TESS GERRITSEN – Ice Cold. Ballantine Books, hardcover, June 2010; reprint paperback: April 2011.

Genre:   Police procedural. Leading characters:   Rizzoli & Isles; 8th in series. Setting:   Wyoming.

First Sentence:   She was the chosen one.

    Medical Examiner Maura Isles, in Wyoming for a medical conference, takes off on an impromptu ski weekend with a former college friend, his daughter and another couple. Faulty GPS directions and a blizzard, leaves them lost, stranded and one of the group with a life-threatening injury.

    Seeking shelter, they find the village of Kingdom Come where, in spite of signs that people lived there very recently, everyone has disappeared. Her friend, who leaves to seek help, disappears and it’s up to Maura to brave the winter.

    In Boston, Det. Jane Rizzoli is informed her friend, Maura, died in a car accident and fire. Jane travels to Wyoming with her FBI-agent husband and finds the more they learn, the more things seem wrong. What has really happened and just who are the bad guys?

    I must remember the lesson of never starting a Tess Gerritsen book in the evening as I did not put this book down until I’d finished it at 4 a.m. So I write this review being sleep deprived.

    By the eighth book in a series, some authors forget a reader may be picking this up as a first book. Not true here. The essential background information for each character is incorporated into the flow of the story. We know who these characters are and understand their relationships.

    The only character for whom that is not true is the rather mysterious and enigmatic Anthony Sansone, introduced in The Mephisto Club, yet that lack of definition felt deliberate and didn’t bother me.

    Both Jane and Maura are smart, strong, capable women while having a more vulnerable side making their portrayals realistic. Gerritsen’s ability to convey setting and conditions not only provide a strong sense of place but add to the tension of her books. When it’s cold, you reach for a blanket; when you’re in an autopsy, you want to look away but can’t.

    She also expresses emotion incredibly well; anger, fear, uncertainty, being overwhelmed by fatigue — they are all made tangible. The plot touches on many issues relevant to recent news. Those issues are handled factually and informatively. As always, Ms. Gerritsen’s medical and forensic knowledge is apparent. If find myself fascinated but admit it is not always for the weak of stomach.

    Her ability to create a feeling of danger and suspense keeps you turning the pages. I was certainly never able to predict the “who” and “why” behind the events.

    I do have one criticism. I kept having the feel Ms. Gerritsen’s original book was much longer and she was forced to trim it down. Whether this was the reason, it had a choppy feel to many of the transitions between scenes. The flow I would like to have seen just wasn’t there.

    While I personally prefer Ms. Gerritsen’s standalone thrillers, this was a book I very much enjoyed. It’s the perfect weekend or airplane read and I look forward to the next case of Rizzoli and Isles.

Rating:   Good Plus.

Editorial Comments:   For a list of all of Tess Gerritsen’s suspense novels, complete with covers for most of them, check out the Fantastic Fiction website.

   I watched the first two episodes of the Rizzoli & Isles TV show on TNT, and was favorably impressed. Not enough to put up with logos, commercials and the constant clutter on the screen while you’re trying to watch, but enough so that I plan on buying the first season on DVD as soon as it comes out. Did anyone else keep up with the series?