Listen to Me by Tess Gerritsen blog tour

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Listen to Me by author Tess Gerritsen, this is a Random Things Tour.

The book is available to buy now, click HERE to purchase from Amazon UK.

About the author

Bestselling author TESS GERRITSEN is also a physician, and she brings to her novels her first-hand knowledge of emergency and autopsy rooms. Her thrillers starring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TV series Rizzoli & Isles. But Tess’s interests span far more than medicine and crime. As an anthropology student at Stanford University, she catalogued centuries-old human remains, and she continues to travel the world, driven by her fascination with ancient cultures and bizarre natural phenomena.

For my Stop I have my review, non spoiler as always.

Listen To Me by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read -

Pages - 336

Publisher - Bantam Press

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Mothers know best . . . But who will listen?

Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are plagued by what seems like a completely senseless murder. Sofia Suarez, a widow and nurse who was universally liked by all her neighbors, lies bludgeoned to death in her own home. But anything can happen behind closed doors, and Sofia seemed to have plenty of secrets in her last days, making covert phone calls to old contacts and traceless burner phones. When Jane finally makes a connection between Sofia and the victim of a hit-and-run months earlier, the case only grows more blurry. What exactly was Sofia involved in? One thing is clear: The killer will do anything it takes to keep their secret safe.

Meanwhile, Angela Rizzoli hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in all the years since her daughter became a homicide detective. Maybe the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. Nothing in her neighborhood gets by Angela - not the gossip about a runaway teenager down the block and definitely not the strange neighbors who have just moved in across the street. Angela’s sure there’s no such thing as coincidence in her sleepy suburb. If only Jane would listen; instead she writes off Angela’s concerns as the result of an overactive imagination. But Angela’s convinced there’s a real wolf in her vicinity, and her cries might now fall on deaf ears.

With so much happening on the Sofia case, Jane and Maura already struggle to see the forest for the trees, but will they lose sight of something sinister happening much closer to home?



My Review

It has been a while since I have read a Rizzoli and Isles, huge fan so jumped at the opportunity to read this one. I don't think I have read all of them but read most, been a while so I have small gaps. In this one jane & Frost are investigating the murder of a nurse, just home from work and killed. Maura is doing her bit, examining the body & keeping busy with something she hasn't told Jane about. Hello Jane's mum, I don't remember huge amounts about her before but she certainly steals the show a bit in this one. Curtain twitching or rather a bit more obvious than that she is clocking the new neighbours, something is up and she is going to get to the bottom of it.

Jane & Maura are fab duo, they are so very different in so many aspects and with this one we get another glimpse of that. Their friendship has been tried and tested and this time they are just working the case. We meet a few new characters central and around the story. The chapters bounce between them, named in some chapters for ease to follow for the readers.

Intrigue a plenty, the murder, we have Amy - young accident survivor, protective parents which is no wonder and a mysterious individual ?following Amy or just coincidence they are in the same place. Angela was the show stopper for me, she is a total card, larger than life, feisty, into everything and like a dog with a bone when she feels she is onto something. You can see where Jane gets it from.

The book has plenty to keep the reader hooked, sub plots and stories, characters a plenty but not so much you get distracted. I hope it isn't too long until the next, shocks, surprises and a very good lesson of Listen To Me because you never know just how important something someone tells you is, 4/5 for me this time!

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Vanish by Tess Gerritsen

Vanish by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 462

Publisher - Bantam

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

A nameless, beautiful woman appears to be just another corpse in the morgue. An apparent suicide, she lies on a gurney, awaiting the dissecting scalpel of medical examiner Maura Isles. But when Maura unzips the body bag and looks down at the body, she gets the fright of her life. The corpse opens its eyes.
Very much alive, the woman is rushed to the hospital, where with shockingly cool precision, she murders a security guard and seizes hostages . . . one of them a pregnant patient, Jane Rizzoli.
Who is this violent, desperate soul, and what does she want? As the tense hours tick by, Maura joins forces with Jane s husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, to track down the mysterious killer s identity. When federal agents suddenly appear on the scene, Maura and Gabriel realize that they are dealing with a case that goes far deeper than just an ordinary hostage crisis.
Only Jane, trapped with the armed madwoman, holds the key to the mystery. And only she can solve it if she survives the night. ."



My Review

This is book 5 in the Rizzoli & Isle's series, I have to confess to reading them out of order and this one must have slipped my attention. These books are gritty and fast paced, short chapters which I love and perfect if you are struggling reading and having your attention kept just now.

Human trafficking and the sex trade features in parts of the book and of course all the brutality that comes with that so be prepared. A body makes its way to Isle's mortuary only for her to discover it isn't actually a dead body. Chaos ensues a hostage situation/standoff and Rizzoli who is heavily pregnant is caught in the middle. Things aren't always what they seem and as the tension the situation becomes more deadly it gets some of the "players" wondering if there isn't more to all this than meets the eye.

The book splits between the situation with Isles/Rizzoli/the undead woman and that of a girl promised a better future only to be caught up in enforced prostitution. We follow the girls, what they have to endure and just trying to survive to the hostage situation and back and forth.

Tense, brutal and we see a bit more of a tender side to feisty Rizzoli despite being heavily pregnant. A fantastic series and I forgot how much I enjoy Gerritsen books, I will need to look and see if there are any others I have missed, 4/5 for me this time.

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Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen

Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 288

Publisher - Ballantine Books

Blurb from Goodreads

A beautiful violinist is haunted by a very old piece of music she finds in a strange antique shop in Rome.

The first time Julia Ansdell picks up The Incendio Waltz, she knows it’s a strikingly unusual composition. But while playing the piece, Julia blacks out and awakens to find her young daughter implicated in acts of surprising violence. And when she travels to Venice to find the previous owner of the music, she uncovers a dark secret that involves dangerously powerful people—a family who would stop at nothing to keep Julia from bringing the truth to light.


My Review

I read the ebook of this so I am not sure how the printed version will work but I feel I must mention a few things. The chapters are split between Julia and Lorenzo, present day Julia & Lorenzo is in Venice just before and then during, World War 2. The page for the start of the chapters have music note paper along with either Julia or Lorenzos name, earmarking whose chapter it is. The beginning of the book, before the story starts, has a beautiful old black and white photograph, I may be able to post it with this onto the actual blog post.

Julia find herself a piece of music whilst in Rome, when she plays it, on her violin, her daughter becomes violent. Julia is becoming increasing anxious and finds herself being under scrutiny by her family and health care professionals. She needs to get to the bottom of this piece, where did it come from and why is it stirring up so much trouble.

Lorenzo is a magnificent violinist, he creates music, is successful and falling in love. However Lorenzo finds himself in the times of the reign of Hitler and from his family being respected and part of the community, to shunned and at the hands of the Germans. The stories flip between Julia & Lorenzo, then and now & a dangerous path Julia can't get off of to get to the end of her goal.

I don't know what I expected of this book, I love Tess Gerritsen, especially Rizzoli/Isles so I requested this without reading the blurb. Then when I realised it was about music I was like oh no, I won't like this. However, the music, whilst is a big part of the story, it isn't the whole part. Family dynamics, murder, secrets, World War 2, mass murder, love, friendship and illness to cover just some of the issues covered in this story.

I could have read this in one sitting, I think Gerritsen has captured such a horrific subject, from Lorenzo's time frame and done it well. There are some big twists you don't see coming and the storytelling draws you in. There is an encounter with animal cruelty, some of the scenes from Lorenzo's time are harrowing so just a heads up for people who find such things upsetting. That said it is a very good story, I just wish it had been longer. 4/5 for me this time, thanks so much to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

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Girl Missing by Tess Gerritsen

Girl Missing by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2.5 days

Publisher - Transworld Books

Pages - 334

Blurb from Goodreads

The first body is a mystery. She's young. She's beautiful. And her corpse, laid out in the office of Boston medical examiner Kat Novak, betrays no secrets - except for a notebook clutched in one stiff hand, seven numbers scrawled inside.
The next body is a warning. When a second victim is discovered, Kat begins to fear that a serial killer is stalking the city streets: a shadowy madman without mercy or apparent motive. The police are sceptical. The mayor won't listen. And Kat's chief suspect is one of the city's most prominent citizens.
The final body . . . might be hers. With the death toll rising, Kat races to expose a deadly conspiracy and the brutal killer at its heart - a killer who will stalk her from the dangerous streets of the inner city to the corridors of power. Because he's closer than she ever dreamt. And every move she makes could be her very last.


My Review

The book starts out well, our main character is Kat Novak, medical examiner who takes it upon herself to investigate when the local authorities don't seem too bothered about some drugs users who turn up dead. All have the unusual mix of drugs that are new on the street and after two bodies, Kat knows something needs to be done. Adam Quantrell comes to the morgue to identify a body, which it turns out isn't who he thought however Adam is tangled up in this somehow. He owns a pharmaceutical company and seems to be linked to one of the victims. Kat doesn't trust him however he may be the only person who can help her. Together they try to uncover the truth and end up fighting not only for the truth but for their lives.

Kat starts out as a strong character, from the streets when the addicts seem to be linked she is no shrinking violet. However, as the tale goes on she becomes, I felt, a different character and very girly, caught up in her emotions and feelings. Adam is quite a character, missing stepdaughter and reluctant to give information oh and he is wealthy, he seems a bit contradictory at times. They are trying to get to the bottom of the deaths, find Adams stepdaughter and deal with the growing attraction they feel toward each other.

Ugh this simply didn't work for me. Maybe because I am a fan of Gerritsen's newer work like the surgeon where she really has honed her writing skills. This was quite a let down, the story itself isn't too bad it is just parts of it are a bit ridiculous and you need to suspend belief which I don't mind, I love some books like that. However I think you can't have so much going in within one book and so far fetched. If you are just starting with Gerritsen then this may be a good starting point, if you are used to the Rizzoli & Isles series I am afraid this will be a let down for you. Wasn't impressed so it is a 2/5 for me this time. I do enjoy this author though and will read her again although I think I will stick to her later offerings rather than the first cross over ones where she went from romance to romance/crime together. A lot of people did enjoy this though so I definitely wouldn't discount it.

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Review - The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen

The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Time Taken To Read - 3 days

Blurb From Goodreads

Every crime scene tells a story. Some keep you awake at night. Others haunt your dreams. The grisly display homicide cop Jane Rizzoli finds in Boston’s Chinatown will do both.

In the murky shadows of an alley lies a female’s severed hand. On the tenement rooftop above is the corpse belonging to that hand, a red-haired woman dressed all in black, her head nearly severed. Two strands of silver hair—not human—cling to her body. They are Rizzoli’s only clues, but they’re enough for her and medical examiner Maura Isles to make the startling discovery: that this violent death had a chilling prequel.

Nineteen years earlier, a horrifying murder-suicide in a Chinatown restaurant left five people dead. But one woman connected to that massacre is still alive: a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dares not tell, a secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of Chinatown. A secret that may not even be human. Now she’s the target of someone, or something, deeply and relentlessly evil.

Cracking a crime resonating with bone-chilling echoes of an ancient Chinese legend, Rizzoli and Isles must outwit an unseen enemy with centuries of cunning—and a swift, avenging blade.

My Review

A murder-suicide from 19 years ago seems to keep popping up in relation to a new homicide. The corpse is almost decapitated and her hand is completely removed. On the corpse is two strands of silver hair that can't be identified, human or animal? Soon secrets from the past and tales of Chinese legend come to the front and Isles and Rizzoli have to work through it all to find out what is going on and who the killer is.

The is a brilliant story, I loved the Chinese legends and stories and couldn't wait to find out what the link was with the past and the present. The story for the most part is written in third person view but for individual chapters and with one character it is written in the first person narrative. Normally this kind of switching would annoy me as I like things to be consistent but it works really well and I felt added to the story.

The story starts off fairly quickly with action from the first chapter (setting up a background for the story to come). We also see a different side to Rizzoli in this book and how unusual her and Dr. Isles friendship is and the pressures it can face.

So much to like and enjoy in this book and as always the thing I love, there was no loose ends. I got all the answers to my questions and forgot how much I enjoyed Tess Gerritsens writing. 5/5 for me and to be honest you could read this as a stand alone but if you like clarity on your characters and how their relationships came to be I would check out the previous books.

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April's Pre-Loved Giveaway is Whistle Blower by Tess Gerritsen

The book has been read a few times so has a heavily creased spine, a few residue marks from the sticker on the front cover and a few light indents.

Blurb From Goodreads

The man emerged from the mist, right in front of Cathy Weaver's car--running from killers who were closing in on him. Victor Holland's story sounded like the ravings of a man on the brink of madness, but his claim to be a fugitive was confirmed by the haunted look in his eyes--and the bullet hole in his shoulder. As each hour brings pursuers ever closer, Cathy has to wonder, is she giving her trust to a man in danger or trusting her life to a dangerous man?

Competition is as always, it will run to the end of the month and then a winner will be picked at random. To enter click on the link below and fill in the short form and for an extra entry just leave a comment on this post.


Click here to fill out the competition form

Review - Freaks by Tess Gerritsen (free ebook)

Freaks by Tess Gerritsen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Blurb from goodreads

In this free Rizzoli & Isles short story from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen, author of The Silent Girl, a bizarre death comes with a supernatural twist. Homicide cop Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles have seen their fair share of mortal crimes, but the death of Kimberly Rayner may qualify as inhuman in more ways than one. When corpse of the emaciated seventeen-year-old girl is discovered next to an empty coffin in an abandoned church, mysterious bruises around the throat suggest foul play. Caught fleeing the scene is the victim's closest friend, Lucas Henry, an equally skeletal, pale teenager who claims he's guilty only of having a taste for blood-a craving he shared with Kimberly. But the victim's distraught father doesn't believe in vampires, only vengeance. And now, another life may be at risk unless Rizzoli and Isles can uncover the astonishing truth.

My Review

Kimberly Rayner is found dead in an abandoned church with some spooky surroundings. Her friend is busted running from the scene and quickly apprehended. Did he kill her? Her father is convinced and with his freaky appearance and wild claims he seems like the perfect suspect.

It is a ridiculously quick and small read. I personally don't think it is up to Tess's normal high standard and found the characters I normally love (Maura and Jane) flat and not of their usual quick wit. The other characters that feature in this short story you don't get a feel for or to know them really at all due to the size of the story.

However it is free, a tiny quick read and has a nice wee twist at the end so 3/5 for me.

Available for free on amazon.co.uk

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