Praise for Body Double, published by Bantam Press in 2005:
'A ghoulish but thrilling read.' Observer
'A twisting, terrifying tale.' Sunday Express
'A first-class modern thriller.' Guardian
Tess Gerritsen's background as a doctor combined with her gripping storytelling and compelling plots produce novels that are thrilling and hugely successful - she is both a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller. Drawing on first hand experience as a medic and inspired by a real life case of a woman mistaken for dead, Vanish, the latest thriller in a series featuring Detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr Maura Isles, is her most chilling novel yet...Tess explains, 'It was inspired by a true event that happened a few years ago in a Boston suburb. A young woman was found lying in a bathtub of cold water, with empty pill bottles nearby. A fire and rescue team was called to the scene, as well as a state police investigator, and they detected no signs of life. The supposedly dead woman was zipped into a body bag and transported to a funeral home - where, a few hours later, she woke up.The idea of being mistaken for dead, and of waking up in a body bag, truly horrified me. When I read that news article, I knew immediately that I wanted to write about just such a scenario - a young woman, waking up in the morgue. But then, as a novelist, I found myself asking more and more questions about this mysterious woman. Who is she? Why doesn't anyone know her name? Why is there no record of her existence? It's these questions that are the heart of the mystery in Vanish.'The nameless and beautiful woman appears to be just another corpse in the morgue. An apparent suicide, she lies on a gurney in the cold room, awaiting the dissecting scalpel of medical examiner Maura Isles. When Maura unzips the body bag and looks at the body she gets the fright of her life - the corpse opens it's eyes. The mysterious women is rushed to hospital where with cool precision she murders a security guard and seizes hostages, one of them a very pregnant Detective Jane Rizzoli. Who is this woman and what does she want? As the FBI become involved and as the investigation deepens it's clear this is no ordinary hostage crisis, the implications are far deeper than anyone imaginesTess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, she went on to medical school at the University of California and was awarded her MD in 1979. She practiced as a physician in Hawaii and left a successful practice to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. Her previous novels in her crime series have been worldwide bestsellers. She lives with her husband and two sons in Maine. For more information visit www.tessgerritsen.com. Vanish By Tess Gerritsen