Status
Available
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Ballantine Books (2013), Edition: Reprint, 512 pages
Description
Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles—the inspiration for the hit TNT series—continue their bestselling crime-solving streak. “Crime writing at its unputdownable, nerve-tingling best.”—Harlan Coben Boston medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles is shocked to discover that the murdered woman looks exactly like her. For Maura, an only child, a DNA test confirms the startling fact: the mysterious doppelgänger is in fact her twin sister. Now an already bizarre homicide investigation becomes a disturbing excursion into a past full of dark secrets and twisted truths. It is a journey that leads Maura to the mother she never knew—an icy and cunning woman who gave Maura life . . . and who just might have a plan to take it away. This ebook edition contains a special preview of Tess Gerritsen’s I Know a Secret. Praise for Tess Gerritsen and Body Double “One of the most versatile voices in thriller fiction today.”—The Providence Journal “Masterful . . . Gerritsen rises to her best yet.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “The story zips along.”—Entertainment Weekly “Chilling suspense . . . leaves the reader breathless.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member drhapgood
Wow. Wow. No, really, wow! The Sinner was light years better than The Apprentice, and Body Double was light years better than The Sinner. Tess, while I still have much love for Kathy Reichs (with the exception of Virals), you're now my go-to for quality murder mystery!!!
LibraryThing member Kaysbooks
BĂĽcherrezension: Tess Gerristen: Body Double
It is always very interesting to re-read a book every once in a while, especially when the context has changed. Some years ago I got a copy of the German version of this detective, considered it to be readable, gave it 3 stars but never thought about the
Knowing the characters and their personal histories adds an extra value to these books because now it's not only a pregnant detective who misses her husband and a shocked pathologist who finds back her sister, although it's too late to get to know her. I guess this is part of the R&I dynamic that these stories are more than just a suspense story like the ordinary Whodunits. Having read the first three instalments is part of the experience and adds an extra star to the general judgement.
When pathologist Maura Isles returns from the beautiful city Paris to Boston, she is shocked to find police in front of her house, but apparently everybody else is even more in shock because the murder victim looks exactly like Isles. So everybody thought it was her. But DNA proves that the victim was a sister Maura didn't know of. During the search for the killer Isles and Rizzoli discover even more horrid details about the past of the adopted sisters leading to the question whether evil is part of your genes or not.
The most important question of this book is not, who shot Maura Isles' sister but what kinds of love to we have and feel. How destructive or constructive can love be? There is the love of Jane Rizzoli for her unborn child, the love of relatives towards one another, but also the love of a policeman for the victim, the love of a wife for her husband, and the love of a mother for her child and vice versa.
When you are willing to entertain those questions and don't mind to forget about the murder plot (which is difficult as there is a lot of vicious dying in this book), you will definitely enjoy the read.
It is always very interesting to re-read a book every once in a while, especially when the context has changed. Some years ago I got a copy of the German version of this detective, considered it to be readable, gave it 3 stars but never thought about the
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idea that this may have been a part of a whole series. But Tess Gerritsen kept being on my mind. Well, now it was time to reconnect with her detectives as part of the Rizzoli & Isles series. Knowing the characters and their personal histories adds an extra value to these books because now it's not only a pregnant detective who misses her husband and a shocked pathologist who finds back her sister, although it's too late to get to know her. I guess this is part of the R&I dynamic that these stories are more than just a suspense story like the ordinary Whodunits. Having read the first three instalments is part of the experience and adds an extra star to the general judgement.
When pathologist Maura Isles returns from the beautiful city Paris to Boston, she is shocked to find police in front of her house, but apparently everybody else is even more in shock because the murder victim looks exactly like Isles. So everybody thought it was her. But DNA proves that the victim was a sister Maura didn't know of. During the search for the killer Isles and Rizzoli discover even more horrid details about the past of the adopted sisters leading to the question whether evil is part of your genes or not.
The most important question of this book is not, who shot Maura Isles' sister but what kinds of love to we have and feel. How destructive or constructive can love be? There is the love of Jane Rizzoli for her unborn child, the love of relatives towards one another, but also the love of a policeman for the victim, the love of a wife for her husband, and the love of a mother for her child and vice versa.
When you are willing to entertain those questions and don't mind to forget about the murder plot (which is difficult as there is a lot of vicious dying in this book), you will definitely enjoy the read.
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LibraryThing member emhromp2
This book was strongly recommended to me, and I'm glad I listened. Gerritsen surely knows how to build up a thrilling story and I have subsequently bought and or read her other books. Of course. This is her best though.
LibraryThing member DonnaJWolfe
Dr. Maura Isles discovers that she had a twin who is now a corpse and amother who is less than desirable.
LibraryThing member Darrol
I liked this book, although I do wonder about the likelihood of the premise.
LibraryThing member MsBeautiful
Interesting Mystery/Thriller, well written
LibraryThing member tinarigdon77
I remember waiting forever for this book to be releases. It was worth the wait!!
LibraryThing member devenish
Maura Isles,a pathologist in Boston,returns home from a conference in Paris to face the horror of a body which looks identical in every respects to her own. She later discovers that not only in looks but in blood type and even in birth date is this dead woman identical.
From this we are led into a
Tess Gerritsen,in her Rizzoli and Isles series is a reliable writer of crime fiction who produces an excellent level of work and 'Body Double' is no exception.
From this we are led into a
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dark spiral of madness and murder familiar to readers of this author.Tess Gerritsen,in her Rizzoli and Isles series is a reliable writer of crime fiction who produces an excellent level of work and 'Body Double' is no exception.
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LibraryThing member jnavia
Rolled my eyes several times at cliches, coincidences and things that didn't make any sense to me or seemed ridiculously improbable. Still, I kept listening to the end.
LibraryThing member SheilaCornelisse
A real pager-turner. Dr. Maura Isles gets caught up in an intense murder mystery involving the death of her identical twin sister who she had no idea existed. The plot twists and turns through a number of story lines. The death of the sister, a serial killer preying on pregnant women, and a
Great writing style and a plot worthy of a CSI episode.
Highly recommended for murder mystery fans.
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complicated romance. However, all the parts have a purpose and blend perfectly.Great writing style and a plot worthy of a CSI episode.
Highly recommended for murder mystery fans.
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LibraryThing member creighley
Fast-paced reading. Maura Isles has discovered that she has an identical sister and a family of questionable sanity.
LibraryThing member cooperca05
I love Rizzoli and Isles, but this by far is my favorite so far. When 'Isles' is found dead, nobody is more shocked than Isles. But the fact that Isles double has been killed outside her house is just the beginning to finding out Isles family background and the skeletons she never knew her family
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closet contained. But how is the killing of Isles double linked to a serial killer spree. Show Less
LibraryThing member mmyoung
I have conflicting feelings about this book. On the one hand it certainly is a page turner. On the other hand it continues Gerritsen pattern of depending on 'women in danger' to ensure empathy and interest. On the gripping hand it is neither fish nor fowl: it is neither a procedural nor a thriller.
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The routine and painstaking work of solving a crime is barely hinted at and, with one exception, the only characters with whom the reader engages are Rizzoli and Isles--the two characters least likely to have anything 'happen' to them. The fact that a secondary character is convincingly and compelling drawn suggests that Gerristen's writing may be constricted by the genre conventions of writing around continuing characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member ladybug74
I don't usually enjoy this type of mystery, but won an ARC of a book from this series and have read a couple of others from the series since then. They are pretty good books and I will probably read more of them.
LibraryThing member dancingBeagles
Are Tess Gerritsen and Patricia Cornwall the same person? Seriously, without a cover I wouldn't know which author wrote this. I have enjoyed several books by both authors so I guess it doesn't really matter. This gives me another author to explore.
LibraryThing member CloggieDownunder
Body Double is the 4th in Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli/Isles series. The story starts with Maura Isles arriving home from a conference in Paris, to find the police at her home, called to a shooting. The victim looks uncannily like Maura, so much so that Rizzoli, Frost and co thought it was her.
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Whilst Maura was an only child, she was adopted, and DNA tests prove that this woman was her twin sister. Maura endures the singular experience of seeing her own body autopsied. As Rizzoli and Frost investigate, Maura learns some horrifying truths about her past. Once again, Gerritsen gives us a fast-paced story with an excellent plot and quite a few twists. And a gutsy victim who decides not to be. Gerristen also provides a bit of humour, some of it quite black: the eight-month pregnant Rizzoli “guarding” Isles; Rizzoli giving Isles relationship advice; and Maura, who has never exposed more than her hands and face at work, present as her morgue colleagues, Rizzoli and Frost see a body identical to hers under the knife. Gerritsen also gives us food for thought about “private” adoptions and where those babies come from. Another excellent read. Show Less
LibraryThing member SalemAthenaeum
Boston medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles literally meets her match–and must face a savage serial killer and shattering personal revelations–in the brilliant new novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of The Surgeon and The Sinner.
Dr. Maura Isles makes her living dealing with
Yet there can be no denying the mind-reeling evidence before her shocked eyes and those of her colleagues, including Detective Jane Rizzoli: the woman found shot to death outside Maura’s home is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical nuances. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. For the stunned Maura, an only child, there can be just one explanation. And when a DNA test confirms that Maura’s mysterious doppelgänger is in fact her twin sister, an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets.
Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await. But perhaps more frightening, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree. To stop the massacre and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject: the mother that she never knew . . . an icy and cunning woman who could be responsible for giving Maura life–and who just may have a plan to take it away.
Dr. Maura Isles makes her living dealing with
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death. As a pathologist in a major metropolitan city, she has seen more than her share of corpses every day–many of them victims of violent murder. But never before has her blood run cold, and never has the grim expression “dead ringer” rung so terrifyingly true. Because never before has the lifeless body on the medical examiner’s table been her own.Yet there can be no denying the mind-reeling evidence before her shocked eyes and those of her colleagues, including Detective Jane Rizzoli: the woman found shot to death outside Maura’s home is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical nuances. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. For the stunned Maura, an only child, there can be just one explanation. And when a DNA test confirms that Maura’s mysterious doppelgänger is in fact her twin sister, an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets.
Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await. But perhaps more frightening, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree. To stop the massacre and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject: the mother that she never knew . . . an icy and cunning woman who could be responsible for giving Maura life–and who just may have a plan to take it away.
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LibraryThing member silenceiseverything
I'm a fan of the previous 3 novels in the Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles series. While I didn't read them one after the other, they were read within a short time span of each other. Yet, when I read the premise of Body Double, I put it off. It seemed too much like a soap-opera plot to me and the last
The premise that turned me off this book was this: There's a body found outside of Dr. Maura Isles house when she's out of town. The body looks so much like Maura that Detective Rizzoli assumes it's her. Then we find out that the body is her twin sister which she never knew existed. Soap-opera, right? Wrong. This actually turned out rather twisted. Not going to spoil it for anyone and say exactly why it was twisted, but it was.
Body Double was a page-turning thriller. The likes which I've come to expect from Tess Gerritsen. This book also had me extremely paranoid. So much that when I was reading this book like at two in the morning (when it seems that I do all my reading), I had to stop reading it because I was getting too freaked out. That's exactly what thrillers should achieve.
Body Double isn't the best thriller written and sometimes it did have me rolling my eyes at the main characters behaviors thinking "Don't you two EVER learn?", but still, it was an extremely quick and enjoyable read. I can't wait to pick up the next installment in the series, but it won't be my next read. More than that, I absolutely cannot wait for the Rizzoli & Isles show that's going to premiere on TNT with Angie Harmon playing Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander (NCIS, anyone?) playing Isles.
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thing I want is to have the thrillers that I enjoy turn into the rolling-eyes fest that soaps induce in me. So, I was pleasantly surprised when this turned out nothing like a soap-opera (or at least none I've ever seen). The premise that turned me off this book was this: There's a body found outside of Dr. Maura Isles house when she's out of town. The body looks so much like Maura that Detective Rizzoli assumes it's her. Then we find out that the body is her twin sister which she never knew existed. Soap-opera, right? Wrong. This actually turned out rather twisted. Not going to spoil it for anyone and say exactly why it was twisted, but it was.
Body Double was a page-turning thriller. The likes which I've come to expect from Tess Gerritsen. This book also had me extremely paranoid. So much that when I was reading this book like at two in the morning (when it seems that I do all my reading), I had to stop reading it because I was getting too freaked out. That's exactly what thrillers should achieve.
Body Double isn't the best thriller written and sometimes it did have me rolling my eyes at the main characters behaviors thinking "Don't you two EVER learn?", but still, it was an extremely quick and enjoyable read. I can't wait to pick up the next installment in the series, but it won't be my next read. More than that, I absolutely cannot wait for the Rizzoli & Isles show that's going to premiere on TNT with Angie Harmon playing Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander (NCIS, anyone?) playing Isles.
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LibraryThing member delphimo
I thoroughly enjoy the momentum of Gerritsen's writing. Dr Maura Isles returns from Paris to find a dead woman in a car outside her house. The event is not surreal, but the woman seems to be a mirror image of Dr Isles. What follows this amazing coincidence is Maura's discovery of a twin sister, and
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a path to their biological mother. Gerritsen presents two stories running in tandem, with little connecting the narratives. A heavily pregnant Jane Rizzoli attempts to protect Maura from the villains and the awful truth. Maura 's mind wanders to thought of love, but with unattainable men. The story ends with that infamous discussion of nature versus nurture. Show Less
LibraryThing member OrigamiLady
I bought this as an audio CD, and while it was okay enought that I finished it -Ive gotta say that I was rather underwhelmed and ended up getting a bad taste in my mouth (figuratively o'course) from this book especially what happened in the last chapter or two.
LibraryThing member skinglist
Maura comes home from Boston to find out that her friends and colleagues think she's been murdered in a car outside her house. The story widens to include a woman who may be her birth mother, a Brookline cop who was involved with her sister and the secrets of a small town in Maine.
The sub plot of
The sub plot of
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Mattie Purvis was an interesting one until it tied into the main plotline, which Gerritsen did well. A well crafted story with multi-dimensional characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
Maura Isles returns from a pathology conference to find a body in a car outside her house with someone who looks very very much like her dead, from a bullet wound. Not only does the dead woman share her face she shares her genes. The exploration of the murder leads her to look into her past,
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digging up issues that force her to look at her life as well as the murder. Show Less
LibraryThing member Balthazar-Lawson
I enjoyed this book, more than any of the others. It was a nice uncomplicated good read.
LibraryThing member Chris_Bulin
I enjoy both of these characters, however the number of neck slashing serial killers in the series gets very old, very fast.
LibraryThing member TooBusyReading
The murders are so awful that they don't bear thinking about too closely, and the beginning was horrible in terms of victims' suffering. But still, I like to read the occasional mystery and am willing to not dwell on specifics too much. So, overlooking that, I plodded on.
And I did enjoy this book
Overall, this murder mystery held my interesting and was good for summer, don't-have-to-think-too-hard entertainment.
And I did enjoy this book
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despite some flaws. In chapter two, something became quite obvious to the casual reader but was not verified until page 95 (in my mass market paperback copy). You'd think the protagonist, a smart and logical doctor, would have caught on earlier than that, wouldn't you? There were some other flaws as well, and some bits of forensic and pathological science that I found interesting. There was a surprise at the end, one I didn't anticipate, so that is always a plus.Overall, this murder mystery held my interesting and was good for summer, don't-have-to-think-too-hard entertainment.
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Subjects
Awards
Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award (Winner — 2004)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2004
Physical description
512 p.; 4.2 inches
ISBN
0345547713 / 9780345547712
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