The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

A chilling murder story with detailed medical linings to garnish the plate of story cooked up in this book. It will make you think twice of stepping into an OR for any reason.

Women are found brutally murdered all over Boston; and they are all spotted with a similar pattern; whereby they have been drugged, had neat surgical incisions across their abdomens which were done while they were alive/conscious and had a neat slice across their throats.
There is always a neatly folded pair of nightclothes smudged with blood in a chair nearby and all the women have been found to have their uterus removed.
Detective Jane Rizzoli is on the scene; she is the main protagonist in all Tess Gerritsen’s books. Portrayed as the bold and unnerving policewoman who stands tall and proud in the male-dominated field, she will not allow herself to be intimidated by her sneering male colleagues and strives to prove herself in the field and to protect her own turf.

Her gender positioned her in a vulnerable and defensive mode and this was the front she showed to Detective Thomas Moore who was assigned to the same case. However, his cool and calm stature impressed her and soon, she found herself impressed by more than his professionalism at work.
Their investigations on the murders led them to a previous series of killings done by a killer who was dead for two years; Andrew Capra who had conducted his murders in the same manner and also following a certain pattern after he committed his murder.
Their search on Capra’s records led them to the beautiful Dr Catherine Cordell; who was Capra’s last and only surviving victim who was the one who shot him to death.

Dr Cordell was initially uncooperative as she was unwilling to relive her painful past that she had tried so hard to put behind and Detective Moore; who was working hard to solve the case, decided to try harder to persuade her and this led them closer, much to the dismay of Detective Rizzoli who now realized that she thinks more of Moore than just a friend.

However, when things took a worse turn and they realized that the killer is hot on Dr Cordell’s turn, they are led to believe that the killer seemed to be finishing off Capra’s unfinished business from the start and that the other victims were just his starters to brag to Cordell that she remains the main target.
As Detective Moore worries more about Cordell’s safety, he was drawn closer than the supposed line and he was retracted from the case by his superior.

Rizzoli pursued the case further, and they were left with no choice but to conduct a hypnosis on Dr Cordell to relive her past memories through medical works. She revealed a possible 2nd person present at the crime scene which suggested that the current killer could be a partner of Andrew Capra.
The investigation team then turned their attention onto Andrew Capra’s background and found out more about his records and revealed one of his close friends/lab partner during medical school who was expelled due to a disturbing past.

Hot on the trail, Rizzoli almost threw her own life away when she was pursuing the killer and her own vulnerability led her into the trap the killer set for her, while she was trying to rescue Cordell from the killer’s hands.

The killer was finally captured but Rizzoli could not brush the trauma of near-killed experience on herself.
It was truly chilling as you follow the killer’s mind when he committed all the murders and yet, it was intriguing and exciting as the detectives slowly uncover the true identity of the killer.
Of course, it was definitely a great thing when the psychotic killer is arrested and a tie-breaker for all at the end.

Another recommended read from Tess Gerritsen; and one thing is for sure, you will never walk into an OR or a laboratory feeling the same ever again!~

Life Support by Tess Gerritsen

Tess is officially on the list of my top and favorite authors of all time; and she has impressed me from the first book I read of her; Body Double (which reminds me, I don't think I have written a review on it yet)

Life Support is yet again, another medical thriller by her and it is again, a skillful combination of her medical theories along with the interwoven plots of murder and intrigue.
It was a different twist of the usual plot; where this starts with a series of seemingly aged and healthy men dying of weird viral infection in the brain and this aroused the suspicion of ER resident Toby Harper who then tried to investigate the causes leading to their death.

She found a trail which led her heads on with one of the senior and prominent consultant surgeons which could even result in her career termination; however, she was not ready to give up and when she stumbled upon the similarities and the medical histories of all the patients who have passed on, she was in for a more exciting picture in front of her; which relates to a Creuzfedlt-Jakob disease in each of the patient in her investigation.
This led her to a shocking discovery of a medical conspiracy to create a breakthrough in science through a gruesome and inhumane process.

This book can leave you feeling chilled to the bone as you read of the medical process and also the value of fame and recognition to a human being.
I could not believe that there are beasts lying behind the faces of the doctors whom we trusted to put our lives in their hands and yet they were thinking of ways to get famous; at the cost of our health.

It was also sad that people are willing to take risks for the sake of staying young forever and this, is the main notion of the whole story, where the people are willing to pay; at any cost for a promising remedy to help them stay young and defy their age and creating a network of medical monsters who use this as an opportunity to create fame for themselves through their findings in science.

It was an amazing read and certainly an eye-opener; and the author has once again stirred the suspense and excitement, not forgetting the fear in me.
Tess Gerritsen has never failed to impress me; and have I mentioned that she is officially one of my favorite authors?

Hidden by Katy Gardner

A Hide and seek game between a mother and daughter went very wrong when the daughter could not be found.
Poppy, a seven-year old girl had been living with her mother (Mel) since she was born; just the two of them.
When Mel met with her prospective customer whom she was doing her valuation work for his place, it soon turned out that he was also his prospective love of her life.
The whirlwind romance soon became steady and Mel married Simon Stenning and moved in with him; into a warehouse which was under renovation works in Kent.
Mel then gave birth to little Joey; fondly known as Jo and together the family of four was happy.
When Poppy started getting sulky about changing to a new environment and having to make new friends, Mel constantly got cross with her.
Things got worse when Poppy started claiming that she had seen a ghost in the house; across her room, and the ghost is sometimes in the form of a fat shape.
She was terrified and Mel brushed her off as her desperate way of gaining attention.

However, during the period when Poppy went missing, Mel was forced to recall all the incidents which had happened with the comfort of Sandra; an officer who was trying to help her and her best friend, Trish whom she met at the park when she just moved to the new place.

Mel could not help getting suspicious of Simon who was also missing at the same time when Poppy went into hiding and it was his car that she heard at that time, driving away.
When police reports that the car was spotted on the highway with a little girl fitting the description of Poppy's, Mel was forced to face the truth and to recollect all her memories of the sinister past of Simon with his mother whom he never liked/trusted, and his on-off relationship with his ex-girlfriend Rosa Montague who was reported missing, and his one night stand with prostitute Jenning who ended up killed, and of course, her stunned reaction when the cops just appeared at her doorstep yesterday to take a sample of DNA from Simon and to hold him arrested for a murder case.

With all evidence pointing to Simon and the increasing hours of Poppy missing, Mel has to be fast to recall every little detail of her relationship with Simon and to provide the clue to finding Poppy.
It was a race against time; as both Mel and Detective Dave Gosforth hits the trail of the murderer and the consequence of Poppy's disappearance and making sense of it all.

The story started off at a good pace but then lagged in the middle as Mel seemed to be stuck recalling all the details of her life with Simon.
There were too much details and it became draggy and boring as the writer spent a huge amount of words to describe the chronology of the events.
However, the pace picked up again towards the end as the story breathlessly reveals the true identity of the killer, in a most fashionable and surprising manner.

As the tagline on the book says, "The Killer is in the last place that you look"

I shall not reveal the spoiler...but this was well-thought and brilliantly written to take your breath away!