The Sinner
Audio Length: 9 hours and 3 min.
Average Customer Rating: 
Version: Unabridged

The cloistered grounds of the convent have traditionally represented a place of faith and peace. Now, that peace is shattered as two nuns are found, one dead, one mortally wounded. The killings appear to be without motive, without an obvious suspect, and are further complicated by the murder and mutilation of a third woman. Together, medical examiner Maura Isles and intense, moody homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (both introduced in earlier Tess Gerritsen novels) uncover an ancient horror that connects these terrible slaughters. As long-buried secrets come to light, Isles finds herself drawn inexorably towards the heart of an investigation that strikes closer to home, and towards a dawning revelation about the killer's identity too shattering to consider.

From Publishers Weekly
A grisly murder at a convent baffles Medical Examiner Maura Isles and Det. Jane Rizzoli at the start of this assured, richly shaded seventh novel from bestseller Gerritsen (The Apprentice; The Surgeon, etc.). The popular duo are called to Boston's Graystones Abbey when two nuns are discovered in an abandoned chapel, one dead and the other near death, both brutally bludgeoned. Red herrings are everywhere: Isles's discovery that one of the murdered nuns had recently given birth (followed shortly by the discovery of the baby's body in a pond near the convent); the murder of a homeless derelict with her face and extremities removed by her killer; and the lurking menace of a multinational chemical company. Complicating matters further is the sudden arrival of Isles's ex-husband, Victor, a celebrity humanitarian with his own suspicious connection to the case, and Rizzoli's old flame, FBI agent Gabriel Dean, who's responsible for the baby now growing in Rizzoli's belly. The investigation is rather low-key, but Gerritsen gives atmospheric depth to her tale with descriptions of snowbound Boston and an exotic past tragedy. Isles's pleasantly bitchy coldness ("Go ahead and pass me, idiots. I've met too many drivers like you on my slab") gives a welcome edge to the proceedings, and the struggles of both Isles and Rizzoli to balance their tough professional acts with romantic drama are satisfyingly gritty.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 

From AudioFile
Once again Gerritsen, a doctor, brings us gripping and technically detailed gore. Actor Dennis Boutsikaris delivers a cool, understated performance that suits the protaganist--Medical Examiner Maura Isle, a woman who prefers the company of corpses to the emotionally threatening world of the living. As in all thrillers, there are love interests who are close to the case and lots of surprises in the mysterious and hideous multiple murders of nuns. But most remarkable is how the story flows from the page to ear smoothly and grippingly, a real page-turner in the theater of the mind. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.