The Keepsake

July 28, 2008
Bestseller Gerritsen's at times lackluster series heroines prove they can shine in her solid seventh thriller to feature Det. Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isles (after The Mephisto Club
). When medical examiner Isles studies an X-ray scan of Madame X, which everyone assumes is a newly discovered Egyptian mummy, at Boston's Crispin Museum, she realizes the mummy isn't a priceless artifact but a recent murder victim, gruesomely preserved. Rizzoli focuses the police investigation on Dr. Josephine Pulcillo, a young archeologist recently hired by the museum who may have something to hide. More victims soon turn up, including a tsantsa
(shrunken head) in a hidden museum chamber and a corpse resembling a well-preserved bog body in Pulcillo's car. After Pulcillo disappears, Rizzoli and Isles must scramble to find her before she becomes another trophy in the killer's growing collection. As usual, Gerritsen delivers an intricate plot that will keep readers guessing.

September 1, 2008
Boston medical examiner Maura Isles gets a bit of a shock when a mummy, assumed to be several thousand years old, turns out to be a recently murdered womanbut what was she doing in the storage room of a museum, wrapped in ancient bandages, and how did she get there? Maura and her frequent collaborator, Detective Jane Rizzoli, soon learn that the mysterious Madam X is not the only victim, and they race against time to stop a homicidal maniac before he ups the ante. This very popular series keeps rolling smoothly along, the formula well established and familiar: after introducing a bewildering mystery and anassortment of characters (who range from shady to downright villainous), Gerritsen stands back and lets Isles and Rizzoli do their thing. Theres nothing especially remarkable about the bookits no better or worse than its predecessors, and in many ways, its exactly the same. But Gerritsen does what she does efficiently and with considerable craft, and she has created a couple of strong protagonists more than capable of keeping this franchise going for quite a while.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)