Friday, October 7, 2016

Vanish

Title: Vanish
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Published: August 29th 2006 by Ballantine Books
Format: Paperback, 401 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Series: Rizzoli and Isles #5

Boston Medical Examiner Maura Isles is used to hearing her building making noises at night when everyone else is gone, what she did not expect was to find a corpse alive. Calling for an ambulance, this unknown woman is rushed to the hospital and thus begins a far-reaching investigation that has the reader not knowing for sure who the good guys and bad guys are.

Jane Rizzoli cannot be too far from both the crazy and the dangerous so during courtroom testimony a very pregnant and overdue Jane tackles a defendant thus conveniently breaking her water and necessitating her own trip to the emergency room.

Thus, the two stories converge.

Turns out the not quite dead woman, Olena, is now holding people in the emergency room hostage so she can tell her story of government contractors enslaving and murdering her friends. During the negotiations, Rizzoli’s husband FBI agent Gabriel Dean enters the picture. Turns out that the hostage takers will only speak with one person, a local writer that they had contact with in the past. This does not sit well with those in charge, but Gabriel does whatever it takes to keep Jane safe.

In an overkill maneuver, everyone but Jane and Gabriel are dead and when the federal agents swoop in and remove all the evidence, something does not feel right to these two well-trained agents. Within days of giving birth, Jane and her husband are on the trail of the real reason the federal government wanted Olena dead.

As I said, telling the good guys from the bad is a bit twisty and that will keep the reader engaged. The books are nothing like the television series and interplay between Rizzoli and Isles is minimal. There are parts that are unrealistic, but this is fiction and you have to give the writer some leeway. Overall, the further that I get into this series, the more that I am enjoying it.

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