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Are Patricia Cornwellıs plots getting progressively too bonkers for you? Have you never quite warmed to Kathy Reichs? In that case you might just like Tess Gerritsenıs sharp story-telling. Two strong female characters are featured at the centre of The Sinner -- homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles. They work together to track down the murderer of Sister Camille, a 20-year-old novice nun found dead in a cloistered convent. Another nun, Sister Ursula, is seriously injured by the attacker. And there is also a badly mutilated woman found in a deserted building. Rizzoli and Isles are fascinating characters -- stubborn, successful but slightly flawed career women. Rizzoli is abrasive, angry and difficult; Isles cold and remote. Both have personal and family issues -- Maura an ex-husband who has reappeared on the scene and Jane relationship problems. But there's no angst overload here -- Gerritsen's clean, matter-of-fact prose tells it straight. The portrayal of the pair is the book's main strength, and a welcome relief from the bland, squeaky clean, badly damaged or pathetic victim female characters who all too often people the pages of contemporary crime fiction. There's some vivid world-building as Gerritsen dumps the reader right into the middle of a freezing cold Boston winter, particularly the crumbling convent inhabited by aging and ailing nuns. But it soon becomes apparent that the answer to the murders might be much further from home. The ending seems a touch too twee in the circumstance, but it doesnıt detract from a well-plotted book with some compelling characters. And kudos to Gerritsen for handling the two old chestnuts of religion and families without descending into cliche.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, October 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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