Gory sequel to "Surgeon", be prepared for blood and guts...

While we usually hear this author's name mentioned alongside Robin Cook and Michael Palmer, we find this third (of her six) we've read so far to be more a typical, hard-core police procedural, focused far more on the psyche and activities of the book's brutal serial killers and their cop chasers than on medical speculation or intrigue. John Sandford's "...Prey" series jumps right to mind as a comparison -- and indeed, the plot and action are just as riveting, no small compliment. A direct sequel to the "Surgeon", Det. Jane Rizzoli is the central figure hunting what appears at first (but mostly to her) a copycat killer to bad guy Warren Hoyt she put away in the earlier novel. Lo and behold, Hoyt escapes prison mid-way through this novel, and the story picks right up as though he had never been gone, leading to the speculation that the "Dominator" killing people in the first half of this novel might be his apprentice (hence the title).

Along the way, Rizzoli gets help from an Agent Dean of the FBI for whom she feels some perverse attraction (because she otherwise can't stand the guy); and all book-long, we get a heavy dose (almost tiresome by book's end) of this policewoman's feelings and efforts to excel in a male-dominated work world. Will she save herself in the very gripping conclusion?? Unlike other reviewers, we didn't feel the end chapter was particularly short-changed or overly abrupt -- this story just can't go on forever.

We plan to try some of Gerritsen's earlier novels, but wish she would spend a little less time "selling" womanpower, provide us considerably less blood spilling, and provide us some creative medical scenarios ala Palmer. She certainly has the writing skills to pen great novels; we just find ourselves grossed out a little by these two monster stories.