The Apprentice
Tess Gerritsen
A murder mystery story.
It is a boiling hot Boston summer. Adding to the city’s woes is a series of shocking crimes, in which wealthy men are made to watch while their wives are brutalized. A sadistic demand that ends in abduction and death.
The pattern suggests one man: serial killer Warren Hoyt, recently removed from the city’s streets and imprisoned at this time. Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the madman he so admires. At least that’s what Detective Jane Rizzoli thinks. Forced again to confront the killer who scarred her – literally and figuratively – she is determined to finally end Hoyt’s awful influence . . . even if it means receiving more resistance from her all-male homicide squad.
But Rizzoli isn’t counting on the U.S. government’s sudden interest. Or on meeting Special Agent Gabriel Dean, who knows more than he will tell. Most of all, she isn’t counting on becoming a target herself, once Hoyt is suddenly free, joining his mysterious blood brother in a vicious vendetta.
Filled with superbly created characters and the medical and police procedural details that are her trademark, ‘The Apprentice’ is Tess Gerritsen at her brilliant best. Set in a stunning world where evil is easy to learn and hard to end, this is a thriller by a master who could teach other authors a thing or two.
Richard says
Rizzoli & Isles was a TV show about two women detectives in Boston. It was light, entertaining fluff TV along the lines of another mystery-murder series, Castle.
Rizzoli and Isles are separate characters, rather than a detective team, in Gerritsen’s book. Rizzoli is the detective, Isles is the coroner and though they have cases and investigation victims in common, they do not really work as a team as the TV duo.
The Apprentice is suspenseful and captivating. Well written and accurately seasoned with medical and medical examiner detail, the story grabs one attention and holds almost throughout the entire book.
Warren Hoyt is a gruesome killer renowned for killing his victims in particularly horrible and hideous procedures. His style of killing is so formidable and clinical, he is given the sobriquet ‘The Surgeon.’
Jane Rizzoli is an overachieving Boston detective who works her beat with more than dedication. She feels her acceptability by fellow detectives, almost all males, is in constant question. Therefore, she compensates by going over the top in her efforts, her work, her dedication, in her investigations. Because of her success he apprehending Hoyt after the first series of murders, she is acknowledged as being a successful detective by everyone in the Boston Police Dept. but she continues her self-critical skepticism.
The investigation of the first Hoyt murders nearly cost Rizzoli her life. She was captured and tortured by Hoyt but was saved from being killed, a story reserved for the prequel to this book. But she has lasting physical and psychological scars.
The story is suspenseful. It is gruesome and it is captivating.
Author Tess Gerritsen is a medical doctor who wrote her first book, “The Surgeon,” early in her practice. It was a best seller motivating her to write another book. Again, popularly acclaimed, the writing bug began to dominate her life. She has written more than a dozen highly acclaimed books and her literary success has retired her from the practice of medicine.
The roots of Tess Gerritsen’s working career are important to her stories because when she describes murder or medical examination scenes, the descriptions are based on authentic medical terminology and the gruesome aspect of her murder scenes takes on more horror and horrid slants because she relies on her medical background to give her story more realism.
The Apprentice will stir emotional and suspenseful reactions in the majority of readers. The murder scenes are exceptionally vivid and appalling. To Gerritsen’s credit, she incorporates rationalization and explanation regarding the psychological makeup of such criminals. There’s a fine line between the amphibian brain and the ‘normal’ brain to use a cliché.
The Apprentice is a “can’t-put-it-down” style of writing. Fascinating, appealing, captivating…it draws the reader within the first pages of the story and then slams the reader with fearsome and frightening details that make the story very powerful.
The gory details of the narrative may be off-putting to some readers but none will find boredom in reading it. An excellent story well told.
