Life Support [Paperback]

Tess Gerritsen (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket Books; First PB Printing edition (1997)
• ASIN: B002VF3SVK
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,164,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a physician as well as the New York Times-bestselling author of medical thrillers and the Jane Rizzoli crime thrillers.

Readers who are familiar with my graphic autopsy scenes and forensic details may be astonished to learn that my very first published novels were actually ... romantic suspense. So why did I leave writing romances and turn to thrillers?

It was all because of a chance dinner conversation some years ago. The man sitting beside me at a restaurant one night was an ex-cop who 'd recently been traveling in Russia. Moscow cops had told him that orphans were vanishing from the streets, and they believed the children were being kidnaped and shipped abroad as organ donors.

I was horrified by the tale. Weeks later, unable to forget those missing Russian orphans, I knew I just had to write a book about them. I wanted to bring into it all the medical and autopsy details that I'd learned from my years as a physician. The sights, the smells of the autopsy and operating rooms -- everything.

My first medical thriller, HARVEST, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked my debut on the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller list. It was followed by my medical thrillers LIFE SUPPORT (1997), BLOODSTREAM (1998), GRAVITY (1999).

In 2001, my books took another abrupt turn, to forensic thrillers. THE SURGEON was my first Jane Rizzoli thriller. Since then, I've written THE APPRENTICE (2002), THE SINNER (2003), BODY DOUBLE (2004), VANISH (2005 -- and an Edgar Award nominee), and THE MEPHISTO CLUB (2006).

I believe my readers want me to tell them secrets. And that's exactly what I try to do. I take them into the autopsy room, and show them what I've seen. But most of all, I hope I'm revealing what lies in the hearts of my characters. Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isles are real people to me now. I hope they're just as real to everyone who becomes acquainted with them!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost Too Scary, March 18, 2002

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life Support (Mass Market Paperback)

I always appreciate a good medical thriller, so I'm not the type to swoon at the first mention of blood.This book, however, had me so frightened that instead of feverishly forging ahead to see what happens next (which I desperately wanted to do), I had to put it down from time to time to regain my equilibrium. When Gerritsen is at the top of her game, as she is in this novel, I think nobody can beat her. Not Robin Cook, not anybody.

It's hard to describe the plot without giving away vital information, and I don't intend to be a spoiler. But I can tell you that the action starts hard and fast on the very first page, when a world-renowned surgeon, elderly but revered in his field, attempts a simple appendectomy and winds up killing his young, healthy patient in the most gruesome of ways. Our glimpse into his mind while this is going on is almost scarier than the act itself...and that is the first chapter of the book! It doesn't get calmer from there.

It seems that a number of very fit elderly men, in full control of their faculties and all living in a very upscale retirement home, are showing strange mental symptoms, one after the other, and eventually dying horrible deaths. Dr. Toby Harper,who heads the ER rotation at a local hospital, encounters two of these patients, and is at a complete loss to diagnose the problem, let alone solve it. Her dogged determination to get to the bottom of the illness(es) lands her in a conspiracy so sinister that she can't even guess at the true nature of it, except to know that it is putting herself, her dear elderly mother who suffers from Alzheimers, and seemingly her entire medical reputation at stake.

A subplot, wherein innocent young runaway girls are captured on the streets and impregnanted with god knows what, forms a counterpoint to the main tale.

All I can tell you is that Toby, probably the one innocent in the drama, ends up wanted by the police for murder--and the bad guys, who are diabolical, seem to be getting away scott-free with their intensely fiendish plot.

Sound good? Try it. You may not sleep well at night, but it's worth it. Tess Gerritsen is without peer when she truly believes in what she is writing about, and this book proves it. All I can say is, WOW!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If Only Dr. DiMatteo & Dr. Harper Could Have A Chat!!!, May 15, 1999

By 

Robert Derenthal "bucherwurm" (California United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Life Support (Mass Market Paperback)

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the heroine from Harvest could meet the star of Life Support for a cup of coffee. Picture them together, the amazed looks on their faces as they realize how much they have in common! Both are talented female hospital based physicians who find out that an evil cabal of doctors is wreaking havoc on the health of patients. And, in both cases our protagonists digging into their affairs do not amuse the dastardly doctors.

Toby and her new found friend discover that a few missteps in their work coupled by efforts of the vile physicians have placed their jobs and personal safety in great jeopardy. And, gasp, both of them had to face real or potential malpractice lawsuits.

Tess Gerritsen can write attention-grabbing thrillers. No question of that, but is she going to use the same plot format for all of her stories? I realize that her latest novel, Bloodstream, which I have not read, takes place outside of a hospital, but a read through of the cover summary makes me awfully suspicious that the same plot is going to descend on us once again.

Please, TG, you seem to be a good thriller writer, but would you please, please, change some of the basic elements in your next story? If you have not read either of these novels, please do read one of them, and you will be well rewarded. If you read both I'm sure you will be drenched in déjà vu.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A second chilling success for Gerritsen!, October 10, 2005

By 

Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life Support (Mass Market Paperback)

Toby Harper, night shift supervisor of Springer Hospital's emergency room, comes under administration's intense scrutiny and is called onto the carpet in front of a hospital board inquiry after a patient suffering from tremors and confusion walks out of the hospital and disappears. When the home health care aide who is taking care of her ailing elderly mother resigns and a colleague seeks to use the missing patient incident as a reason to dismiss Harper, stress turns Harper's job in a big city hospital into a daily battle for survival. As a second patient presents with the same symptoms and dies in the frantic chaos of a crash "Code Blue", Harper's investigation turns stress into full-blown crisis as she uncovers a conspiracy related to an illicit hormone therapy program at an upscale home for the aged.

As she did in Harvest, Gerritsen uses her experience in the medical field to flesh out a superb plot with chilling realism - the ever present fear of litigation as the smallest error can be considered in the light of hindsight outside the chaos of the emergency room; the heart breaking experience of watching Alzheimer's deprive a loved one of their memories and their faculty for independent living; the frightening symptoms of the rare and fatal neurodegenerative diseases carried by the newly discovered not quite alive prions, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease); the extraordinary pressure exerted by pro-life groups on abortion clinics and those mothers wishing to terminate pregnancies; the lightning pace of unfolding events in a "Code Blue" emergency; the messy, harsh reality of an autopsy; and much more.

At the same time as the plot unfolds with such incredible speed, we witness a heart-warming set of extremely well-constructed characters come to grips with the dynamics of their relationships - Harper struggles with her homemaker sister, Vickie, over the time and difficulties involved with the care of their confused mother; a black Dr Robbie Brace and his white red-haired wife struggle with the cruel ostracism they receive as a result of their mixed race marriage; Daniel Dvorak, the medical examiner, faces inner turmoil as the legal requirements of his position conflict with his growing fondness for Toby Harper; Carl Wallenburg seeks professional revenge for the slight he perceives on his competence as Harper questions his judgment over the handling of a case.

A fact-paced, compelling page turner that proves Harvest was not a fluke and Gerritsen is here to stay! Great stuff!