** spoiler alert ** hmmmm... riveting... levels... touch of humor... touch of reality... sometimes too much reality....hmmmm

The mystery... revolves around a Russian white sex slave operation - in which we meet 2 women... the scenes in the whore house - I skipped over much of them, a reality I don't want to know about... when the president appointed Intelligence Defense minister kills a new 'recruit' to the house accidently (yeah, he did mean to rape her, just not kill her) a clean up team goes to kill all potential witnesses - 7 women + the house 'mother'... but 2 women, Olena and Mila, had snuck up to the roof for a breath of freedom when the men come, and hide there... the house mother gets hers though, as they torture her to find out where the 2 women are... and then the 2 women run, after grabbing the mother's backpack with money...

the first person they run into is Joseph Roke, a conspiracy fanatic... who takes them to his home, and then they escape, minutes before his house is blown up... they are on the run for months - Olena and Joe are caught on film where a police officer was killed (bad police? we never find out the specifics). and then one day they find a video tape in the bag, play it, and it is a hidden camera in one of the rooms that caught the minister... they send it to a Boston journalist, Peter Lukas... This is all told in small segments throughout the book - we don't have all of this information until the end...and then our story begins - Olena is in a body bag in Isle's morgue, an apparent suicide drowning.

Isle's is working late, checking something in the cold room, hears a noise, and discovers that the Jane Doe (Olena) is still alive... she is taken to the hospital across the parking lot - and when more awake is fighting all of the attendants trying to help her until she is sedated... The next morning, Rizzoli is in court testifying- 1 week past her delivery date & still pregnant - when her water breaks, just as she handcuffed the defendant who had overpowered the bailiff... she is at the hospital where Jane doe is... Isles goes to check on Jane Doe, sees a doctor and a security guard trying to restrain her, then Jane Doe takes the security guard's gun, shoots him in the head, the doctor runs out, Isle's is her hostage... in the lobby the police are there, Isle's goes lax, Jane Doe lets her go and runs inside the hospital and ends up in the lab, where you know it, Rizzoli is waiting for an ultrasound... Jane Doe has 8 hostages - Rizzoli, her doctor, 2 patients, and techs... and Rizzoli's labor begins...

For the 1st half of the book, we have the hostages - Jane Doe, whom we find out is Olena, sends out a message via a radio station (the die is cast), and is joined by Joe with his bag of guns - dressed in black, he just walks past the police and into the hospital...

Most of the action outside is the police, police negotiator, fbi and cia (sent in by, you guess it the minister of defense)... and poor Gabriel Dean wanting to protect his wife and baby... most of what we see is through Dean's eyes - he talks with Senator Conlon (we never find out if he is innocent or knows of the minister's coverup) and the minister... he talks with the people who had found Jane Doe's body... he talks with the FBI, they figure out who Joe is from his abandoned car and he is labeled a conspiracy freak... etc... Joe & Olena ask that reporter Joseph Roke, who wrote an article against some well paid defense contractor, and a cameraman come inside for an interview - and they would let 2 then 2 more hostages go... We meet Roke with Isles - there seems to be some attraction between them, Roke seems to be a bit more humane and intelligent than the other reporters - not just going for sensationalism, and he meets with Isles as he debates whether to go in to meet with the hostage takers...

As Rizzoli's contractions are getting worse, an unethical newsreporter reports on tv that there is a policewoman being held hostage... once Joe & Olena are convinced in Rizzoli's bad timing in being there, and they have some modicum of trust for her, and they realize it can be used... they know they will be dead soon, and so they ask her who, in law enforcement, she trusts with her life... she answers her husband, fbi agent dean - and they ask for him to come inside... they release 2 hostages... Dean knows that an assault team will be acting any minute... they talk a bit in circles, that they know the truth about Ashburn, and they want Dean to prove it... and Rizzoli, mid contraction sees holes being drilled above them, and a gas - and just as she is about to pass out, Oleana tells her, 'Mila knows'...

So, the hostages are safe - Rizzoli is taken to a different hospital to have her baby - no one will tell her where Gabriel is... Gabriel wakes up, as soon as he can move, he goes to Rizzoli - getting there just as their baby is born ... ahhhh the two hostage takers are dead, (why? - they were knocked out with the hostages and not a threat), and the fbi commandeers the scene - taking all evidence - and after Isles insists on keeping their bodies, they get the justice department to intervene before Isle's completes the autopsy...

the second half of the book is the 1st month of Rizzoli's baby's life... it takes her a week to name her daughter -Regina, meaning queenly, after her grandmother and at her mother's suggestion... Rizzoli is insecure about her mothering, and Regina is a loud handful... Dean is there, her mother is there... and Rizzoli and Dean are unsure about how being a mother affects her being a police officer - Rizzoli wants back, Dean wants to protect her, Rizzoli feels guilty, Dean admires her strength - and Dean is right there as they both work through their feelings.

Neither quite rememeber the 'take down' - the gas makes memories hazy... but Rizzoli dreams of Mila... and neither can let things go... they find out about Asbury, seeing the pictures of the dead women, interviewing the police detective in charge, going out to the house... and then the Justice Department 'picks them up'... and they meet two who are trying to stem the tide of white slavery on American soil... and they seem sincere...Isle's introduces them to Peter Lukas... they realize Olena was one of the women and must have witnessed the executions... and Rizzoli teases out the personal column in a scandal rag in Joe's car (the magazine doesn't seem to fit Joe) - and finds 'the die is cast, phone number date time' - and she places her own add with her cell phone number..

who can be trusted though....

this eventually leads them to Mila... reluctant Mila comes to Jane after the stake out at the park - shows her the tape of the defense minister raping and killing - when the justice dept agent knocks on her door, Mila convinces Jane to leave with her out the window... and Jane (and Regina) take Mila to Peter Lukas ... and it ends up that Peter had called his CIA buddy - he had made a deal with them for the tape that Joe had delivered to him, and Mila had gone to the bathroom when the CIA guy showed up, Mila escaped out the window, CIA guy takes Rizzoli & baby to woods, she digs her own grave... she tries to fight him with the shovel, but... he's about to shoot her when Mila shows up with Rizzoli's gun (from baby bag) and shoots him dead instead... Dean had figured out, with the justice guy, that Rizzoli had gone to Peter's - he's there - hears the gunshots... terrified, he finally sees Mila, Jane, and baby...

when we next see Gabriel & Jane, it seems that they have found an acceptance of who she is ... I wonder what the next book will find?

and it ends with Mila and the justice department... and it seems Mila is finally in good hands...