Title: The Sinner
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Series: Rizzoli & Isles #3
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Strong women
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Transworld Publishers
Year: 2003
5th sentence, 74th page: ‘Thanks.’

A scene of unspeakable carnage

Two nuns are brutally attacked within the walls of their convent. There seems to be no shred of motive. but during the autopsy Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles discovers something entirely unexpected.

And when a second, heavily mutilated body is found and linked to the case, she and Detective Jane Rizzoli find themselves in the midst of a terrifying investigation that seems to implicate everyone.

Because who can really say they’re free from sin?

The first two Rizzoli & Isles books deal almost exclusively with Rizzoli, so it is really refreshing and nice to understand crime from the point of view of an ME. Maura is the complete opposite of Rizzoli, although both women are fighting for respect and their own place in a man’s world. The ‘Queen of the Dead’, like Jane has her own hang-ups, her own past and her own battles to fight within the male dominated society.

There is something that is inherently wrong with the brutal attack of nuns. Regardless of my (or anyone else’s) religious beliefs, attacking a woman who has cloistered herself away from the world for life seems incredibly wrong. The horror of the attacks just furthers the injustice of the world. Especially when those attacked are elderly and unable to defend themselves at all.

Rizzoli is incredibly rigid and unyielding in her actions and beliefs, that much is obvious in the first two books. The Sinner delves further into her rigidity and inability to compromise. It investigates her familial life and past, why her daily struggle to hold her own is so personal and professional at the same time. I loved delving into this aspect of Jane’s life – it is a great reminder that as a parent, your words and actions can have far larger effects than one would realise.

Image source: Goodreads