TEST
Tess Gerritsen has undoubtedly come up with an intriguing premise in The Mephisto Club. Unfortunately, due to what would definitely be termed TSTL behavior on the part of her tag team of recurring characters and my perennially wrinkled forehead regarding character details that the author never bothers to provide, it never really got past that point for me.
If you’re not familiar with her two regular characters – coroner Dr. Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli – the author doesn’t help by filling in any but the most basic details. From what I gather, crusty Jane has recently settled down and had a baby, while Maura is in love (and my creep factor was pretty much off the charts here) with a priest who doesn’t want to give up being a priest.
The story revolves around the search for a killer who tortures and murders women, leaving bizarre ritualistic details at the murder scenes. Before you can say “Satantic killer”, one of their fellow cops working on the case is found murdered in the home of the head of The Mephisto Club, a group who believes they have all seen the face of evil in the world and are dedicated to stopping it.
So, clearly, the way the bodies are mutilated and displayed (and consider this your graphic violence warning) is being done based on a great deal of obscure knowledge. The members of The Mephisto Club possess this obscure knowledge. So, along with considering them as suspects, don’t you think it might make sense to actually listen to any insights they might be able to provide in order to catch the lunatic who is killing women right and left? Huh? Apparently, Detective Jane doesn’t think so and I thought very much the less of her for it.
Since any other comments I might provide would necessitate spoilers, let me summarize by saying that if you haven’t read any of the books featuring these characters before, you’d be lost (just as I was) throughout this book. If you like your detectives to actually…well, I don’t know…kind of do things to solve crimes, then you might also be a bit disappointed.
I’ve written before about authors cutting corners by relying on a kind of character shorthand (“well, you know how Jane is”) instead of real, old-fashioned character development. Jane is crusty and has a nice husband and a cute baby. Maura is less crusty, but is spending a lot of time obsessing over a priest. They’re both supposed to be good at their jobs. And after reading 351 pages, that’s just about all I know.
And that ain’t good.
Grade: C-
Book Type: Suspense
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 12/10/06
Publication Date: 2006
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.