REVIEW: LAST TO DIE by Tess GerritsenI had read some of Ms. Gerritsen' s earlier mysteries quite some years back. When I read DIE AGAIN a couple of days ago, I found it so engrossing I decided to read all I had missed. LAST TO DIE is slightly earlier (2012), and this one is definitely in the category of gritty noir. Set in Boston, Maine, and in Rome of nearly two decades ago, it also references an earlier installment in the Rizzoli-Isles series, ICE COLD, set in Wyoming. LAST TO DIE focuses on a very unique boarding school in a very isolated location in Maine, housing and educating the children of violence. Dr. Isles, the Boston Medical Examiner, is involved because of Julian, the adolescent who was instrumental in her survival in Wyoming. Boston PD Detective Jane Rizzoli's connection begins through a foster CHILD who was orphaned two years earlier, and then orphaned again at the murders of his foster family. The plot threads are complex , but author Gerritsen skillfully manipulates them, never revealing too muck, and keeping readers on tip-toe. There's a couple of vicious villains included here, and I think one will be quite a surprise, so extra kudos to the author on that particular character! Jane is called to a massacre of a family where only one of the children has, somehow, managed to survive. Its uncomfortable enough to come on to a crime scene like this,but Jane is being brought in to try to deal with the survivor,not as a homicide detective first. Very quickly Jane finds out that this is the second such crime that Teddy Clock has been involved with, and as she looks into this incredible coincidence, she finds that maybe its not. Maybe its a murdering criminal stalking the boy, and several other children relentlessly to finish the jobs they started with their families. More coincidences and twists bring both the boy and Jane to the door step of Evensong boarding school, where Dr Isles just happens to be visiting her ward Julian Perkins. There are answers to be found there as victims mount,but there are also secrets there that cant even be imagined until it might be too late.Tense and tight all the way thru. Julian and his classmates make for interesting cohorts as Jane and Maura try to figure it all out, and of course the Mephisto Society and Anthony Sansone run the school, so there is that link that Maura cant quite figure out, with this man. Also she's not sure she doesnt belong, in some ways, with this group. Again very different the the TV series,but its easy to see the actors faces for our two heros. One of my favorites from this type of genre, Tess Garritsen has a way of turning a "just the facts" type thriller into something of a mysterious,maybe even magical thing.
What do You think about De Laatste Sterft (2012)?
Not as much fun as previous entries, but still a pretty entertaining read.
—Kittybeme4
