After reading Moby Dick last month, I decided it was time for something frivolous. Luckily, I had this Tess Gerritsen paperback handy. I’ve read several other of her thrillers featuring medical examiner Maura Isles and police detective Jane Rizzoli and have enjoyed all of them. Great mysteries, fairly decent science, and occasional bits of sarcastic humor from Rizzoli = good combo for a rainy day, plane trip, or the week after you’ve just waded through 900 pages about how to decapitate and gut a sperm whale.
In this one, Dr. Isles is called in to help a local museum examine a mummy they’ve just discovered in storage in their basement. She’s pretty excited to be involved in something so big — “Madam X,” as the mummy is being called, is about to be the museum’s biggest draw ever. But as she begins her examination, she’s startled to discover bits of metal in the mummy’s jaw — bits of metal that look suspiciously like dental fillings. While the Egyptians WERE pretty medically advanced for their time, none of the museum curators remember ever having seen evidence of dental work like that before.
Then the good doctor begins to look a little lower in the body, only to find a bullet embedded in the victim’s lower leg. While it’s possible the bullet could’ve gotten into the mummy later (a stray shooting, e.g.), it’s definitely not possible that the mummy’s bone would then have started to mend itself around it. Obviously, this mummy is no mummy — it’s a modern-day homicide victim that’s been disguised as a mummy and hidden in the museum basement where the killer figured nobody would notice it.
Soon after Dr. Isles has gotten the cops involved, including Det. Jane Rizzoli, one of the museum’s curators vanishes and the plot thickens. Where it goes from there, I’ll leave it to you to discover. All in all, a great little thriller that kept me turning pages long past my bedtime and left me with the urge to stock up on a few more of Gerritsen’s books for the next time I need something fun. Like tomorrow.
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November 10, 2009 at 10:03 pm |
I’ve added this to my booksfree.com. Right now I’m reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the movie is in my to 5 fave movies, so I thought I should give the book a chance. My next one after that is A Poisoned Season.
November 10, 2009 at 11:47 pm |
Tess Gerritsen (Terri back when I knew her) was my resident when I was a medical student at the University of Hawaii. She was getting her first short story published at that time (late 70s early 80). I am glad that she has been so successful and was brave to walk away from medicine after putting in all those grueling years! She knew what she wanted and went for it. Don’t know how long she continued in medicine but it sure gave her the knowledge to pen some great books. Cheers to her!
November 11, 2009 at 12:21 am |
Very cool, alohagirl! Thanks for sharing your personal story about the author with us!! 🙂