18 April 2012

Review: Vanish by Tess Gerritsen

Vanish by Tess Gerritsen book cover
This is my first encounter with the increasingly popular author Tess Gerritsen and her series of books featuring Detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isles.  The series of novels have been developed into a TV series called Rizzoli & Isles which I have been following; so when a member of the family offered to lend me one of Gerritsen's novels I thought why not?

As I know from experience, the book is always different from the movie/TV show and it was no different here.  In Vanish, Detective Rizzoli is heavily pregnant which is quite a departure from the character from the TV program and I don't think I ever quite got used to the idea of Jane as a mother in the novel.

Taken hostage in the hospital while in labour - which was a little unbelievable - Jane does her best to stay alive, however the case is taken over by the highest powers and Jane and her FBI husband try and work out what is behind the clean up attempts and hidden evidence.  There are allusions to terrorism and a visit with a Senator however the ending was extremely disappointing - spoiler alert - in that it all boiled down to a sex/snuff tape featuring the most powerful man in the Intelligence arena.  

This is an average crime story, but nothing more than that.  It did contain a moving sub-plot of a young girl struggling to seek freedom however it was mildly entertaining at best.  My cover is different to the image above (no naked image of a woman) and contains the following quote:
'This is crime writing at its unputdownable, nerve-tingling best.'                                                                                                                - HARLAN COBEN
Unfortunately I didn't find Vanish unputdownable or nerve-tingling and I'm not sure if I'll be giving Gerritsen a second chance in the future; not for a while anyway. I think I'll stick to the TV Show for now, which I enjoy very much.

My rating **1/2

Carpe Librum!

Would you like to comment?

Thanks for your comment, Carpe Librum!