Monday, January 16, 2017

The Mephisto Club

Title: The Mephisto Club
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Published: September 12th 2006 by Ballantine Books
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Series: Rizzoli and Isles #6

I am late to this read, but it is good to see that I am not the only one that compared it to Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series. By this, I mean, that you have to pay attention to all the symbolism, iconology and the points of time that bring the clues together.

Dr. Maura Isles seems to take center stage in this book, Jane Rizzoli is an active character with her own family troubles brewing, but with Maura’s side story involving Father Daniel she has more playtime and therefore the reader sees more sides to her guarded character.

When Peter and Amy Saul welcome their 15-year-old nephew Dominic into their home after his mother ran off and the death of his father, they had no idea that they were actually bringing Damien from the Omen in. In short order, three of the four original family members are dead and Lilly Saul is running for her life.

With backward mirror writing, ritualistic killing and symbolism, the women are way out of their league and for most of the book Jane is playing catch up. In steps the Mephisto Club, a group named after the evil spirit to whom Faust, in the German legend, sold his soul, consisting of amateur investigators that have been studying the field and all forms of evil for decades - reminiscent of the 'The Vidocq Society'.

This is an odd group and Tess Gerritsen uses that against them in pointing the reader inward. When they start dying, the reader is left with very few clues considering Dominic had died in a drowning years prior, Lilly will only say that a demon is after her, Anthony Sansone, the head of the Metaphiso Club is his own form of creepy and Maura is too wrapped up in getting the priest into bed.

The ending feels rushed with a character that admits to being behind all this nonsense having barely been mentioned at all. Try as she may, this book was too much of a grasp and though it could have been read as a standalone, since very little of the previous books was mention, the reader will walk away wondering what Gerritsen was thinking.

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