(For Dr. Abby DiMatteo, the long road to Boston’s Bayside ...)
For Dr. Abby DiMatteo, the long road to Boston’s Bayside Hospital has been anything but easy. Now, immersed in the grinding fatigue of her second year as a surgical resident, she’s elated when the hospital’s elite cardiac transplant team taps her as a potential recruit. But Abby soon makes an anguished, crucial decision that jeopardizes her entire career. A car crash victim’s healthy heart is ready to be harvested; it is immediately cross-matched to a wealthy private patient, Nina Voss. Abby hatches a bold plan to make sure that the transplant goes instead to a dying seventeen-year-old boy who is also a perfect match.
(Newlywed Sarah Fontaine has just received the news that e...)
Newlywed Sarah Fontaine has just received the news that every wife fears: her husband of two months has died abroad in a hotel fire. Yet convinced he's still alive, Sarah forges an alliance with Nick O'Hara from the U.S. State Department that has the two of them crisscrossing Europe on a desperate search for signs of life. As Sarah and Nick become quarry in the secret world of international espionage, they must risk everything for answers that may prove fatal.
(For attorney David Ransom, it begins as an open-and-shut ...)
For attorney David Ransom, it begins as an open-and-shut case: malpractice. Then Dr. Kate Chesne storms into his office, daring him to seek out the truth - that she's being framed. When another patient turns up dead, David starts to believe her. Somewhere in the Honolulu hospital, a killer walks freely. And now David finds himself asking the same questions Kate is desperate to have answered. Who is next - and why?
(Twenty years after her father’s plane crashed in the jung...)
Twenty years after her father’s plane crashed in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Willy Jane Maitland is finally tracking his last moves. She recognizes the danger, but her search for the truth is the only thing that matters. Willy knows she can’t proceed without the help of ex-army officer Guy Barnard, who knows the mysterious land well. But in a place where truth has many faces, she suspects even Guy has hidden motives. What she couldn’t have prepared for are the shocking secrets and the undeniable attraction.
(When Victor Holland came flying out of the night, he ran ...)
When Victor Holland came flying out of the night, he ran straight into the path of Catherine Weaver’s car. Having uncovered a terrifying secret that leads all the way to Washington, Victor is running for his life - and from the men who will go to any lengths to silence him. Though Victor’s story sounds like the ravings of a mad-man, the haunted look in his eyes - and the bullet hole in his shoulder - tell Cathy a different story. As each hour brings pursuers ever closer, she has to wonder, is she giving her trust to a man in danger or trusting her life to a dangerous man?
(Miranda Wood thinks she has seen the last of Richard Trem...)
Miranda Wood thinks she has seen the last of Richard Tremain, her rich and married ex-lover - until she discovers him stabbed to death in her bed. With her knife. Miranda is the obvious suspect, and she looks even guiltier when her bail is posted by an anonymous donor. Was this an act of kindness designed to buy her time to clear her name? Or is someone trying to manipulate Miranda and draw her into the dark and secret world of a murdered man, where everybody's presumed guilty? With her world falling around her, Miranda is determined to discover who killed Richard. But proving her innocence may become secondary to staying alive.
(If Nina Cormier's wedding had taken place, she would be d...)
If Nina Cormier's wedding had taken place, she would be dead. But after the bride was left at the altar, the church stood empty when the bomb exploded. It wasn't until a stranger tried to run her off the road that Nina realized someone actually wanted to kill her. But who? That's what Detective Sam Navarro has to find out fast. With a nightmare unfolding all around them, Sam and Nina must try to decipher the terrifying truth: they are at the mercy of a brilliant madman, one who is playing for keeps.
(The quiet overnight shift at Springer Hospital ER suits D...)
The quiet overnight shift at Springer Hospital ER suits Dr. Toby Harper just fine - until she admits a man in critical condition from a possible viral infection of the brain. The delirious man barely responds to treatment - and then disappears without a trace. Before Toby can find him, a second case occurs, revealing a terrifying fact: the virus can only be spread through direct tissue exchange. Following a trail of death that winds from a pregnant sixteen-year-old prostitute to her own home, Toby discovers the unthinkable: the epidemic didn't just happen - someone let it loose.
(Lapped by the gentle waters of Locust Lake, the small res...)
Lapped by the gentle waters of Locust Lake, the small resort town of Tranquility, Maine, seems like the perfect spot for Dr. Claire Elliot to shelter her adolescent son, Noah, from the distractions of the big city and the lingering memory of his father's death. But with the first snap of winter comes shocking news that puts her practice on the line: a teenage boy under her care has committed an appalling act of violence. And as Claire and all of Tranquility soon discover, it is just the start of a chain of lethal outbursts among the town's teenagers.
(Dr. Emma Watson has been training for the adventure of a ...)
Dr. Emma Watson has been training for the adventure of a lifetime: to study living beings in space. But her mission aboard the International Space Station turns into a nightmare beyond imagining when a culture of single-celled organisms begins to regenerate out of control - and infects the space station crew with agonizing and deadly results. Emma struggles to contain the outbreak while back on Earth her estranged husband, Jack McCallum, works frantically with NASA to bring her home. But there will be no rescue. The contagion now threatens Earth's population, and the astronauts are stranded in orbit, quarantined aboard the station - where they are dying one by one.
(In a shadowy antique shop in Rome, violinist Julia Ansdel...)
In a shadowy antique shop in Rome, violinist Julia Ansdell happens upon a curious piece of music - the Incendio waltz - and is immediately entranced by its unusual composition. Full of passion, torment, and chilling beauty, and seemingly unknown to the world, the waltz, its mournful minor key, its feverish arpeggios, appear to dance with a strange life of their own. Julia is determined to master the complex work and make its melody heard. Back home in Boston, from the moment Julia’s bow moves across the strings, drawing the waltz’s fiery notes into the air, something strange is stirred - and Julia’s world comes under threat. The music has a terrifying and inexplicable effect on her young daughter, who seems violently transformed. Convinced that the hypnotic strains of Incendio are weaving a malevolent spell, Julia sets out to discover the man and the meaning behind the score.
(After an unspeakable tragedy in Boston, Ava Collette flee...)
After an unspeakable tragedy in Boston, Ava Collette flees to a remote village in Maine, where she rents an old house named Brodie’s Watch. In that isolated seaside mansion, Ava finally feels at peace until she glimpses the long-dead sea captain who still resides there. Rumor has it that Captain Jeremiah Brodie has haunted the house for more than a century. One night, Ava confronts the apparition, who feels all too real, and who welcomes her into his world - and into his arms. Even as Ava questions her own sanity, she eagerly looks forward to the captain’s ghostly visits. But she soon learns that the house she loves comes with a terrible secret, a secret that those in the village don’t want to reveal: Every woman who has ever lived in Brodie’s Watch has also died there. Is the ghost of Captain Brodie responsible, or is a flesh-and-blood killer at work? A killer who is even now circling closer to Ava?
(Rizzoli & Isles series includes books The Surgeon (2001),...)
Rizzoli & Isles series includes books The Surgeon (2001),
The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), The Keepsake (2008), Ice Cold (2010), The Silent Girl (2011), Last To Die (2012), Die Again (2014), and I Know A Secret (2015).
Tess Gerritsen is an American novelist who writes in a genre of suspense and mystery. She is also a physician and brings to novels her first-hand knowledge of emergency and autopsy rooms.
Background
Ethnicity:
Tess Gerritsen is the child of a Chinese immigrant and a Chinese-American seafood chef.
Tess Gerritsen was born on June 12, 1953, in San Diego, California, United States. She is the daughter of Ernest and Ruby (Tao) Tom. Her first name is Terry but later she decided to change it to Tess. As a kid, she collected lizards and dissected snakes. She was a huge Nancy Drew fan.
Education
Tess Gerritsen has always been interested in science - biology, in particular. As a young girl, she used to explore the large canyon near her house in San Diego. Her favorite place to visit was the reptile house at the San Diego Zoo. As she grew up, it seemed only natural for her interest in biology to evolve into pre-med studies in college.
Tess received a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology at Stanford University in 1975. In 1979 she received a Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of California, San Francisco.
After graduation in 1979, Tess Gerritsen started her career of a physician in Honolulu, Hawaii. While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. She wrote the story On Choosing the Right Crack Seed for the magazine Honolulu. The story focused on a young male reflecting on a difficult relationship with his mother. Her first two novels remained unpublished. In 1987, her first novel, a romantic thriller Call After Midnight was published. In 1990, she quit medicine to write novels full-time. Call After Midnight was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. Then she switched to a different genre.
Tess’s first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. The novel was inspired by true events that she happened to know from a detective, about missing children’s cases in Moscow which authorities linked with the intention of harvesting their organs. Her suspense novels since then have been Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), The Surgeon (2001), The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), The Bone Garden (2007), The Keepsake (2008), Ice Cold (2010), The Silent Girl (2011), Last To Die (2012), Die Again (2015) and Playing With Fire (2015).
Gerritsen penned the critically acclaimed Rizzoli & Isles series. The first novel in this medical thriller series was The Surgeon which came out in 2001. The novel features the protagonist Jane Rizzoli, a homicide detective, who partners with Thomas Moore, tries to capture a killer with a medical skill set, who tortures and murders his victims. The second novel, The Apprentice (2002) introduces Dr. Maura Isles, a medical examiner who teams up with Rizzoli to help solve these cases with her expert medical opinion. The clever plot and strong female lead turned the series into an instant success. So far there are eleven novels in the series and it has been adapted into a television series as Rizzoli & Isles. The TV series is based on the first book only and its central characters. Gerritsen also wrote a historical thriller, The Bone Garden (2007), alongside writing the series. The story of the novel is set in the 1830s with a focus on grisly crime waves that took over Boston.
Besides fiction writing, she has also written a screenplay for a TV movie, Adrift. She penned a number of essays for International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America for her expert knowledge in thriller writing. She is also the composer of the musical piece "Incendio" for violin and piano, a waltz that features in the plot of her novel "Playing With Fire". Tess Gerritsen’s other notable works include, Never Say Die (1992), Keeper of the Bride (1996), Life Support (1997) and Bloodstream (1998). Her most recent book, The Shape of Night (2019), is about a woman trying to outrun her past is drawn to a quiet coastal town in Maine and to a string of unsolved murders.
(Rizzoli & Isles series includes books The Surgeon (2001),...)
Views
The books Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver have stuck with Tess Gerritsen throughout her life.
She loves history books, nonfiction, anything having to do with anthropology or mythology.
Quotations:
"The best ideas are those that really affect me emotionally - those are the ones you never forget."
"The hardest part of writing is the first draft and the closer you get to your deadline the messier your workspace becomes - but that’s the same with any creative outlet."
"Medical training was a window into the most personal aspects of peoples' lives. I've seen the most heartbreaking tragedies and watched families at their very best - and worst. I think it's the insight into human nature that makes medicine such intense preparation for any writing."
"I don't think women are in any way disadvantaged unless they write technical or military fiction. Then they do face the skepticism from male readers, who somehow don't 'trust' a woman to write technically accurate novels."
"The dead do not hurt you; only the living do."
"Evil doesn't die. It never dies. It just takes on a new face, a new name. Just because we've been touched by it once, it doesn't mean we're immune to ever being hurt again. Lightning can strike twice."
"Where we go depends on what we know, and what we know depends on where we go."
"Everything's a gamble, love most of all."
"The most intimate feeling people can share is neither love nor hate, but pain."
"The cruelest of blows too often came with a smile."
Membership
Author’s Guild
Mystery Writers of America
Romance Writers of America
Personality
Tess writes at least 1000 words a day in her office near the ocean in Maine. She handwrites her novels on a large messy desk surrounded by reference books.
Her best friends are all musicians. There's nothing she loves better than jamming with her musical friends. She plays the fiddle, and there are times when she's crammed up to thirty musicians in her house for a good old Celtic jam session. They drink beer, sing songs, and play their hearts away.
If she wasn’t a writer, Tess would spend her days playing the fiddle.
Interests
gardening, playing the fiddle
Connections
In 1977 Tess married Jacob Gerritsen. The marriage produced two children.