Gerritsen’s ‘Surgeon’ a page-turning thriller

THE SURGEON, by Tess Gerritsen, Ballantine Books, New York, 2001, 359 pages, hardcover, $24.95.

In this new release, terror stalks the streets of Boston in the form of a serial killer of women.

Yep, Tess Gerritsen’s back with a creepy medical thriller, a genre she’s quickly making her own (move over, Robin Cook). This marks her fourth medical novel, following “Life Support,” “Bloodstream” and “Gravity.” Author Stephen King has said, “Gerritsen is an automatic must-read in my house.”

The novel’s titular character is a man who kidnaps, mutilates and kills women in a ritualistic fashion.

His methods strike home for Dr. Catherine Cordell, a cardiac surgeon. That’s because she was almost the victim of another man who killed in the same manner years earlier in Savannah, but she got loose and shot him instead. Now she finds herself a target once again, and she has no idea why.

So who is this copycat killer? That’s the question that haunts the Boston homicide team led by Thomas Moore. A widower, Moore has been content to live with the memories of his beloved wife, Mary, but he finds himself drawn toward the brave yet vulnerable Cordell (that’s elements of Gerritsen’s days as a romance novelist seeping through).

Moore is both aided and hindered by detective Jane Rizzoli, who resents how she feels that she’s treated in a “boys club” and is out to prove that she belongs on her first big case.

Gerritsen, a Camden resident, has said she set out to write a novel with disturbing subject matter and graphic sexual material. She takes readers into the mind of the seemingly normal killer, a haunting place where the killer cites historical precedents and justifies actions as a memorial to a past love.

A San Diego native, Gerritsen is a physician herself, which helps the hospital scenes at Pilgrim Medical Center to ring with authenticity. She’s equally deft with police procedure, thanks to her meticulous research.

“The Surgeon” is a riveting, page-turning suspense thriller. Gerritsen sprinkles enough clues along the way that veteran mystery readers can piece together much about the killer, but they’ll enjoy the bumpy ride nonetheless.