First Sentence: We called him
Icarus.
In Italy, a man is kidnapped
and his family accidentally killed in the process. In Ithaca, NY and in New Hampshire, the
foster families of two children are murdered, as were there parents previously. Then the same happens in Boston with the
family of Teddy Clock. Unaware of the
other cases, Detective Jane Rizzoli is the lead with her friend, Dr. Maura
Isles the pathologist. To keep Teddy
safe, Maura takes him to Evensong, the secure school run by Anthony Sansone and
Jane, with her partner Frost, heads down a very twisty, dangerous road to find
a killer.
Starting with the first
sentence of the prologue, you can put the rest of your life on hold until your
reach the very last word; Ms. Gerritsen has taken hold.
Addressing the details, the
dialogue is excellent; natural and sharp.
The descriptions create a very strong sense of place; particularly
important and the characters move from locale to locale. The characters are very well drawn and fully
developed. This is the only place where
Ms. Gerritsen does lose minor points as someone new to the series might feel a
bit lost, particularly when incidents are referred to from the previous two
books.
The great strength of this
book is the plot. There are three,
possibly four, story lines. This only
adds veracity to the book as no live runs single path. What is wonderful is that each is as
compelling, and often suspenseful, as the other. With every page the plot becomes more
layered, more engrossing and takes you somewhere you never expected it to
go. There are amazing twists and turns.
Even at the very end, we’re left uncertain as to where the series may go next.
On
the slightly negative side, I can't say I'm thrilled with the Mephisto Club
thread. Although it's interesting, it
seems to be taking the series a bit into the conspiracy theory realm for
me.
“Last
to Die” is a gripping, compelling, non-stop, go-away-I’m-reading book. It may not be great literature--in fact, I'd
forgotten the plot a month later--but it is one really great airplane read.
LAST TO DIE (Susp-Rizzol &
Isles-Massachusetts/Maine-Contemp) – Good+
Gerritsen, Tess
Ballantine Books, 2012
Posts
I did enjoy this book; however, as you noted, had I not read its predecessors, it would not have been as interesting. As it is, it's almost a reunion of Rizzoli and Isles protagonists. There was almost a sense of comfort in the familiarity of the characters and I found myself smiling as I was re-introduced to them.
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