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