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The Mephisto Club
Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli series #6

by Tess Gerritsen



      Lori-Ann Tucker's body is found Christmas morning in her apartment.  Her limbs and head have been amputated, and blood is everywhere. Satanic symbols rendered in blood and the word "Peccavi," scrawled across one wall - Latin for "I have sinned."  Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and police detective Jane Rizzoli are called upon to investigate this gruesome mess. That's only the first of several murders involving apocalyptic messages.  This fast paced story with a multi-level plot jumps from Mephisto Club ,a group of scholarly sophisticates who track down "demons" to a young woman in Europe who is running because she is convinced that someone who may not even be human is going to kill her. The theory is that the sons of God, who were angels, procreated with human women, and Nephilim, or demons were the result of such a union and the assailant is a descendent of these creatures.

Tess Gerritsen's trek into supernatural territory is convincing and frightening. She has produced an atmosphere in which the impossible can happen.   When Dr. Isles is mistaken for a member of The Mephisto Club, and it appears that someone is trying to kill her too, the stakes are kicked up a notch in an already-fast paced story.

Jane Rizzoli's oddball parents are feuding in this story, and Mama moves in with Jane.  Jane has become more hard-edged and prickly and Maura seems more vulnerable as the two women have some definite conflicts in this story.

While many fans will cheer the pseudo-romance between Dr. Maura Isles and the priest, Father Brophy, I was a bit put off by it.  The Mephisto Club is, however, a very entertaining, stay-up-all-night book. Gerritsen's characters are multi-dimensional and compelling, and her plots are complex and riveting.  I'm addicted.

The Book

Ballantine
September 12, 2006
Hardcover
0-345-47699-9
Fiction/Mystery/Suspense
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Beverly J. Rowe
Reviewed 2006
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© 2006 MyShelf.com