The Surgeon: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "Detective Thomas Moore disliked the smell of latex, and as he snapped on the gloves, releasing a puff of talcum, he felt the usual twinge..." (more)
Key Phrases: lap pads, homicide unit, blood tubes, Nina Peyton, Andrew Capra, Elena Ortiz (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, August 2001: Tess Gerritsen left a very successful career as an internist to raise her children and devote more time to writing. After several books that have had moderate success, Gerritsen has now written a gruesome and frightening story that should put her among the top women thriller writers working today.

A serial killer is on the loose in Boston. The victims are killed in a particularly nasty way: cut with a scalpel on the stomach, the intestines and uterus removed, and then the throat slashed. The killer obviously has medical knowledge and has been dubbed "the Surgeon" by the media. Detective Thomas Moore and his partner Rizzoli of the Boston Homicide Unit have discovered something that makes this case even more chilling. Years ago in Savannah a serial killer murdered in exactly the same way. He was finally stopped by his last victim, who shot him as he tried to cut her. That last victim is Dr. Catherine Cordell, who now works as a cardiac surgeon at one of Boston's prestigious hospitals. As the murders continue, it becomes obvious that the killer is drawing closer and closer to Dr. Cordell, who is becoming so frightened that she is virtually unable to function. But she is the only person who can help the police catch this copycat killer. Or is it a copycat? To complicate matters even further, Detective Moore, often referred to as Saint Thomas as he continues to mourn the loss of his wife, is getting emotionally involved with the doctor.

The suspense in The Surgeon is almost unbearable. The writing is superb and the stunning twists and turns make it almost impossible to put down. -- Otto Penzler --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

A creepy cerebral serial killer vaguely reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter pursues a charismatic female doctor in this thoroughly satisfying if somewhat derivative thriller. Skillfully drawn surgical backdrops sizzling with ER intensity balance out the obligatory romantic intrigue and familiar plucky police professionals, attesting to Gerritsen's authentic medical expertise as a former physician. Dr. Catherine Cordell, the main character in this chilling tale, thought she had shot and killed her rapist and would-be murderer two years earlier in steamy Savannah, where he was a surgery intern at her hospital. Now, in Boston, as another hot summer begins, he appears to have miraculously returned and embarked once again on his grisly mission: he rapes women, then surgically removes their wombs. As two intrepid detectives Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli investigate, Cordell begins to doubt her own memories (or lack of) and discovers that not even her OR is safe. Gliding as smoothly as a scalpel in a confident surgeon's hand, this tale proves that Gerritsen (Harvest; Life Support; Bloodstream; Gravity), originally a romance writer, has morphed into a dependable suspense novelist whose growing popularity is keeping pace with her ever-finer writing skills. (Sept.)Forecast: National print advertising in People, the New York Times and USA Today, plus a major promotion campaign, will ratchet Gerritsen's sales up yet another notch.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; First Thus edition (July 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345447840
• ISBN-13: 978-0345447845
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (169 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #291,275 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #34 in

  Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( G ) > Gerritsen, Tess

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Today They Will Know We Are Back, December 23, 2001

By	Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Surgeon (Hardcover)

"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

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST read!, August 23, 2001

By	Nick Gonnella - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Surgeon (Hardcover)

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

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TESS IS TOPS AT THRILLERS, August 30, 2001

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: The Surgeon (Hardcover)

While serial killer villains may abound few are as excruciatingly terrifying as the menace introduced in Tess Gerritsen's latest thriller, "The Surgeon."
An outstanding young cardiologist, Dr. Catherine Cordell, can never forget that she is the only surviving target of a crazed serial killer. Although the murderer was shot and killed in Savannah, Georgia, Catherine has found it impossible to leave that nightmarish time behind. She shares this information with no one.
In an effort to blot out past horrors she moves to Boston. Soon, the unthinkable occurs - three women are slain in Boston by someone with the same modus operandi as the person who hunted Catherine in Georgia. His methods lead authorities to believe he has been trained in medicine, and they dub him "The Surgeon."
Catherine had fought back once and saved her life, but now she is about to crumble as with each new murder the sadistic stalker seems to be getting closer to her, to the hospital, to her home, as action hurtles from the Emergency Room to the morgue.
She has only one ally, Detective Thomas Moore, and he, too, is stymied.
Gerritsen, an M.D. herself, brings chilling accuracy in detail and characterization to her tale of those who destroy and those who heal.