Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen's novels provided the impetus for the TNT series Rizzoli & Isles. Angie Harmon of Law and Order fame and Sasha Alexander formerly in NCIS play the Boston Police Detective Jane Rizzoli and the Medical Examiner Maura Isles respectively. Ms. Gerritsen also writes an occasional post for Gina Holmes' award winning website Novel Rocket, formerly Novel Journey.
Since Tess comes off as tough, outspoken, and intelligent - the word spunky comes to mind - I decided to pick one of her novels to read. Settling on Ice Cold, I took the trip with Dr. Maura Isles into the chilling mountains of Wyoming.
In Ice Cold the heroine Maura Isles attends a medical conference in Wyoming while nursing a broken heart over an unrequited love affair with a priest. The pragmatic Dr. Isles decides to do the unpredictable when an old acquaintance talks her into taking an impromptu ski trip with two of his friends. When the weather threatens their safety, an effort to turn around goes horribly awry. The foursome discover a cluster of identical abandoned houses not too far from their incapacitated Suburban, but they soon realize they have no cell phone service and no one knows where they are.
Although the houses have food, shelter, and wood for the fireplaces, it isn't until they find a vehicle in the garage that they attempt to leave and get back down the mountain. As they're battling the fierce snow, the need for adding chains causes a gruesome accident injuring one of the men. Things go downhill fast from there.
Meanwhile Maura's lover alerts Jane Rizzoli to his inability to contact Maura. Jane isn't too receptive, thinking she's probably ignoring the priest, but Jane begins to wonder when she can't reach Maura.
I'm not sure I would've cared for the "real" character Maura Isles if I couldn't hear Sasha Alexander's voice and portrayal in the background of this story. The "real" Maura Isles seems more hardcore, less sympathetic, and only toward the end of this book does she seem to acquire any sustained likability.
Ice Cold is a story of cultic behaviors, quirky characters, horror, murder, fear, survival, and the determined pursuit of a friend and lover. Since Ms. Gerritsen is a physician, the medical tech-speak works efficiently in her writing. I could do without the f-bombs dropped by the women in the story and the lumping together of true spirituality with cultish behaviors, but the novel is suspenseful and entertaining.
(Amazon.com)
Father, only you know where Tess is with you. I pray you would continue to bless her life and that she would know that every good and perfect gift comes from you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.