CRIME FICTION REVIEW: Keeping the Dead - Tess Gerristen

10) Keeping the Dead - Tess Gerritsen Transworld, Bantam
BOOK BLURB:

She's Pilgrim Hospital's most unusual patient, and on this Saturday night, a media circus is gathered to record every minute of her visit to the X-ray department. Crammed into the small CT scan room are reporters, TV cameras, a select group of medical technicians - and forensic pathologist Maura Isles. Maura is there because the patient being scanned tonight isn't alive. She's probably been dead for centuries. She is, in fact, a mummy. As the CT scan proceeds, everyone in the room leans in close - and gasps in horror as an image of a bullet is revealed. Maura declares it a possible homicide case and calls in Detective Jane Rizzoli. When the preserved body of a second victim is found - and then a third - it becomes all too clear that not only is a maniac at large but he is taunting them. And that, unless Maura and Jane can find and stop him, he will soon be adding yet another chilling piece to his monstrous collection.


REVIEW:

As a huge fan of Tess I’m always glued to her next release, it’s a real treat in my calendar and to be honest if I can get my hands on it prior to Christmas virtually guarantees a very happy noel for myself (if not for the characters within. LOL) What Tess always does well is not only entertain but follow good solid medical leads as well as police procedure gained from hours of research, in fact, if you were lucky to catch her as part of her tour she always has something fun and informative to tell the reader, whether its gross facts about the breeding habits of flies upon the bodies of the dead, the brain eating rituals of South American Amazonian tribes or even talking through the processes of mummification along with how the head hunters shrank their victims heads.

This sort of thing sets the tone pretty well for her writing and guarantees the reader something to fulfil even the most blood thirsty of readers needs and wants. Its well written with plenty of twists and will keep you guessing as well as entertained to the last page. A truly modern criminal master wordsmith of the genre and one that many now seek to emulate.