Product Description

A blessed event becomes a nightmare for pregnant homicide detective Jane Rizzoli when she finds herself on the wrong side of a hostage crisis in this timely and relentless new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Body Double.

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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7685 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-29
• Released on: 2006-08-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Retired internist Gerritsen serves up another prescription for bad dreams in her latest thriller to feature Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (Body Double). The catalogue of terrors this time out includes sexual slavery, hostage-taking and torture; there are also government bad guys, post–9/11 red herrings and a heart-tugging cadre of young Eastern European women known only by their first names. Fierce Olena, thought dead, wakes up in Maura's morgue, recovers in the hospital, and—with the help of a mysterious colleague—takes a group of hostages, including Jane, who's about to give birth. Jane's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, tries to reason with the hostage-takers, and learns that Olena wants publicity to bring down the Washington bigwig responsible for sexually enslaving, then murdering, her friends. Maura feels a frisson for Tribune columnist Peter Lukas, and he seems to be the guy to tell the story, but readers will quickly apprehend that he's playing both sides. As usual, the medical details are vivid and read authentic, while the action is just this side of super-hero comic exaggeration. Does it work? The book clubs say yes: Doubleday, Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild have all made it a main selection; the bestseller lists can't be far behind. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Dr. Maura Isles has barely had time to recover from the startling revelations about her family in ody Double (2004) when she discovers one of the corpses in her morgue is very much alive. The young woman is rushed off to the hospital, where the doctors are able to save her life. Maura pays the young woman a visit only to witness the woman grab a security guard's gun, shoot the man, and take Maura hostage. Maura manages to escape, and the woman flees into the bowels of the hospital, where she takes six other people hostage, including Detective Jane Rizzoli, who is about to give birth. The woman refuses to communicate with the police, but she manages to get a signal out through a local radio station to a man who slips past the police barricade to join her in the hospital. Jane's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, becomes very suspicious when the situation attracts the attention of the highest levels of government. Hoping to save his wife, Gabriel begins his own investigation and is startled when he uncovers a shocking conspiracy. Drawing on current events, Gerritsen's latest novel is a tense, taut thriller that grabs readers from the get-go and never lets up. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Praise for Body Double

“NEVER FAILS TO DELIVER CHILLING SUSPENSE . . .
leaves the reader breathless.”
–The Philadelphia Inquirer

“IT’S SCARY JUST HOW GOOD TESS GERRITSEN IS–this is crime writing at its unputdownable, nerve-tingling best.”
–HARLAN COBEN

“THE STORY ZIPS ALONG. . . . A DELIGHTFULLY BIZARRO PLOT TWIST.”
–Entertainment Weekly


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

A must read thriller...easily Gerritsen's best.
Medical examiner Maura Isles is called to examine the body of a beautiful, nameless woman but she
gets the shock of her life when the corpse opens her eyes...

The woman, who mistakenly was pronounced dead, is rushed to the hospital where doctors scramble
to help her, but things turn deadly as she steals a guard's gun, kills him, and takes hostages. One of the hostages is none other than detective Jane Rizzoli who is on the verge of going into labor.

As things begin to spiral more out of control, the crazed woman calls a local radio station with
a simple message "The die is cast."

Now it's up to Jane's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean to use all of his negotiating and investigative skills
to get his wife and child out of this alive.

'Vanish' is the best novel Tess Gerritsen has written and one of the finest thrillers to come out in a long time.
From page one the reader is pulled into a tension filled novel that surprises with each new plot twist. Combining well-drawn characters with expert plotting 'Vanish' is a novel that begs to be read in one sitting.

This is a page-turner of the first order and a definite MUST read.

Nick Gonnella

Ms. Gerritsen Delivers Again!!!
When it comes to thrillers Ms. Gerritsen is top-drawer. She always offers inventive storylines, truly dynamic and complex characters and does so without cheating the reader or the story.

Dr. Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli are back with a vengence and their latest case is not only chilling, it's deeply engrossing.

After a long day Dr. Isles is working on a report and when she can't remember a detail to one of the bodies she autopsied she returns to the cooler only find that there is a body that should be there yet. She's alive...barely. Maura has no idea though that she has uncovered a scandal of epic proportions and the fall out of this has only just began.

Detective Jane Rizzoli is drawing near to her delivery date. This tough, sassy, and pregnant cop is going to sit the stand one more time before she leaves on maternity leave. What should have been an easy in and out court testimony ends up with Jane controlling the out of control suspect with the end result of her water breaking. She is sent to the hospital where Dr. Isles "Jane Doe" was sent. Instead of delivering her baby Jane finds herself in a hostage situation involving "Jane Doe" and a secret she wants heard. But someone doesn't want "Jane Doe" to talk and will do all that they have to in order to seal the lips of this witness. Before they know it Jane, Gabriel, Maura, and more law enforcement agencies than you can shake a stick at. Will Jane and Gabe be able to save the day at the same time avoid losing sight of what's important?

This was an incredibly fast-paced read and one that will completely engross the reader from page one. All of our favorites come back for this story and it was interesting to see how far Gabriel and Jane have come emotionally since their first introduction. Mila is a wonderful character that the reader will see very little of but she is what ties the various threads of this story together. Ms. Gerritsen is a very talented author and one that I highly recommend if you like smart thrillers with all that that entails.

Official Reviewer for Romance Designs

Terrific high concept thriller
"Vanish," the latest novel from bestselling author Tess Gerritsen, is a terrific "high concept" thriller -- a story built around an easy-to-grasp premise that grips an audience right away and won't let go.

It begins with the body of a beautiful woman in the Boston morgue. Just another accidental death -- until she suddenly comes back to life. At the hospital, she seizes a security guard's gun and takes several hostages. One of them is homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, who is due to give birth at any moment. It is up to Rizzoli's husband, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, to get his wife and unborn child out safely.

From that basic set-up, the author weaves a spellbinding tale of government conspiracy and white slavery, with themes as current as the morning newspaper. Some of it might be a little overblown, but there's no denying the power of Gerritsen's storytelling.

"Vanish" is a perfect example of the best-selling thriller: action-packed, entertaining and compulsively readable.