Never Say Die / Presumed Guilty

by Tess Gerritsen

NEVER SAY DIE Twenty years after her father's plane crashed in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Willy Jane Maitland was finally tracking his last moves. She recognised the dangers, but her search for the truth about that fateful flight was the only thing that mattered. Closing in on the events of that night, Willy realises that she is investigating secrets that people would kill to protect. And without knowing who to trust, the truth can be far from clear cut. . . PRESUMED GUILTY Guilty – until proven innocent Miranda Wood arrives home to a dark, cold cottage – and a man, stabbed to death, lying in her bed. Miranda is the obvious suspect, and she looks even guiltier when her bail is paid by an anonymous donor. As Miranda fights to clear her name, she unearths a murky history of blackmail, corruption and scandal. As she gets closer to the truth, it becomes clear that someone else wants to kill Miranda – someone with a personal reason for wanting her out of the way... 'Gerritsen is tops in her genre. ' USA Today

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Thriller

Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2014

About the author

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), and The Bone Garden (2007). Her books have been translated into 31 languages, and more than 15 million copies have been sold around the world.

As well as being a New York Times bestselling author, she has also been a #1 bestseller in both Germany and the UK. 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.

Reviews

[Siobhan]

Tess Gerritsen writes consistently good books. However, for me, the kind of good they are varies depending upon the era they come from. Never Say Die and Presumed Guilty both fall into her romantic thriller category, which is my least favourite category for her work. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both great books, but there is far too much of a romantic focus (as the category title would suggest).

If you’re a fan of all of Geritsen’s work – by that I mean you have read her early nineties stuff and not just her Rizzoli and Isles books – then by all means give these two a try. I’m sure you’ll adore them, as I did. However, if you have only read her crime thrillers, be aware that you get something quite different in these books.

There is the consistent mystery across all of her books. You are always trying to uncover some hidden facts. When it comes to her romance thrillers, though, you have a predetermined ending in a number of ways. You get the lead male. You get the lead female. You know they’re going to get a happily ever after – together. It ruins quite a few aspects of the story for me, with attention being focused upon forming a relationship between the two. Why does this relationship need to be formed? Because we have a consistent main character initial hatred. Alone the thriller aspects are wonderful, if not short, but with the romantic aspect you have a tale of old that has been done many times before.

Nevertheless, they are still four star books. They are weaker four stars than her Rizzoli and Isles books – the Rizzoli and Isles books are four stars working towards five, for me, whereas these are four stars with the occasional slip into three star territory (mainly through my inability to deal with too much romance at once) – but they are still four stars.

Certainly give them a read if you enjoy Gerritsen.

[Rhonda]

Being aware of the timeframes and knowing these were written early in the author's career helps make more sense of them. The first story is approx. 20 years after the Vietnam war, so that makes sense too. In this 2-book reprint, the first story was stronger and more exciting than the second story. I could see the first story as a good movie. The romance thriller angle is not my favourite, but a solid read.

[Margaret]

An exciting read, a good tale.

[Buttns]

Both great books.....but I'm not really into the romantic type category of her books. They are still great books.

[Susan Abbey]

Fabulous double read - colourful characters and entertaining plot lines

[Gordon Johnston]

Decent two book deal of fairly early TG work from the 90s.

Never Say Die sees a young women searching for her father, a pilot lost in Vietnam. With a strong love story (will they - won't they?) and the feel of an old time cold war spy story it is pretty entertaining stuff, if a little predictable.

Presumed Guilty begins with a murder and an obvious suspect. It wasn't her of course, so she has to clear her name. The beautiful ex lover of the powerful murdered man from an old monied family is joined by the handsome black sheep in her quest. It's a decent story but the characters are rather stereotyped - the family patriarch, the small town cop and several other spurned lovers.

[Beatté]

Contemporary Romance. Was not expecting so but I thoroughly enjoyed both books. Light reading but each story had a thrilling plot that kept me wanting to read until finished. I thought I was going to read something like risk like and isles, but I thoroughly enjoyed it though not a huge fan of romance novels.

[Adrielle]

3.5 stars
I always have time for a Gerristen read but these feel weaker than her other works. They just didn't grab me as much.