Die Again -- Tess Gerritsen

A renowned taxidermist in Boston is found dead, his body displayed in a macabre and even ironic way, considering his line of work. Leon Gott, the taxidermist who also cherishes the hunt and has a home filled with mounted trophies, had plenty of enemies amongst the animal-loving crowd. But could one of them responsible for his horrific murder?

Six years ago, a group of seven strangers traveled deep into the safari of Botswana for the experience of a lifetime. Surrounded by beasts who could devour them, their only safety comes from the man with the rifle: their bush guide. But the wild animals of Africa aren't the only ones willing to hunt and kill. There is a hunter amongst them. And only one will walk away from that safari alive.

Horrors on two different continents years apart. And yet, as Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles dig deeper into the investigation of Leon Gott's homicide, the connections start appearing. Could the person responsible for a massacre of seven people in Africa have come to Boston to hunt?


***Tess Gerritsen has done it again! I was sucked in almost immediately and didn't want to put the book down. I really enjoyed the flashback chapters and changing from third-person narrative to first-person. Another skillfully written suspense novel that kept me riveted and leaves me anxiously anticipating her next Rizzoli and Isles thriller!

Ice Cold -- Tess Gerritsen

While Dr. Maura Isles is at a medical conference in Wyoming, she runs into a former college classmate who invites her to join he, his friends, and his daughter for a day of skiing before they leave Wyoming. With the issues in her own relationship with Daniel Brophy on her mind, Maura decides to enjoy the company of this handsome man and accepts his offer; a choice that changes the course of her life.

When the suburban the group is traveling in winds up on its side in a ditch in a snowstorm, the group is forced to leave the vehicle and wade through snow down a road that offers the only sign of life for miles... a road that ends in Kingdom Come. There they find several abandoned houses, and before long, they know something bad had taken place in those houses. As the days pass, and as one of their group is maimed beyond repair, their only option for salvation comes through one member leaving the group in search for help.

Meanwhile, Maura's friends in Boston become unsettled when Maura neither returns calls nor returns on time from her trip. Immediately Detective Jane Rizzoli and her husband Gabriel Dean, an FBI agent, fly to Wyoming in search of clues to Maura's whereabouts. When bodies turn up charred in the suburban, everyone assumes the worst. As her friends mourn her life, Maura fights for her life in the frigid winter of Wyoming with only the help of a 16-year-old boy and his stray dog Bear to help her survive.

The Keepsake -- Tess Gerritsen

The Crispin Museum, an almost-forgotten museum in Boston, Massachusetts, is the center of much excitement and news coverage when an ancient Egyptian mummy is found stored in the basement. Striving to learn more about the mummy, the museum curator arranges for a CT Scan of the remains at a local hospital. The results, though, are nothing anyone expected. A bullet in one of the legs of the mummy proves that this is no ancient mummy, and the case is turned over to the Medical Examiner's office, where Dr. Maura Isles discovers that the mummy is actually a modern murder victim who has been mummified and made into a keepsake for the killer. Immediately the Crispin Museum, along with its employees, is hurled into a murder investigation, and Detective Jane Rizolli and her partner Barry Frost begin digging around in the museum's basement, searching for clues as to how and when the mummy arrived there. Before long, more modern remains turn up in the museum basement, and clues left with the bodies become quite disturbing for Josephine Pulcillo, the museum's Egyptologist.

Josephine is not disturbed only by the gruesomeness of these acts. She is also disturbed by the coincidental links to her past these clues seem to posses. And when a third victim, also mummified, is found in her car trunk, she becomes sure that the clues are not coincidental. Her past has caught up with her, and now she is faced with the task of staying one step ahead of her hunter. Meanwhile, Detectives Rizolli and Frost follow leads from New Mexico and Texas as they track down the killer, all the while learning that Josephine Pulcillo is not who she claims to be. As they uncover secrets that are 15 years old, the detectives realize they are dealing with an obsessed killer; a killer who has managed to stay hidden for decades. Will they be able to find him and stop him before Josephine becomes his next keepsake?