A couple of weeks back I was rummaging through the library shelves and stumbled upon the two Rizzoli and Isles books (I've been slowly going in the right order when the library has them rather than ordering them) that I hadn't read yet. This has been a great series so far, and Gerritsen's books are never a chore to read so I looked forward to a thrilling double feature.
He Watches.
Something terrible has happened in the snowbound village of Kingdom Come, Wyoming. Twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. The people who lived in them appear to have vanished, seemingly into thin air.
He Waits.
Maura Isles is driving through the area with a group of friends when they find themselves trapped in snowstorm. They stumble into the abandoned village to take shelter. Their nightmare has only just begun.
They Disappear
Days later, Jane Rizzoli flies to Wyoming to search for her missing friend. A crashed vehicle has been found with four badly burned bodies still inside. Can one of the corpses be Maura's?
Jane's hunt for the truth leads her to Kingdom Come. Where the person who was watching Maura now lies waiting for her...
The Killing Place was superb, and is joint first with Body Double as the best entry in Gerritsen's Rizzoli and Isles series. The dialogue may be a bit shoddy, and very cheesy, but the plot was fantastic. Gerritsen sets it up as horror story and I was genuinely getting a bit creeped out. The Killing Place captivated my attention for a whole train journey, and would probably fare well for a long-haul plane ride as I wanted to find out what was going to happen to Maura. The only fault was that the ending was a bit of a let down, but it was an enjoyable ride nonetheless.
The Silent Girl
Every crime scene tells a story. Some keep you awake at night. Others haunt your dreams. The grisly display homicide cop Jane Rizzoli finds in Boston’s Chinatown will do both.
In the murky shadows of an alley lies a female’s severed hand. On the tenement rooftop above is the corpse belonging to that hand, a red-haired woman dressed all in black, her head nearly severed. Two strands of silver hair—not human—cling to her body. They are Rizzoli’s only clues, but they’re enough for her and medical examiner Maura Isles to make the startling discovery: that this violent death had a chilling prequel.
Nineteen years earlier, a horrifying murder-suicide in a Chinatown restaurant left five people dead. But one woman connected to that massacre is still alive: a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dares not tell, a secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of Chinatown. A secret that may not even be human. Now she’s the target of someone, or something, deeply and relentlessly evil.
Cracking a crime resonating with bone-chilling echoes of an ancient Chinese legend, Rizzoli and Isles must outwit an unseen enemy with centuries of cunning—and a swift, avenging blade.
I didn't enjoy The Silent Girl as much. I found it hard to keep reading, and guessed who the culprit was about half way through, which is unusual for a Gerritsen book where she normally keeps the identity of her killers hidden until the last few pages. However, this was still an enjoyable read as I liked the cast character development that wasn't related to the case; like Maura testifying against a cop; and Jane trying to navigate her new family unit.
Not every entry in a series can be excellent (apart from the Dresden Files...), so I'm hoping that the next book will go back to combining a great murder mystery with personal development for both Rizzoli and Isles.
