I am VERY excited to welcome this week's featured author, international best seller TESS GERRITSEN!
I'm a huge fan of Tess's books - her Rizzoli & Isles series is wonderful! Normally I'm not thrilled when movies and TV shows are based on books, but in this case I am also a big fan of the TV series based on Tess's books - the TNT series RIZZOLI & ISLES. I understand it was just renewed for a third season - VERY good news!
Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.
While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, “Adrift”, which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.
Tess’s first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Her suspense novels since then have been: Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), The Surgeon (2001), The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), The Bone Garden (2007), The Keepsake (2008; UK title: Keeping the Dead), and Ice Cold (2010; UK title: The Killing Place.) Her books have been translated into 40 languages, and more than 25 million copies have been sold around the world.
Her books have been top-5 bestsellers in the United States and abroad. She has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon). Critics around the world have praised her novels as “Pulse-pounding fun” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “Scary and brilliant” (Toronto Globe and Mail), and “Polished, riveting prose” (Chicago Tribune). Publisher Weekly has dubbed her the “medical suspense queen”.
Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the TNT television series “Rizzoli & Isles” starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.
Now retired from medicine, she writes full time. She lives in Maine.
Tess's website is here: http://www.tessgerritsen.com/
She's on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1199261522
Her blog is here: http://www.tessgerritsen.com/blog/
“RIZZOLI & ISLES” RENEWED FOR A THIRD SEASON!
The TV show has been picked up for another fifteen episodes next year:
TNT has booked its blockbuster series Rizzoli & Islesfor a third season. The record-breaking drama – from Warner Horizon Television and starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander – is in the midst of a terrific second season that has it running neck-and-neck with The Closer as this year’s top basic cable series. TNT has ordered 15 episodes of Rizzoli & Isles for its third season, which is slated to launch in summer 2012. The show’s second season will continue airing Monday nights at 10 p.m. (ET/PT) through Sept. 12. Rizzoli & Isles will return to wrap up its second season with new episodes in November and December.
Rizzoli & Isles launched this summer with 8.6 million viewers, joining The Closer and Falling Skies in giving TNT three premieres with at least 8.0 million viewers, the first time a cable network has ever achieved that level of success. The Closer and Rizzoli & Isles are currently basic cable’s top two series for the year-to-date, with Falling Skies ranking as the top new series.
“This summer, Rizzoli & Isles has proven that last year’s record-breaking ratings were just the beginning of this show’s remarkable track record,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president and head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “With a terrific cast, a top-notch production team and the kind of stories TNT fans crave, Rizzoli & Isles is poised to continue its success alongside blockbuster TNT series like The Closer and Falling Skies.”
The Surgeon (Rizzoli and Isles Series #1)
The Apprentice (Rizzoli and Isles Series #2)
The Sinner (Rizzoli and Isles Series #3)
Body Double (Rizzoli and Isles Series #4)
Vanish (Rizzoli and Isles Series #5)
The Mephisto Club (Rizzoli and Isles Series #6)
The Keepsake (Rizzoli and Isles Series #7)
Ice Cold (Rizzoli and Isles Series #8)
The Silent Girl (Rizzoli and Isles Series #9)
The Mephisto Club (Rizzoli and Isles Series #6)
Never Say Die and Whistleblower
The Silent Girl (Rizzoli and Isles Series #9)
In the murky shadows of an alley lies a female’s severed hand. On the tenement rooftop above is the corpse belonging to that hand, a red-haired woman dressed all in black, the body nearly decapitated. Two strands of silver hair — not human — cling to her body. They are Rizzoli’s only clues, but they’re enough for her and medical examiner Maura Isles to make a startling discovery: This violent death had a chilling prequel.
Nineteen years earlier, a horrifying murder-suicide in a Chinatown restaurant left five people dead. One woman connected to that massacre is still alive: a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dares not tell, a secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of Chinatown. A secret that may not even be human. Now she’s the target of someone, or something, deeply and relentlessly evil.
Cracking a crime resonating with bone-chilling echoes of an ancient Chinese legend, Rizzoli and Isles must outwit an unseen enemy with centuries of cunning — and a swift, avenging blade.
Welcome Tess:
I have never read any of your books, so when Becke announced your visit, I decided to start with HARVEST. I am half-way through the book and I started it early this morning. I know that I will finish it by the end of the day because it is very hard to put down. I am definitely adding more of your books to my already growing TBR pile! I just wanted to stop reading and take the time to welcome you. Hope you enjoy your visit with us!
And, now back to HARVEST.......
tess_gerritsenTG wrote:
I'm delighted to be here! I'm also delighted that so many people are discovering the books through the TV show "Rizzoli & Isles," which will now be going into its third season on TNT. How many of you found the books through the TV show? I'm curious to know!
Hi Tess - Thank you so much for joining us! I was already a fan of the books when the TV show came out. In fact, I was hesitant to watch it because so often I'm disappointed when books are adapted for TV and movies.
While I didn't picture Jane and Maura the way they are portrayed, the acting is so good that I've become hooked on the TV show, too.
I feel like a real dunce because I'd watched a LOT of episodes before I realized Sasha Alexander (Maura Isles) was the same actress I used to watch in NCIS. I wouldn't have thought a change of hair color/style would make so much difference, but even knowing it's her, I have a hard time making that connection. (Which goes to show what a terrible witness I'd be in a police line-up identification!)
Much as I like the show, I still like the books best. I pre-order your books as soon as the new ones become available. I'm glad you seem to be a pretty fast writer! Plus I'm still discovering books I had missed from your backlist. I'm reading this one now:
