This is the third book that I have reviewed by Tess Gerritsen so you would be right in thinking that I enjoy reading her books - although they scare me stiff. You might also be right in thinking that this says something about me as well as about the writer.
Gerritsen enjoys unusual openings, sometimes startlingly unexpected, sometimes using subtle indications to suggest that horror may follow. Her books are frightening in their details of murder and her knowledge of the construction of the human body and the appalling variations that a murderer can employ to achieve his/her intention, no doubt owing much to her medical training. The main characters are the ones that readers have come to recognise: Detective Jane Rizzoli with the homicide unit of Boston Police Department and Maura Isles as medical examiner or pathologist.
This is a novel that moves from place to place according to the requirements of the plot which is, as usual, quite complicated. Gerritsen seems to have a working knowledge of the geography, not only of Boston but also of Siena, Florence, Rome and Sorrento. As we read we move with the characters through these places with what I assume is accurate detail.
Time is also a variable factor. The book starts with a short chapter describing a funeral in the Saul family, introducing the reader, though little more than by name, to the family who are the main protagonists in the later chapters. The next chapter moves to events twelve years on and the book continues to move backwards and forwards across the twelve years, chapters in italics headed by the four phases of the moon taking the reader back through events which happened in the past. The present in the book is focused on horrifying, butchered murders which are carried out with much blood and decorated with evil and ancient symbols.
The Mephisto Club takes its name from Mephistopheles, the evil spirit to whom Faustus sold his soul in return for
knowledge.
This is a complicated book which confidently deals with knowledge of shells, the details of how red ocher is mixed, the Books of Enoch from the Apocrypha, the Book of Jubilees - another ancient text - and details from Biblical, Hebrew and Egyptian legends. Make no mistake about it, this is a book which compels attention from beginning to end.
-------------
Rosemary Brown
Other books by Tess Gerritsen include: The Surgeon, Harvest, Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, The Apprentice, Body Double, Vanish