The Surgeon: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel
Tess Gerritsen
Language: English
Pages: 464
ISBN: 1101887427
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In her most masterful novel of medical suspense, New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen creates a villain of unforgettable evil--and the one woman who can catch him before he kills again.
He slips into their homes at night and walks silently into bedrooms where women lie sleeping, unaware of the horrors they soon will endure. The precision of the killer's methods suggests he is a deranged man of medicine, propelling the Boston newspapers and the frightened public to name him "The Surgeon."
The cops' only clue rests with another surgeon, the victim of a nearly identical crime. Two years ago, Dr. Catherine Cordell fought back and killed her attacker before he could complete his assault. Now she hides her fears of intimacy behind a cool and elegant exterior and a well-earned reputation as a top trauma surgeon.
Cordell's careful facade is about to crack as this new killer recreates, with chilling accuracy, the details of Cordell's own ordeal. With every new murder he seems to be taunting her, cutting ever closer, from her hospital to her home. Her only comfort comes from Thomas Moore, the detective assigned to the case. But even Moore cannot protect Cordell from a brilliant hunter who somehow understands--and savors--the secret fears of every woman he kills.
Filled with the authentic detail that is the trademark of this doctor turned author . . . and peopled with rich and complex characters--from the ER to the squad room to the city morgue--here is a thriller of unprecedented depth and suspense. Exposing the shocking link between those who kill and cure, punish and protect, The Surgeon is Tess Gerritsen's most exciting accomplishment yet.
From the Hardcover edition.
People noticed things in small towns. They certainly noticed pretty young women. Would they notice if one had gone missing? She shut the car door and went back into the grocery store. Mr Hobbs was in the vegetable aisle, cunningly burying the fresh lettuce heads at the back of the cooler bin, moving the wilted heads to the front. ‘Mr Hobbs?’ He turned. ‘You back again?’ ‘Another question.’ ‘Don’t mean I have an answer.’ ‘Do any Asian women live in this town?’ This was a question he had
two lovers. She feels the tendrils of my fantasies, winding around her. She can never break the bindings. In my cell, the lights go out; the long night begins, with its echoes of men asleep in cages. Their snores and coughs and breathing. Their mumblings as they dream. But as the night falls quiet, it is not Catherine Cordell I think of, but you. You, who are the source of my deepest pain. For this, I would drink deeply from the spring of Lethe, the spring of forgetfulness, just to wipe clean
snapping on the second glove. A knot had suddenly formed in her stomach. Neck and abdomen. Stab wounds. ‘Ambulance is pulling in!’ a nurse yelled through the doorway. ‘Blood and guts time,’ said Kimball, and he stepped out to meet the patient. Catherine, already in sterile garb, stayed right where she was. The room had suddenly gone silent. Neither the two interns flanking the table nor the scrub nurse, poised to hand Catherine surgical instruments, said a word. They were focused on what was
It’s six weeks of agony for these women, waiting to find out if they’ll get AIDS. Wondering if the enemy is inside you, multiplying in your blood. When they come for their follow-up test, I have to give them a pep talk. And swear that I’ll call them the instant I get the results back.’ ‘You don’t analyze the tests here?’ ‘No. It all gets sent out to Interpath Labs.’ Moore turned to the last page of the chart and saw the sheet of results. HIV screen: Negative. VDRL (syphilis): Negative. The
The sensation of a tube lodged in the throat can induce panic in anyone, and Nina was so agitated that her restrained wrists were already chafed raw. But removing the tube carried risks as well. Fluid had accumulated in her lungs after surgery, and even while she was breathing 40 percent oxygen – twice that of room air – her blood oxygen saturation was barely adequate. That’s why Catherine had left the tube in place. If they removed the tube, they would lose a margin of safety. If they left it