The Sinner -- Tess Gerritsen: A Book Review

The Sinner

Tess Gerritsen

Ballantine, 2003

The Sinner.  What a simple title with an abundance of connotations.  Such is the title of Tess Gerritsen’s medical thriller.  But simple The Sinner is not. 

Tess Gerritsen brings back Detective Jane Rizzoli (veteran of several of her novels) and Medical Examiner Maura Isles (also a veteran character) as double protagonists in this tightly twisting tale that takes the reader from an attempted double homicide (one successful) of two nuns through to a extremely well crafted finish.  It explores the relationship of the two women to each other as well as their relationships to the estranged men in their lives.  Both women grew up Catholic and both women are now nonbelievers.  Add to the mix all the sins associated with sex, murder and religion.  Throw in another homicide of an unknown woman with Hansen’s disease and the fact that one of the nun’s had just given birth before she died and you have the makings of a medical murder mystery that is as much fun to simply read as it is to try and figure out (ahead of the police and the medical examiner, of course). 

Tess Gerritsen explores the lives of her female characters with empathy and an understanding for the pitfalls that face the modern professional woman.  Her characters are tough and well-seasoned individuals who are also vulnerable to certain insecurities and daily problems that at times attempts to get in the way of their vocations, but, being the diligent professionals that they are, never thwarts these finely tuned characters for long.

Gerritsen deserves all the lauds she will surely receive for this book.  The Sinner is a masterful work by someone definitely at the top of her form.  There must be something charmed about the state of Maine, where Tess Gerritsen resides, when it comes to writers (home of King and Straub and a few others that are constantly on the bestsellers lists).  Regardless, the bestsellers lists is where The Sinner belongs.