Author: Tess Gerritsen
Series: Rizzoli & Isles (Book 1)
Publication: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (October 2, 2001)
Description: He slips into homes at night and walks silently into bedrooms where women lie sleeping, about to awaken to a living nightmare. The precision of his methods suggests that he is a deranged man of medicine, prompting the Boston newspapers to dub him “The Surgeon.” Led by Detectives Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli, the cops must consult the victim of a nearly identical crime: Two years ago, Dr. Catherine Cordell fought back and filled an attacker before he could complete his assault. Now this new killer is re-creating, with chilling accuracy, the details of Cordell’s ordeal. With every new murder he seems to be taunting her, cutting ever closer, from her hospital to her home. And neither Moore nor Rizzoli can protect Cordell from a ruthless hunter who somehow understands—and savors—the secret fears of every woman he kills.
My Thoughts: This is the first book in the Rizzoli & Isles series. However, Isles doesn't make an appearance. This story centers around Jane Rizzoli who has recently been promoted to homicide and is having a hard time breaking into the boys' club. Her abrasive attitude isn't helping much. She knows she's smart and competent but is constantly being overlooked or set aside by her supposed colleagues.
The villain of this piece is a serial killer known as the Surgeon. He breaks into women's homes, binds them with duct tape, removes the uterus while the woman is alive and conscious, and then slashes their throats before departing leaving no forensic evidence behind.
Dr. Catherine Cordell had her own encounter with the Surgeon and managed to not only survive but to shoot him with a gun her father leant her. In fact, evidence shows that she shot him twice: once in the abdomen and once through the eye. Since she was dosed with Rohypnol, she has only vague and patchy memories of the event. She does have the terror though. She seldom leaves her home except for her work as a trauma surgeon for a Boston hospital. And her home is as secure as she can make it.
Rizzoli and her partner for this investigation Thomas Moore discover her because of her attack two years earlier even though it happened in Savannah and the attacker was supposedly killed. Their first thought is a copycat, but hypnosis leads them to the idea that Catherine's attacker had a partner.
Sounds harrowing. I didn’t know there were books on this series.
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