Rizzoli & Isles (1-5) series by Tess Gerritsen

Flash review/ reading recommendation

The Rizzoli and Isles Series is one of my favorites. It's a medical thriller by Tess Gerritsen. It's called Rizzoli and Isles because of  two of the characters Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles who are always in the thick of the plot. Jane's the detective and Maura's the medical examiner. It's set in Boston and the characters Jane and Maura have depressing, exciting , troubling lives enough  to make each book in this series a page turner. This series has recently been made into a TV show, which I haven't seen yet (sadly) . 

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 killed 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.Goodreads

The Surgeon is the first book of the series. Jane's the leading detective on the case and when Moore shows up she's kind of bitchy because she wants to make it clear it's her case. I like this book  because it has a wonderful plot and a strong female lead. The bad guy is some sick perverted freak who likes cutting women open and taking a "trophy" . Now he's targeting this one victim who escaped. There's also a romantic sub plot : this between Moore and Catherine .

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THE APPRENTICE It is a boiling hot Boston summer. Adding to the city’s woes is a series of shocking crimes, in which wealthy men are made to watch while their wives are brutalized. A sadistic demand that ends in abduction and death.
The pattern suggests one man: serial killer Warren Hoyt, recently removed from the city’s streets. Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the madman he so admires. At least that’s what Detective Jane Rizzoli thinks. Forced again to confront the killer who scarred her—literally and figuratively—she is determined to finally end Hoyt’s awful influence . . . even if it means receiving more resistance from her all-male homicide squad.

In the first book Jane had saved Catherine who had been kidnapped by the bad guy, Warren Hoyt, and now the perverted Freakazoid has escaped and is obsessed with Jane.  Another wonderful and suspenseful book by Tess Gerritsen. I guess in a way Agent Gabriel ,the FBI agent, who's also investigating can be seen as another romantic sub plot. this makes the book a bit amusing to read because Jane's a knucklehead stubborn female character aswell.

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Not even the icy temperatures of a typical New England winter can match the bone-chilling scene of carnage discovered at the chapel of Our Lady of Divine Light. Within the cloistered convent lie two nuns–one dead, one critically injured–victims of an unspeakably savage attacker. The brutal crime appears to be without motive, but medical examiner Maura Isles’s autopsy of the dead woman yields a shocking surprise: Twenty-year-old Sister Camille gave birth before she was murdered. Then another body is found, 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 close to home–and toward a dawning revelation about the killer’s identity too shattering to consider.Goodreads   

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Dr. Maura Isles makes her living dealing with death. As a pathologist in a major metropolitan city, she has seen more than her share of corpses every day–many of them victims of violent murder. But never before has her blood run cold, and never has the grim expression “dead ringer” rung so terrifyingly true. Because never before has the lifeless body on the medical examiner’s table been her own.
Yet there can be no denying the mind-reeling evidence before her shocked eyes and those of her colleagues, including Detective Jane Rizzoli: the woman found shot to death outside Maura’s home is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical nuances. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. For the stunned Maura, an only child, there can be just one explanation. And when a DNA test confirms that Maura’s mysterious doppelgänger is in fact her twin sister, an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets.
Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await. But perhaps more frightening, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree. To stop the massacre and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject: the mother that she never knew . . . an icy and cunning woman who could be responsible for giving Maura life–and who just may have a plan to take it away.Goodreads

The Title says it all. Twins, Maura has a twin and she's found dead outside her house. Everybody thinks it's Maura get a real shock when the real Maura walks on scene. and thus the "bizarre murder investigation" starts. I liked this one because we find out Maura's mother is  a psychotic freak and More of her relationship with the priest Daniel Brophy.

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A blessed event becomes a nightmare for pregnant homicide detective Jane Rizzoli when she finds herself on the wrong side of a hostage crisis in this timely and relentless new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Body Double.
A nameless, beautiful woman appears to be just another corpse in the morgue. An apparent suicide, she lies on a gurney, awaiting the dissecting scalpel of medical examiner Maura Isles. But when Maura unzips the body bag and looks down at the body, she gets the fright of her life. The corpse opens its eyes. 
Very much alive, the woman is rushed to the hospital, where with shockingly cool precision, she murders a security guard and seizes hostages . . . one of them a pregnant patient, Jane Rizzoli. 
Who is this violent, desperate soul, and what does she want? As the tense hours tick by, Maura joins forces with Jane’s husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, to track down the mysterious killer’s identity. When federal agents suddenly appear on the scene, Maura and Gabriel realize that they are dealing with a case that goes far deeper than just an ordinary hostage crisis.
Only Jane, trapped with the armed madwoman, holds the key to the mystery. And only she can solve it–if she survives the night.

This is one of my favorites in the series. It has a conspiracy- like plot. On top of that Jane's pregnant and somehow ends up int he middle of it. It's definitely a page turner. while you read about the woman who wakes up in the morgue just when she's about to be opened up. eerie. Not only that but the book address's  serious themes like selling sex, corruption and murder.