Reviews

Schwesternmord by Tess Gerritsen

Only show reviews with written explanations

jimbowen0306's review against another edition

2.0

It's weird sometimes when you watch a television show taken from a book (or in this case a series of books), You create a view of the main characters. This certainly happened with TNT's Rizzoli and Isles' series. i'd pretty much decided that they'd created Isles so it seems like she was "Bones", but what surprised me was how much they changed Rizoli character. Thinking about it now, I personally see Alex Borstein as a Bostonian, rather than Angie Harmon in the role. This isn't meant as a criticism, just a statement.

Anyhow, I read this book because I'm running out of murder mysteries series to read, and wanted to try something new. It sees Isles (the pathologist) return home from a trip to find a woman who looks eerily like her dead on her doorstep. In fact she looks so like he that the police she worked with thought it was her. This sparks an investigation into her past, revalations into who she is related to, and what they might have done.

It wasn't actually a bad book. It just stretched credibility some. Quite how one relation didn't know she was related to Isles, despite Isles repeatedly being front page news, left me flumoxed some.

My other grumbles focus the fact it is really, really dated. Two that immediately spring to mind are references to VHS tapes when DVDs were pretty common,and GI Jane as a role model for women -not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's hardly modern reference, having come out in 1997. The weirdest example of its' datedness, however, was the lack of reference to the internet. It was so stark, it actually made me look when the book was published, because it made me assume that it had been written in the late 1990s, but no, it was published in 2004, and the Internet was very much a thing by then.

Oh and another thing, the reason why I suggested Alex Borstein would be a better fit for the role is because I couldn't get over quite how whiny Rizoli was in the book (Isles had a similar issue too, but I don't want to be a complete buzz kill for the book). This souldn't bother me if I saw Angie Harmon ever play whiny roles, but I haven't. Rizoli struck me as more Alex Borstein or Yeardley Smith as a consequence (that or just get rid of the internal "oh whow is me" internal monologues)

So yeah, it's intrinsically daft, and dated, and as a consequence made me decide I probably won't be contining with the series.

bthompson80's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

dancemaster's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

siobhanward's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I'm a tiny bit worried that I'm only four books into this series and things have already taken a turn towards the ridiculous. A secret identical twin usually seems like something reserved as a Hail Mary late in a series, but Gerritsen mostly managed to pull it off. I'm still enjoying the series and this book set up a lot of interesting things for later books, so I'm curious to see where everything goes.

Content Warnings