Last to Die was my first Tess Gerritsen novel. It is a story of pursuit and rescue, of outsiders and insiders. Our entry into the story is thru Teddy Clock, whose family is massacred. He (and others) are rescued by the mysterious blonde who says "if you want to live." Boston police detective Jane Rizzoli has his case, and takes him to the Evensong boarding school in Maine, where many strange and damaged orphaned children are sequestered in protective custody in the wilderness. Medical examiner Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli make it their business to protect the orphans. Something is after them.

Fans of the television series Rizzoli and Isles will recognize the characters to some degree; but Jane and Maura's lives take a different turn in the books than they do on the screen. If I had never seen the television series, I would have visualized the book differently, I think, even though I read the books first, and discovered the series later.

I found the writing to be very serious, as compared to someone like, say, the entertaining Janet Evanovich, but infinitely more relatable than Kathy Reichs Bones series. No puff and fluff here, but chilling to the bone. Tess Gerritsen's knowledge as a doctor is intrinsic to the content of the book, and the content of Maura Isles personality, but the author's love of mystery and puzzle solving comes out as well. If you want a book that talks down to you, and that spoonfeeds you the story, Gerritsen's stories are not for you. If you love writing that respects you as a reader, and presents challenging stories and well rounded characters carved as sharply and clearly as a doctor's scalpel, then you will love Gerritsen's work as I do, though it might come with some nightmares.

The only reason I am giving this a five is for two basic problems. My Kindle view for the iPad was badly formatted and very difficult to read, with foot notes being mixed in with the story instead of, well a footnote. Also the story looked like it was in mid-editing, with the edited items left rather than removed or changed. I loved the gadget making sections and plan to try the hot dog maker since we are not allowed in our compound to do honest fire based BBQ, this could be an environmental run around.

Now this was the FIRST book I read in the six volumed series. Normally it is perfectly all right, if it was written to be able to continue a series and as a stand alone. Hey, I read it with Nancy Drew books, and I worked my way back and forth over the series. In this case, it not working for me. You almost have to read all the other books in order. A well-written book can handle the stories being read out of joint. In fact. they would inspire in you the desire to find the rest of the story without feeling like you have no clue as to who these kids really are.

The story had some good strong points though. I loved the science gadget make it help (already said) and I like the quirky personalities the characters had. My major problem is the pacing and how the book feels really less than half finished, almost as if they needed a fat outline to get the book approved, but never got around to actually writing the whole thing.

Nancy Louise