I really enjoy the Rizzoli and Isles books of Tess Gerritsen so was very glad to get my mitts on her new one Last to Die. Dr Maura Isles is visiting Evensong, a boarding school for emotionally traumatised children in the Maine wilderness. She is visiting one of the residents there, Julian 'Rat' Perkins a 16 year old boy she met on a previous case. (This was The Killing Place and a really tense creepy book). I went back and re-read it after finishing this one and had forgotten how scary it was.
All the children, and some of the staff, have been involved with violence and traumatised by the murder of relatives and close friends. There are three, Claire, Teddy and Will who have all been brought there by a mysterious blonde woman who appears at each scene of trauma and takes them to safety. Each of these three children have not only had their parents murdered but have then suffered a double blow as their new foster parents and/or relatives are also killed. It seems that somebody is determined to wipe
out the second generation as well.
The school is run by the mysteriously saturnine Antony Sansone who we are led to believe is in love with Maura. Those of us who have read all of the Rizzoli and Isles stories know that she has been involved in a destructive relationship with someone who can never be with her and so we wonder what is going to happen here. The personal thread runs through all of these mysteries and make them an even more compelling read.
Dark happening and death begin to rear their ugly head at Evensong and it is clear that these three children are not as safe as we thought and that somebody is determined to track them down. Detective Jane Rizzoli is pulled into the investigation and the two of them work together again in frightening circumstances to track down the killer.
As will all books by Tess Gerritsen, I thought one thing only to be proved wrong with a twist at the end. She always does this and leaves the reader with a tantalisingly ambiguous ending so that we are hooked and await the next with impatience.
A super read and I really do recommend her novels if you have not discovered them yet as you are in for a treat. Some links below to others by this author reviewed on Random. Roll on the next one.
Oh and if you have seen the TV series please do not think that it in anyway represents the characters and events in this author's work. It is dire....
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http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_jottings_of_an_ope/2010/09/tess-gerritsen.html
http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_jottings_of_an_ope/2010/11/crime-round-up.html
