Customer Reviews

Body Double

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Boston medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles returns from a Forensic Pathology conference in Paris to find four Brookline police cruisers, lights flashing, outside her home. When her neighbors, the cops, and finally friend and colleague, homicide detective Jane Rizzoli look at Maura in disbelief, she knows something is really wrong and that it must involve her. A dead woman has been found, sitting in the driver's seat of a car parked in front of her home. The Jane Doe, shot through the head, is Maura's body double. The two could be twins. And, in fact, the corpse shares her blood type and birth date. Further tests will show their DNA is a match. Maura was adopted in infancy and knows nothing about her birth mother or blood ties. The discovery that the same lawyer who handled Maura's adoption also handled the placement of the dead woman, another adoptee, is the final straw which sends Maura on a quest to discover her roots.

Boston Police Detective Jane Rizzoli, in her eighth month of pregnancy, realizes that her search for the killer converges with Maura's own personal investigation. Her findings, which are inextricably linked to Isles' past and present, are gruesome and point to many more than one untimely, violent death. As Maura delves deeply into her history, it becomes clear she may be the killer's next target.

"Body Double" is the first book I have read by Tess Gerritsen, but it won't be my last. Although this compelling suspense thriller is apparently part of an ongoing series featuring Dr. Isles, Detective Rizzoli, etc., it is definitely a stand alone novel. As I found myself riveted to this dark tale, I was glad to know that if I wanted to read more about the fascinating characters, I could do so in the author's previous books. Gerritsen's narrative is extremely well written, and at times, downright scary. Highly recommended!
JANA

In the prologue to Gerritsen's latest Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli thriller, a bullied, unhappy schoolgirl is lured into the woods by a handsome classmate and then cast into a pit to die. Gerritsen then switches to Isles, a Boston medical examiner, returning from a Paris conference (where she takes us on an eerie tour of the catacombs) to find Homicide Detective Rizzoli among the cops on her front lawn, blue lights flashing, shocked to see her. They've just been examining her murdered corpse.

Having got your attention some writers might have trouble maintaining this front-loaded pace, but Gerritsen deepens the mystery then ratchets up the suspense and horror right to the final nail-biting page.

Isles' character emerges through her actions. She is wary of introspection and her shock at her double's murder shows in her altered view of daily details and her dogged pursuit of the mystery wherever it leads, be it an isolated Maine cabin with human bones in the ground outside, or a maximum security prison.

Isles, adopted, has found her twin too late. As she begins to peel away the layers of family identity, similarities strike her - a failed marriage, a career in science. But these poignant revelations are soon disrupted by far more sinister implications. Rizzoli, eight months pregnant and working on the murder, has found Isles' mother, maybe. And she's not a mother to love.

Meanwhile there's a serial killer at work, one the reader is aware of before the cops. His latest victim is the very pregnant wife of a slimy BMW car dealer. Snatched from her home, she wakes up in a coffin-like box where we revisit her from time to time until she goes into labor - the moment the killer has been waiting for.

Point of view shifts between Isles and Rizzoli, with briefer digressions to the terrified woman in the box. Rizzoli is a cop who can hold her own - with a frightened angry friend or a belligerent suspect. Isles, competent and strong, has an appealing vulnerability that is expertly handled in this intense, personal story.

Gerritsen has had a busy career. A former internist and romance writer (Isles juggles a forbidden passion and a budding romance with the cop who loved her sister), her medical examiner is emerging as a formidable rival to Patricia Cornwell's.

Dr. Maura Isles left her practice as a pathologist at Stanford University because her marriage and life was too complicated. Her husband Victor kept far too many secrets from her...

She's been in Boston for two years---and suddenly she's finding Victor isn't the only one with secrets in their past. When Maura returns from Paris to discover a woman who could be her shot dead in a car parked in front of her home, the first mystery begins.

Then, 9 months pregnant Mattie Purvis is taken from her home. She awakens in what feels like a box. She has food, water, a flashlight---all it takes to survive, but she's not sure what the kidnapper really wants--is it a ransom or something else?

"Body Double" is an extremely well-written medical thriller from internist-turned-author Tess Gerritson. Every chapter has hooks designed to imbed deep and leave you guessing, wanting to read on. Maura Isles, the main voice of the novel and pregnant cop, Jane Rizzoli, as well as Mattie Purvis in her captivity keep the fast-paced action human and personal. These three heroic women take a mundane novel and turn it into something hard to put down.

Definitely going to check out the rest of the Maura Isles novels by Gerritson.

We've had mixed feelings about Tess Gerritsen's medical thrillers. We find her stories tend toward violence and gore, of which we could use less and still be entertained. But her characters Boston ME Maura Isles and, in this novel, a very pregnant homicide Detective Jane Rizzoli, are interesting; and the serial killer plot of "Body" is well crafted. What detracts from the story line is ironically what first grabbed our attention -- at the start, a dead woman is discovered at Maura's curbside who is such a look-alike it fooled all her colleagues into thinking it was her. Then half the book is consumed with a side story about whether she's really a long lost twin, about who was the real mother (Maura was adopted), etc. This meandering preoccupation almost snuffed out the ongoing suspense of the hunt for the killer and discovering his true modus operandus. A satisfying ending helped make the read worthwhile, but we think sharper editing could have increased the thrills with less distraction.

Gerritsen's work is frequently "edgy" and therefore often not for the faint of heart. While she is a good writer and a good story teller, we often come away thinking what we just finished could have been better with just a little more effort. Fearing it might be a matter of taste, perhaps we should stick to Michael Palmer and Kathy Reichs. For sure, Patricia Cornwell has gone over the edge, so it seems this genre might be open for more women to get our attention. We're just not convinced Gerritsen should remain on our "A" list.

'Body Double' starts off with Dr.Maura Isles finding a woman who looks exactly like her, shot point-blank in front of her house. With Detective Jane Rizzoli's help, she begins digging into the woman's - and eventually, her own - past.

Gerritsen starts off with a plot that doesn't seem to have much room to grow but surprises us with the path she takes it. The book is filled with several twists and surprises and has a feverish pace that has us turning the pages from start to finish. Even the romances are low-key and never damage the pace.

That said, the book is not for the squeamish or easily grossed out readers. Gerritsen's descriptions (for instance, of autopsies) are detailed and the crimes in the book are of a very ghastly nature. But she manages to throw in something positive too and the chase that happens towards the end is both wonderfully written and has a climax that delivers a very warm feeling.

Overall, 'Body Double' is a gripping read from the ever-reliable Gerritsen.

Dr. Maura Isles makes her living examining the dead, so nothing really shocks her anymore, until the day she sees herself dead...Maura is called to a crime scene in which the victim bears a striking resemblance to her.

Dr. Isles knows without a doubt that the woman she found dead is her sister, but how? Maura sets out to find the answers surrounding the mysterious woman's death and to find out the truth about her birth mother. But, in the process of finding answers about her past, Maura discovers more questions that need answers and realizes that her birth mother not only has the answers to her questions, but is the key to solving a series of bizarre murders that date back many years.

`Body Double' is a shocking thriller that can't be put down once started. From the creepy opening to the pulse quickening climax the plot twists and turns with razor sharp precision. Tess Gerritsen has written several very good thrillers, but `Body Double' is by far the best she has ever written.

Fans of detective/forensic thrillers filled with shocking twists, creepy killers and surprises galore should take note...this is a MUST READ!

Nick Gonnella

How would you like to have to perform your own autopsy? That is the conundrum that faces Dr. Maura Isles in Body Double when she returns from a conference in France to find that the identical twin she never knew she had has been murdered in front of her house. The investigation into the murder leads Maura to a mental institution to confront the woman who gave the identical twins up for adoption 40 years before, and also leads Maura into the chilling discovery that a serial killer has been murderng pregnant women.

This book moves quickly as Maura follows the investigation to its very surprising conclusion. It's a pleasure to see Maura team up with Dr. Jane Rizzoli-- Maura seems to take some of the hard edges off of Jane and Jane seems to make Maura a little less of an ice princess. This is an enjoyable book that you will find is hard to put down until the end.

I don't believe in giving book reports so I'll just say that this book was awesome, one of the best of her books that I've read recently. The twin sub-plot kept me riveted to the page and just when I was sure I had the murderer figured out, I was fooled! God, I love it when that happens! A worthy read, worth your valuable time!!!

Tess Gerritsen has done it again! This talented crime writer revs up the terror full throttle in BODY DOUBLE. Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli are back, and this time it's closer to home. Maura returns from a Paris conference to find a crime scene at her home: a woman has been murdered while sitting in her car outside Maura's home. The woman is an exact double for Maura, and thus we delve into the past history of this strong woman, and find that the victim is indeed a twin sister she never knew she had. Along with this story, there's a serial killer murdering pregnant women. How these two storylines converge is intriguing and well thought out. Along for the ride is Mattie Purvis, the killer's latest victim, who has buried her in a shallow grave, awaiting the birth of her baby.
Gerritsen knows her stuff, and Maura's confrontation with whom may be her monstrous mother, is quite disturbing.
A brilliant novel, full of twists and turns, and the ending is quite unexpected.
Worth your time and money!

Boston medical examiner, Dr Maura Isles, returns home from a working vacation at a forensic pathology conference and is shocked to discover that her home is a murder crime scene with herself starring in the role of victim. Chaos and confusion reign until consultation with detective Jane Rizzoli and further investigation reveal that the victim, Maura Isles' doppelgänger, not only shares her blood type and birth date but, based on DNA investigation, is actually an identical twin. The questions are deliciously obvious to the investigators and the reader alike - who was the actual intended victim, Dr Isles or her hitherto unknown sister?; if it was Dr Isles, then why did her unknown twin come onto the scene at that precise moment; if it was her sister, then what was she doing parked in Dr Isles' driveway?; who was their mother and why was Dr Isles unaware that she had a twin sister? I won't waste any further ink on plot synopsis because, frankly, nothing further need be said. Nobody could possibly put "Body Double" down once they've read, oh, maybe three or four paragraphs!

There can be no denying it - Gerritsen is an extraordinarily skilled artist of the realism school when it comes to painting a thriller canvas! She brushes a background completed with broad daring strokes but, at the same time, completes a foreground with attention to the most meticulous detail. "Body Double" succeeds on any number of fronts. Rather than dwelling purely on a summary of a plot, as exciting as it is, of course, it's more worthwhile spending a little time on the enjoyable successes that set Body Double apart from more run-of-the-mill thrillers.

Body Double provides an eerie, realistic chronicle of the development of a psychopathic serial murderer.

We are treated to superb examples of the use of modern police investigation techniques including, of course, forensic pathology and computer analysis.

Readers are forced to ask themselves difficult philosophical questions relating to adoption: To what extent do adoptees have a right to their natural history? To what extent do mothers giving up their children for adoption have the right to confidentiality? Nature or nurture? What is the prime determinant of personality, intelligence and skill make-up of adopted children? (Now here's a real toughie for you ... if you were an adopted child and you came into the certain knowledge that your mother was a schizophrenic and a convicted criminal, how would you feel about that and would you feel the compulsion to visit and learn more about her?)

Her story also forces us to ask ourselves what we might do faced with unresolvable, impossible "urges" - in this case, a sexual attraction to a priest who is clearly aware of the attraction and yet is absolutely committed to his vocation!

Today, we are well acquainted with serial killers such as Paul Bernardo, for example, whose name alone in Ontario is sufficient to conjure up a case of shivers. In Body Double, Gerritsen has given us a moment of respite by creating a victim who somehow found the inner strength to resist and confound her stalker, torturer and would-be murderer! (The ending of this little sub-plot will make you want to stand up and cheer at the same time as your laughing yourself silly!)

What do you think? Have I said enough to convince you that Body Double is a five-star thriller must read?

Paul Weiss