Ice Cold

June 21, 2010
Unpredictable twists help propel Gerritsen's winning eighth novel featuring Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (after The Keepsake). While in Wyoming late one fall for a pathologists' conference, Maura agrees to join an old college acquaintance, his 13-year-old daughter, and two friends of his on a last-minute ski trip. When an accident stalls their SUV on a remote mountain road, the fivesome take refuge in an abandoned village, Kingdom Come, the home of a religious sect led by a charismatic prophet, Jeremiah Goode. But what drove the residents from their 12 identical houses, leaving food on the table and pets behind? When the local police find what they believe to be Maura's charred body and those of her four companions, Jane; her FBI agent husband, Gabriel Dean; and Fr. Daniel Brophy travel to Wyoming to conduct their own investigation. Gerritsen supplies plenty of depth in both plot and characters. TNT launches a new TV series based on this series in July.

June 15, 2010

Gerritsen (The Bone Garden, 2007, etc.) brings back Maura Isles, a Boston-based medical examiner, and her partner in crime solving, Det. Jane Rizzoli, in this often gory and always engrossing thriller set against a frozen Wyoming winter.

Maura, in the middle of an affair that is going nowhere—her lover is a priest, after all—jets off to Wyoming for a pathologists' conference, where she runs into an old college friend. Doug, who has gone from nerdy guy to hunky doctor since she last saw him, is divorced with a spoiled, beautiful 13-year-old named Grace. When he asks Maura to join him, Grace and another couple for some skiing at a lodge a few hours away, the normally conservative Maura impulsively throws her lot in and goes for it. As with most Gerritsen tales, such lightly made decisions are soon regretted—and Maura's decision to accompany Doug and Grace, along with food critic Arlo and his girlfriend, Elaine, soon becomes a struggle to survive. Guided by a GPS onto a remote mountain road, the group ends up stranded far from town. They make their way to a strange, abandoned settlement where it appears the residents have simply walked away from their lives, leaving their windows open, food on the table and their now dead pets behind. With no electricity or way to communicate with the outside world and one of the five desperately injured, Doug strikes out to find help. When he doesn't return, Maura decides to follow him, with disastrous results. Soon, her friends in Boston—Jane, her FBI agent husband, Gabriel, and Daniel, the object of her illicit affair—come to Wyoming to locate the missing M.E. In the course of their investigation, they find much more than they bargained for, including a religious cult, a deepening mystery about the fate of those who once lived in the little settlement and a woman bent on avenging an old wrong.

While the ending feels rushed, Gerritsen, a physician whose novels are not for the squeamish, can always be counted on to deliver a yarn that's start-to-finish entertaining. This one is no exception.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 15, 2010
Boston medical examiner Maura Isles is in Wyoming for a medical conference when she meets a former college classmate and decides to go off on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip with him and his friends. Their journey goes awry when they are stranded during a snowstorm in a remote area where something strange has happened. When one of the companions is severely injured during an attempt to escape the wilderness, Isles is placed in further danger. Det. Jane Rizzoli and FBI agent Gabriel Dean, along with Father Daniel Brophy, travel from Boston to rescue Isles and solve the mystery. VERDICT The taut suspense and vivid depictions that are hallmarks of Gerritsen's writing are evident in her eighth Rizzoli and Isles thriller (after "The Keepsake"), although this one feels a bit stretched, with one too many plot twists and one too many villains. But series fans will be on the edge of their seats, while the July premiere of the TNT television series based on these characters and starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander may raise new interest in this and Gerritsen's earlier works.Beth Blakesley, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2010
Boston medical examiner Maura Isles is in Wyoming for a conference. Impulsively, she joins an old friend and his daughter on a ski trip. When their vehicle breaks down, theyre stranded in the eerily named Kingdom Come, a small community whose residents appear to have vanished. Then Maura vanishes. The announcement of her death shocks homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, Mauras close friend. Investigating Kingdom Come, Rizzoli uncovers dark secrets that may explain Mauras disappearance. Gerritsen wouldnt be the first writer to kill off a popular series character, but is that what shes doing here? Fans of the novels will no doubt suspect Gerritsen has a few tricks up her sleeve, and surely the upcoming television series based on the Isles-Rizzoli mysteries would seem to suggest that this is a very bad time to kill off Maura. Leaving aside this rather unnecessary subterfuge, the novel is a solid entry in the series, with a compelling mystery and some good, old-fashioned shockers. A solid choice for Gerritsen fans, but probably not the best starting point for those new to the series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)