About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

THE KILLING PLACE
by Tess Gerritsen
Bantam, January 2011
441 pages
7.99 GBP
ISBN: 0553820516


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Dr Maura Isles is miserable, lonely and angry with her lover, Daniel Brophy, a priest who is more committed to God than he ever will be to her. At a medical conference in Wyoming she runs into Douglas Comley, an old school friend who confesses that he's still carrying a torch for her. After dinner, drinks, and an aborted telephone call with Daniel, Maura agrees to accompany Douglas on an impromptu skiing trip with his thirteen year old daughter, a celebrity chef and his girlfriend.

They set off early, in light snow fall, but by lunchtime it's coming down heavily and thanks to the satellite navigation they're lost. Convinced they're on the wrong road, they try to turn around. Unfortunately, their jeep gets stuck in a shallow ravine and they're left to find shelter before night sets in or they freeze to death. A difficult walk brings them to a deserted compound, known as Kingdom Come, where they let themselves in the first of twelve identical houses. They discover enough wood and matches to keep them warm and enough tinned food to keep them fed for months, and although it isn't what they had in mind for the weekend, at least they're still alive.

Their problems start to mount when they begin to investigate their surroundings; finding dead pets, houses with windows thrown open despite the weather, tables abandoned during meals, and evidence of something violent having taken place. They also find a functioning jeep, but their first attempt at escape ends in one of their number being seriously injured, and their next lands Maura in the hands of a strange young boy on the run.

Meanwhile, in Boston, Detective Jane Rizzoli has realised her friend Maura is missing, and along with Daniel Brophy and Jane's FBI husband, she drops everything to fly to Wyoming and start the search.

Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli are reoccurring characters of Tess Gerritsen's, appearing in their sixth and eight books respectively, but this doesn't mean that prior knowledge of the characters is required. Along with such trivialities as Rizzoli and her husband dumping their daughter with her grandparents at no notice or taking leave of their jobs for an unspecified amount of time, problems such as unfamiliarity with the characters are swept away in the rapid pace of the narrative.

This novel's greatest strength is its confidence and gall not to be concerned with anything that might prevent the story from being told. Maura, Douglas and the group wind up in Kingdom Come thanks to the most incredible, unbelievable set of circumstances; an unknown road, a misplaced ravine, an unexpected snowstorm. Real people wouldn't even have gone out in those weather conditions and it's difficult not to keep thinking that they have brought this upon themselves.

However, Maura's motives for going on the trip will ring true with many readers, and as she engenders more and more sympathy it's easy to overlook the plot holes as well as the idiotic and at times irritating supporting cast. This is an entertaining novel, easy to read, with very little to offend. Even the shocking crux of the plot is dealt with in a vanilla, clinical way and the climax is unexpected but not a real surprise. Still, this is an ideal book for a plane flight or an afternoon in the sun.

Released in the US as ICE COLD

Madeleine Marsh is an aspiring writer who lives in South West England. She helps run sci-fi conventions and loves modern cinema.

Reviewed by Madeleine Marsh, May 2011

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]