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Title details for The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen - Available

The Sinner

#3 in series

by Tess Gerritsen
Anna Fields
Audiobook
1 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 2 copies available
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Surgeon and The Apprentice comes a chilling new novel of suspense featuring Boston medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles, on the deadly trail of an anonymous madman who’s committed an unholy crime.
Not even the icy temperatures of a typical New England winter can match the bone-chilling scene of carnage discovered in the early morning hours at the chapel of Our Lady of Divine Light. Within the sanctuary walls of the cloistered convent, now stained with blood, lie two nuns—one dead, one critically injured—victims of an unspeakably savage attacker.
The brutal crime appears to be without motive, and the elderly nuns in residence can offer little help in the police investigation. But medical examiner Maura Isles’s autopsy of the dead woman yields a shocking surprise: Twenty-year-old Sister Camille, the order’s sole novice, gave birth before she was murdered. Then the disturbing case takes a stunning new turn when another woman is found murdered in an abandoned building, her body mutilated beyond recognition.
Together, Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli uncover an ancient horror that connects these terrible slaughters. As long-buried secrets come to light, Maura Isles finds herself drawn inexorably toward the heart of an investigation that strikes closer and closer to home—and toward a dawning revelation about the killer’s identity too shattering to consider.
As spine-tingling as it is mind-jolting, The Sinner showcases Tess Gerritsen in peak form—bringing her intimate knowledge of the dark depths of criminal investigation brilliantly to bear. Beneath its layers of startling insight into the souls of its characters, and the richly wrought depiction of the everyday war between good and evil, beats the unstoppable heart of an irresistible thriller.
PRAISE FOR TESS GERRITSEN
The Surgeon
“A briskly paced, terrifically suspenseful work that steadily builds toward a tense and terrifying climax.”
—People (Page-Turner of the week)
“Creepy . . . [The Surgeon] will exert a powerful grip on readers.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go.”
—TAMI HOAG
The Apprentice
“Skillful and scary.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“An adrenaline rush from start to finish.”
—IRIS JOHANSEN
“Masterful . . . Gerritsen moves into the Thomas Harris class, though with a style all her own.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

  • Creators

  • Series

    Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    May 9, 2003

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780739353967
      • File size: 262218 KB
      • Duration: 09:06:17

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Medical Examiner Maura Isles is called to a cloistered abbey, where a young novice has been murdered and an elderly nun attacked and left for dead. Jane Rizzoli, the homicide detective on the case, has personal issues that are making her life miserable. The discovery that the beautiful young murder victim had secretly given birth turns the investigation to finding the infant and the identity of the father. Anna Fields's deeply resonant voice makes the graphic details easier to take. Her perfect pacing and the voices she creates for Isles and Rizzoli add depth to Gerritsen's well-drawn characters. The only quibble with Fields's performance is that dialogue delivered by male characters sometimes sounds contrived and artificial. D.T.H. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 14, 2003
      A grisly murder at a convent baffles Medical Examiner Maura Isles and Det. Jane Rizzoli at the start of this assured, richly shaded seventh novel from bestseller Gerritsen (The Apprentice; The Surgeon,
      etc.). The popular duo are called to Boston's Graystones Abbey when two nuns are discovered in an abandoned chapel, one dead and the other near death, both brutally bludgeoned. Red herrings are everywhere: Isles's discovery that one of the murdered nuns had recently given birth (followed shortly by the discovery of the baby's body in a pond near the convent); the murder of a homeless derelict with her face and extremities removed by her killer; and the lurking menace of a multinational chemical company. Complicating matters further is the sudden arrival of Isles's ex-husband, Victor, a celebrity humanitarian with his own suspicious connection to the case, and Rizzoli's old flame, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, who's responsible for the baby now growing in Rizzoli's belly. The investigation is rather low-key, but Gerritsen gives atmospheric depth to her tale with descriptions of snowbound Boston and an exotic past tragedy. Isles's pleasantly bitchy coldness ("Go ahead and pass me, idiots. I've met too many drivers like you on my slab") gives a welcome edge to the proceedings, and the struggles of both Isles and Rizzoli to balance their tough professional acts with romantic drama are satisfyingly gritty. BOMC main selection; 6-city author tour.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Once again Gerritsen, a doctor, brings us gripping and technically detailed gore. Actor Dennis Boutsikaris delivers a cool, understated performance that suits the protaganist--Medical Examiner Maura Isle, a woman who prefers the company of corpses to the emotionally threatening world of the living. As in all thrillers, there are love interests who are close to the case and lots of surprises in the mysterious and hideous multiple murders of nuns. But most remarkable is how the story flows from the page to ear smoothly and grippingly, a real page-turner in the theater of the mind. D.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Funding for additional materials was made possible by a grant from the New Hampshire Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.