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114 of 116 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Today They Will Know We Are Back, December 23, 2001
"The Surgeon" is not a novel that has any intention of giving the reader an easy moment. From the beginning of the story, as first we pay a visit to the cold mind of a serial killer, are swept into the autopsy of his latest victim, only to find ourselves in the middle of an operating room emergency, the reader is granted no respite. The killer tortures the victims, first binding them, performing a waking hysterectomy, and then, after keeping them alive for a time, slashing their throats. Now Boston detectives Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli are unwilling partners in a grizzly murder case. Rizzoli discovers that the killer's modus operandi has occurred once before in Savannah, Georgia. While the crimes are nearly identical there is one hitch. The last victim of the Savannah killer not only survived, but killed her tormentor. Survived to heal, leave Savannah and move to Boston where she practices as a surgeon and member of an emergency team. Dr. Catherine Cordell finds herself dealing again with a horror from her past she thought was over. It is not long before it is clear that Catherine Cordell is the real objective of the killer, now known as the Surgeon. The killer's trail of victims defies all police efforts to identify a murderer, who seems to have risen from the dead. The increasing menace to Dr. Cordell plays against her halting relationship with Moore and Rizzoli's almost compulsive antagonism. Compared to the all too human character if his opponents, the Surgeon always appears supremely cold and efficient. As apt to dwell on Greek myth as he his to exult over his victims. Few characters come across as completely healthy in this tale. Moore is recovering from the tragic loss of his wife, Rizzoli believes she is pitted against the entire male police establishment and Cordell struggles to free herself from the darkness that seized her in Savannah. Gerritsen deserves the credit for deploying a cast like this, and then managing to avoid giving in completely to the bleakness that haunts noir fiction. She does this with some flare, mixing in procedural, forensic and emergency room medicine in counterpoint to the primary plot. I do feel it necessary to mention that the tale is not at all simply a grim tale of slaughter. It deals with some very serious issues. Gerritsen confronts the aftereffects of rape directly, and in very uncomfortable fashion. Those of us who have been taught to belittle or deny how devastating this kind of personal invasion really is may have a tough time dealing with these passages. I found Gerritsen's frankness illuminating but unsettling, as I think most readers will. In retrospect I believe this may be the best suspense/serial killer novel of the 2001 crop. Although there have been some close competitors. I do not normally follow medical suspense, so I don't know how well it compares in that genre. But I can't imagine it being far from the top on most reviewers lists. While I am not normally a reader of medical thrillers, I intend to investigate more of Gerritsen's work. Marc Ruby for The Mystery Reader
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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A MUST read!, August 23, 2001
He stalks his prey in the darkness. He enters their houses and walks into their bedrooms. The precision of his brutal killings suggests he is a man of medicine. The police are baffled and their only clues are the facts that he rapes his victims, removes their uterus, and THEN kills them. Luckily for the police one of the potential victims fights back and kills her attacker. Dr. Catherine Cordell is trying to forget the attack that almost killed her two years ago. And although she has moved from Savannah to Boston the nightmares that plague her are about to become a reality. Within a few weeks of each other a series of killings have locked the people of Boston in a state of fear. The police, having nothing to go on, begin to look into the recent murders only to discover they are very similar to the murders that happened in Savannah. Detectives Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli examine the close similarities between the years apart crimes and are shocked to realize they can't be copy cat crimes, for the details of the original killings were kept out of the papers, but how can this be the work of the original killer, he was killed by Catherine Cordell? Moore and Rizzoli do the only thing they can, bring Cordell into the middle of their investigation because any information she supplies them can bring them closer to catching the killer. Unknown to anyone is the fact that the killer is staying one step ahead of them, and Catherine Cordell has now been targeted as the next victim on the killer's list, a deranged madman that knows the fears of the women he kills. `The Surgeon' sucked me in from the first page, and kept me riveted from one shock to the next. With a plot as sharp as a scalpel, and a villain as nasty as Hannibal Lector, `The Surgeon' succeeds at being a terrifying read all the way up to it's explosive climax. Tess Gerritsen proves to be nothing less than SUPERB at creating tension filled medical thrillers. With four previous bestsellers, Ms. Gerritsen has created her most exciting novel to date, and that is no small accomplishment, considering her earlier novels were excellent. Dark, twisted, and disturbing `The Surgeon' is a MUST read! Nick Gonnella
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grabs You and Never Lets Go....., September 27, 2001
There's a serial killer loose in Boston, first torturing and mutilating women in a very methodical way and then viciously killing them. The press have dubbed him "the surgeon". His crimes are grisly and he's very clever. As the body count rises, homicide detectives Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli are working the case round the clock and getting nowhere fast. That is, until they discover that two years ago an almost identical crime spree occurred in Savanah, Georgia. There, the killings stopped when the last victim, Dr Catherine Cordell, was able to fight back and shoot her attacker. Now she's living and working in Boston and though it's impossible, "the surgeon" seems to have followed her there..... Turn off the phone and lock the door because The Surgeon is about to keep you up reading, all night. This is an intricate medical thriller that has it all: a tight, tense, well-paced plot, full of intense and riveting scenes, crisp, suspenseful writing, terrific well-drawn and engaging characters and a diabolical villian who makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Tess Gerritsen has really honed her craft and her indepth medical knowledge and great attention to detail add real credibility to the story. Add to that a stunning climax and satisfying ending and you have the makings of a superb read that shouldn't be missed.
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