Paula Berinstein's Blog - Posts Tagged "police-procedural"

Tess Gerritsen is best known as the author of the Rizzoli and Isles crime novels. I recently had the privilege of interviewing her about her latest book, I Know a Secret.


Two separate homicides, at different locations, with unrelated victims, have more in common than just being investigated by Boston PD detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles. In both cases, the bodies bear startling wounds—yet the actual cause of death is unknown. It’s a doubly challenging case for the cop and the coroner to be taking on, at an inconvenient time for both of them. As Jane struggles to save her mother from the crumbling marriage that threatens to bury her, Maura grapples with the imminent death of her own mother—infamous serial killer Amalthea Lank.

While Jane tends to her mother, there’s nothing Maura can do for Amalthea, except endure one final battle of wills with the woman whose shadow has haunted her all her life. Though succumbing to cancer, Amalthea hasn’t lost her taste for manipulating her estranged daughter—by dangling a cryptic clue about the two bizarre murders Maura and Jane are desperately trying to solve.

But whatever the dying convict knows is only a piece of the puzzle. Soon the investigation leads to a secretive young woman who survived a shocking abuse scandal; an independent horror film that may be rooted in reality; and a slew of martyred saints who died cruel and unusual deaths. And just when Rizzoli and Isles think they’ve cornered a devilish predator, the long-buried past rears its head—and threatens to engulf more innocent lives, including their own.

The Interview

PB. I love Jane and Maura! Can you tell us a little about them: who they are, their strengths and weaknesses, how you feel about them? If you knew them in real life, would they be your friends? How would you get along? What irritates you about them? What do you admire? Can you tell us something about them that we don't know?

TG. Jane is based on a number of women cops I’ve met – tough and feisty gals who are very aware that they have to work harder than the men do to be fully accepted. Jane’s also a very determined woman who’s not afraid to speak her mind, even if it makes her seem unlikeable, and this sometimes gets her into trouble with her male colleagues. Maura is much more reserved, a woman who relies on logic and science. (I once heard them described as Kirk and Spock, and I do see the resemblance, even though they weren’t created with those men in mind!) I think Maura could be my friend because we understand each other – especially since Maura is very much modeled after my own personality. Jane might scare me a little! I certainly admire them both because they’re intelligent and resourceful and very, very loyal people. After twelve books, I can’t think of anything about them that my readers don’t already know.

PB. How do you make your protagonists compelling? How have they changed over time? Why did they change in those ways? Do you struggle to keep them interesting as the series progresses? How are they different from the way you first envisioned them? Is the difference (if there is one) due to something that didn't work out or simply that you've learned more about them over time?

TG. Any character can be compelling if they face tough hurdles in their lives, and that’s certainly true of both Jane and Maura. For Jane, at the beginning, it’s the struggle to be accepted as the brilliant cop she is. For Maura, it’s a struggle for identity in a world where she never feels quite comfortable with human emotions. As the series progressed, their challenges shifted. Jane gained respect, but then had to deal with being a wife and mother as well as a cop. Maura struggled with the dark history of her birth family, as well as her attraction for an unattainable man. I never planned these developments in their lives; they evolved naturally as the stories progressed. In fact, I never imagined these women would star in a continuing series. THE SURGEON (where Jane was introduced) was supposed to be a stand-alone novel. THE APPRENTICE (the sequel) introduced the mysterious Maura Isles, which led to a third book. Every novel has been inspired by my need to know what happens next in their lives. And as the books progressed, both women evolved. Jane grew happier and more fulfilled. Maura became more deeply trapped in her feelings for Father Daniel Brophy. And the lives of everyone around them became more complicated as well.

PB. Maura is the daughter of a serial killer. Did you do research to find out how people in that situation cope and what their lives are like or did you just imagine it for yourself?

TG. Maura’s family history was inspired by a true-crime case in Oregon, about a young man who discovered that both his father and his grandfather were serial killers. I remember thinking how shocking that must have been – and how that sort of revelation would make me question who I am, and whether I inherited some of that evil. In a previous book, I had mentioned that Maura was adopted, but I never thought it was an important detail – until the idea of a murderous birth mother came to me.

PB. How far ahead do you plan your series and character arcs? I've read that you don't outline. Have you ever written yourself into a corner, and if so, did you have to rewrite large portions of the book to get yourself out of it?

TG. I only plan one book at a time, so there’s no over-arching blueprint for me to follow over a series. One story leads to the next, and each character’s personal revelation leads to the next. Yes, I quite often write myself into a corner, which leads to writer’s block. I just have to step away, re-think my story, and do a lot of re-writing to make the different little gears fit together.

PB. How do you make sure you're consistent from one book to the next? Have you committed any continuity gaffes? How do you handle the passage of time in the series? Do you try to keep each book in the time frame in which it was written or do you purposely avoid mentioning things that could end up being anachronisms and mess up your chronology? (For example, you mention Tinder in this book, but when you started the series Tinder didn't exist. That places I Know a Secret after 2012, when the app was first released.)

TG. The passage of time is my biggest challenge, especially since I need to keep track of how old Jane’s daughter is. I often have to go back into previous books to follow the seasons. Did the last book take place in summer? How many months have passed since then, and what’s happened in their lives in the meantime? Poor Jane Rizzoli had the longest pregnancy in history – it lasted through three books! (THE SINNER, BODY DOUBLE, and VANISH.)

Technology is the other thing that always trips up an author of a long-running series because of rapid technological advances. When I wrote VANISH, YouTube wasn’t yet in existence, so my characters had to physically deliver a videotape to a reporter. If you read that book now, you’d wonder: “Why didn’t they just put it on YouTube?” I wrote a book HARVEST, years ago, where my character runs around looking for a pay phone! Within a decade, many novels will seem out of date.

PB. How do you distinguish your stories from the other police procedurals out there? Do you worry about that issue at all? How do you see yourself in relation to other mystery writers, if you even think about that? (In other words, do you think about/worry about your place in the genre?)

TG. I don’t worry about those issues at all. All I can do is write the story I want to write. Yes, there may be a hundred other serial killer novels out there, but how many of them include a young woman fighting for her life in the African bush? (DIE AGAIN) Or a victim mistaken for an ancient Egyptian mummy? (THE KEEPSAKE). How many have a protagonist trapped in a snowbound village where the inhabitants have vanished? (ICE COLD). You just have to find your own unique twist on the genre.

PB. How did you learn to write mysteries? What about writing a mystery is different from writing other types of fiction?

TG. I learned by reading a lot of them, both good and bad. Writing a mystery has its own unique challenges, the primary one being: how do you challenge and surprise your audience? Mystery readers tend to be very clever readers, and it’s hard to stump them.

PB. Some mysteries take us into the viewpoint of the murderer and some don't. Why select one method or the other? What does each do for the reader and the story?

TG. It all depends on the story you’re telling, and which voice you hear as a writer. In THE SURGEON, the first voice I heard speaking to me was the killer’s, and it was so chilling and distinct, I had to write it. Using the killer’s voice means the audience learns a lot of details before the detective does, so the mystery in that novel wasn’t “whodunit”; the mystery was how he selects his victims. Sometimes it’s a secondary character’s voice that comes to me most vividly, such as Millie’s in DIE AGAIN. She’s a young woman who starts off the story stranded in the African bush. Her story of victimhood and survival is so harrowing that I simply had to use her voice.

PB. Many mysteries these days deal with the subject of crimes against children. What issues have you faced in writing and publishing this kind of story?

TG. I try to avoid that subject as much as possible. Even though I KNOW A SECRET deals with what seem to be crimes against children, that theme is actually tangential to the true mystery. I avoid killing children in my novels, but when it does happen, those crimes almost always happen off the page.

PB. What has been the response to Maura's relationship with a priest? Did you worry that that would make her unlikable?

TG. That romance generates more reader comments than anything else does! Her love affair with Daniel Brophy started off as a wistful attraction in THE SINNER, and I never thought it would go any further. They’re both such likable, moral people, and of course they would try their hardest not to fall in love. But human nature being what it is, of course they succumb a few books later. I see it as a human failing, a moment of weakness like so many other people experience, and the trap they fall into makes them both miserable. Even women as intelligent as Maura sometimes fall in love with the wrong men, and in that way she is very, very human.

PB. How do you come up with your beginnings. For example, the hook in I Know a Secret is "When I was seven years old, I learned how important it is to cry at funerals." Why did you start the book by talking about funerals? Was it hard to come up with the perfect opening sentence and starting scene? Is that something you struggle with in general? Have you ever started a story at the wrong point in the arc and had to adjust it?

TG. The opening sentence is the hardest one to write, and utterly vital to get right, because it sets the tone for the entire rest of the novel. In I KNOW A SECRET, I started off in Holly’s voice because I wanted readers to gain deep insight into her character. I wanted to show that she’s not like you and me; she has her own unique view of the world, and it’s her behavior and her attitude at funerals that truly sets her apart from normal people. A woman who must will herself to cry at funerals – and only for her own selfish reasons – is a disturbing individual.

I’ve often started off stories at the wrong point in the arc. In fact, sometimes I write the very first chapter only after I’ve completed the first draft, and realize the story should start earlier.

PB. Why is part of the book in the present tense and part in the past tense? Why is part in the first person and part in the third person?

TG. Holly is in first person because only through her inner thoughts do we know what kind of creature she is. First person narrative is a very intimate look into a person’s character, and her voice was so unique I wanted to share it. Jane and Maura are in third person simply because I’ve always written them in third person.

PB. Is there anything in your books you wish you could go back and do over?

TG. No. I did the best I could with each book I’ve written, and I prefer to focus on the next story.

PB. How long does it take you to write a book?

TG. I’ve taken as little as six months (with my romantic suspense novels) to as long as two years (GRAVITY).

PB. Who are your favorite mystery writers and why? Is there one existing book you wish you'd written? How about one you're dying to write?

TG. I like to push my “three Lisas”: Lisa Gardner, Lisa Scottoline, and Lisa Unger. All three of them have terrific characters, deep emotional insights, and baffling mysteries. One book I wish I’d written? GONE GIRL. I loved reading about those vastly unlikeable characters. A book I’m dying to write? I would like to write another historical novel about medicine. BONE GARDEN remains one of my favorites, and I’d like to go back in history to once again write about doctors in a different era.

PB. What do you wish people would ask you that they never do? Whatever it is, I'm asking it.

TG. I think I’ve been asked about everything!

PB. Is there anything I haven't mentioned that you'd like to add?

TG. I’m at a stage in my life where I’m ready to focus on projects without any concern about their marketability. You only have so many creative years during a lifetime, and now’s the time to take risks, whether it’s in novels or in other media, and explore the topics I’m passionate about. Which is why my son and I are now in production on a feature documentary about the centuries-long relationship between humans and pigs. We’ve already traveled quite a bit, interviewing experts around the world about genetics, archaeology, and animal behavior. It’s been a fascinating topic to cover, and at the end, we hope to have some answers as to why pork is the most forbidden food on the planet.

About Tess Gerritsen

Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.

While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, "Adrift," which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.

Tess’s first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Her suspense novels since then have been: Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), The Surgeon (2001), The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), The Bone Garden (2007), The Keepsake (2008; UK title: Keeping the Dead), Ice Cold (2010; UK title: The Killing Place), The Silent Girl, and now LAST TO DIE. Her books have been translated into 37 languages, and more than 20 million copies have been sold around the world.

In July of 2010, TNT premiered its new series “Rizzoli & Isles,” based on the bestselling series by Gerritsen. Angie Harmon (Law & Order) and Sasha Alexander (Mission: Impossible III) star as Boston detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles, good friends and sometimes partners, who together solve crimes and bust some of Boston’s most notorious criminals. The series also stars Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos) as Jane’s demanding and intrusive mother and Lee Thompson Young (FlashForward) as Det. Barry Frost, Jane’s somewhat green partner. The series went on to be a hit, and is just wrapping its third season. As a novelist/M.D., Gerritsen’s specialty is in translating complicated medical science for lay readers. She often lectures at science education events and teaches a writing course on Cape Cod for physicians who want to become novelists. She is also the only Asian thriller writer who has achieved bestseller status.

Her books have been top-5 bestsellers in the United States and abroad. She has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon). Critics around the world have praised her novels as “Pulse-pounding fun” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “Scary and brilliant” (Toronto Globe and Mail), and “Polished, riveting prose” (Chicago Tribune). Publisher Weekly has dubbed her the “medical suspense queen.” Now retired from medicine, she writes full time. She lives in Maine.

Her Web site is TessGerritsen.com.