Christmas Eve in Boston is no holy night for medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles. In a rundown house a woman has been dismembered in an act of carnage that leaves veteran cops in shock. The last person called from the dead girl's phone is Dr. Joyce O'Donnell, a celebrity psychiatrist who's made her name defending serial murderers. But there are other clues that make the police wonder if this slaying was part of a Satanic ritual. Drawn on the wall, in blood, are ancient symbols, and a mirror-image word in Latin that, translated, says: "I have sinned." Then a second woman is found butchered on Beacon Hill, just outside the grand residence of Anthony Sansone, a reclusive historian. He is the leader of the Mephisto Club, an old and secret society dedicated to the study of evil, and to confronting it in its purest form. On the door to Sansone's house have been scrawled yet more ancient symbols. Are they clues? Or threats? When the same symbols appear on Maura Isles' door, Maura and Jane must call on the Mephisto Club for assistance. Because this is a form of evil Boston PD has never encountered before.
And the only way they can defeat it is by turning to the people who understand the devil himself.
While this story of ancient evil recurring again to kill is interesting it doesn't really fit in my mental picture of the series starring Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli. It's almost as if Ms Gerritsen had a story to tell and hung it on this series.
The story is of a series of strange murders, seemingly focused on a small but strange group of people, the Mephisto club, a group who have a lot of power and influence. Their theories about the murders don't fit well with Jane's worldview and other issues flare in both Jane and Maura's worlds.
It's not a bad read but somehow it felt like a story Ms Gerritsen wanted to tell and used this series as a prop, but it's a prop that doesn't quite flow as well as it might.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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27 March, 2008:
Finished reading
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27 March, 2008:
Reviewed