Being a fan of the hit TNT television show, Rizzoli & Isles, I felt drawn to the books that inspired the characters. Tess Gerritsen vividly brings Boston homicide detective, Jane Rizzoli, and medical examiner, Dr. Maura Isles, to life in the pages of this book. This is not the first book in the series, but one doesn't need to have read the prior novels to understand what's occurring in the plot. Gerritsen backtracks to prior knowledge when it's needed to discuss pertinent backstory. I chose this book because the description on Amazon grabbed my interest more than any other of the books in this series. With that said, I found this story so interesting and ultimately captivating that author Tess Gerritsen has found a new reader in me. I recently ordered a few more of her books from this series.The fan of the T.V. show and the novels will be able to detect the foundation for the characters in the books, but Janet Tamaro, who is responsible for writing the scripts for TNT, has taken Gerritsen's characters and made them uniquely her own. In fact, there are times when the reader wonders if she’s reading about the same characters that inhabit the television series. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are enough interesting character points present in both interpretations to hold one’s attention. Overall, the basis for Tamaro’s television characters can be found in the writing of author, Tess Gerritsen. Gerritsen is a physician in addition to being an author. You can feel it in the way she writes. She speaks to the reader through her character, Dr. Isles, who seamlessly explains to us the intricate details involved in the novels’ murders. Anyone who watches Rizzoli & Isles on TNT knows that humor plays a large role in the stories. On T.V., Dr. Maura Isles is one of the most quirky, lovable characters on television. The literary version is much more cool and removed. The humor that enlivens the television series is not evident in the novel version. The books don’t seem to suffer as a result of that fact. The stories are so fast-paced and pulling that one forgets that there’s very little humor in them. I was in awe of how intricate and creative Gerritsen’s story was. In Body Double, Maura is faced with a murder victim who looks distinctly like her. As the plot unfolds, the story leads Maura and the reader down a path of discovery behind the adopted Dr. Isles’s family history. What occurs as we reach the conclusion is compellingly intriguing. It’s the kind of writing that makes it nearly impossible to put down. I read this book in two days. Body Double is a fantastic, quick, mind-bending read. With it, Tess Gerritsen has earned herself another fan.
I have to be honest – I don’t enjoy reading crime novels where the detectives are female. It’s just one of those things along with being OCD about numbers and so on. But this was highly recommended and I had just finished reading Ben Aaronvitch’s wonderful ‘Rivers of London’ and needed something to take its place so I took a chance.The following review however is not affected by my dislike of women in crime stories, but I will, hopefully, give a fair account of why this simple didn’t work for me.The premise started off very well. (page 42) A woman who looks exactly like Maura Isles is found murdered outside Isles’s home.(page 59) Isles looks at the body and thinks: Dear god, that’s my own face, my own body, on the table.(page 71) after pages of navel-gazing about the fact that the woman looks identical to Isles and it could be ‘her’ on the table Isles finds out that the dead woman has the same blood group. (page 73) She finds out that the woman has the same birthdate as herself.(page 74) ‘You see why I want it, now? Everything about her – from the way she looks, to her blood type, to her date of birth…’ Maura paused. ‘She’s me. I want to know where she comes from. I want to know who that woman is.’Okay. So Isles is an intelligent, educated adult. What would YOU think in these circumstances? (forgetting that the blurb has already given the game away. Duh!!) Yep. Twin sister. Obvious isn’t it. (oh, and Isles is adopted so even more obvious that any doppelganger is likely to be a sibling or twin.)BUT it isn’t until page 115, after pages and pages of waffle, of ‘pregnant pauses’ where we are supposed to wait with bated breath for the results (and my god how I HATE those!) that the reader is finally told what they have known for the last 60 pages or so. Isles has an identical twin sister. Yawn. I knew that AGES ago… I got fed up of reading the 'wait for it' moments, the long drawn out explanations, the almost painful exposition of facts. I lost all hope that this might be a crisp, tense thriller. I had read the first 25% of the book and there was really very little in it that had not been covered in the blurb. And then when I came upon Chapter 8 I was tempted to stop reading altogether. (view spoiler)[ A pregnant woman is imprisoned underground in a small wooden box. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Body Double (2005)?
What I like about some authors is their ability to create likeable characters and continue their personal stories throughout a series of really good mysteries. This book focus on the history of Dr. Isles - the medical examiner dubbed "the Queen of the Dead." It is hard to say too much about this story without giving anything away, but I will say that parts of this mystery had me guessing all the way to the end.Another strong book by Tess Gerritsen... I continue to be drawn in by her unique stories and easy to read style.
—Trudy
Tess Gerritsen gives her books three major themes that I crave and love: knowledgeable information, gripping storyline, and realistic characters. A fourth but not required theme that she always throws in, much to my pleasure, is trust in the reader to be intelligent.Body Double is no disappointment. I finished this book in two days, causing my roommate to believe I had died in the bathtub. I was in fact sitting in room temperature water looking like a wrinkled old lady because I couldn't set it down long enough to get out and get dressed.Gerritsen's fourth book in the Rizzoli and Isles series centers mostly around Isles in this one, but throws in the needed Rizzoli updates and back up. Pulling out of nowhere a family that Isles was never aware of, Gerritsen manages to avoid the cliche and in fact brings on a huge dark twist that is the stuff of nightmares for any adopted child finding out about their blood relatives. The possibility of serial killer blood in her veins keeps the reader morbidly watching to see if speculation is true of Isle's supposed family members. This is a stomach turning, nail biting, brain wracking story. Isles begrudgingly digs into her family history all the while with a horrifying danger lingering just above her head. I hate spoilers so I find myself refraining for specific scenes because each scene is so important to the book.A recommended read if you have the stomach for Gerritsen's graphic bloody scenes and a love for her psychological torment.
—Lady
What would you do if you found out you had an identical twin... and was found dead a few feet from your doorstep? That is what Dr. Maura Isles experiences and she searches far and wide to find out about the family she never knew as well as people she will live to want to forget. She unravels a twisted series of murders that have been going on just under all of the police authority's noses and only she will track down and find out a case that not only will stop the murders from continuing but bring closure to something so personal and evil that will pierce her to her very soul.This book was great. It was much better than another book I read of Tess's that was later in this series. I found that the plot was so well woven together, with characters having the story get to them personally in different ways. Plus there was a twist every moment or so that left me turning the pages. And I experienced great tension during the book's most frightening moments.I recommend if you want to get into Rizzoli & Isles series this wouldn't be a bad book to start in to find a complicated but rewarding storyline.
—CJ
