Die Again by Tess Gerritsen

I have been a long time fan of Rizzoli and Isles and when the show came to TNT years ago my wife and I love it. The characters are so different in the show than in the book that it is nice to have the difference. In the books Rizzoli and Isles are not as close as in the show. The stories switch between the points of view of each character. Isles is also a goth type loaner instead of this rich fashionista that she plays in the show. I definitely like Isles more in the show than the book. Rizzoli is a great detective with a great personality which is in both the book and the show, but I like the book character because she is a mom and married to FBI Agent Gabriel Dean. I wish the show would take the character down this path because I really like the conflict that arises with Rizzoli about trying to be this tough detective while still being a mom. 

This book is all about a couple grizzly murders that mirror how an animal would be gutted after the hunt. The book starts out with characters in Africa on a safari and we don’t know when this is taking place or what purpose the whole thing has to do with the story which was irritating. It wasn’t until towards the end that we understand the connection and get an explanation of time frame. The ending was predictable there is just a twist as to who the killer really is. This is a character we see Rizzoli and Isles interact with from time to time but we learn more about this character’s past at the very end. It felt very disjointed and out of place to be honest.

Speaking of disjointed and out of place, Tess Gerritsen I guess is trying to tie her books to the show because of its popularity. In this book we see more a a friendship between Rizzoli and Isles that has never really been there before. For me, I love the friendship between these characters in the show because of how well Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander play off each other, but as a long time reader of the series I have gotten used to the opposite being the case for these characters. This just made the whole scene written in this book feel off. I have only said this with one other series and that is I like the show better than the books. It wasn’t a bad book but I started to lose interest in the book after the midpoint and I had the ending pegged a quarter of the way in.

I didn’t hate the book but I didn’t love it either. There were quite a few character quips that just bugged me but I still care enough about these fictional characters to keep reading. As long as Tess Gerritsen doesn’t tank these books like I felt Kathy Reichs did with the Temperance Brennan series, I will keep reading. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. One of the things that I really like about the books is the fact that Barry Frost is still in the books. I have always liked this character but not as much as when Lee Thompson Young played him in the show. He was such a great actor who fit this character very well and it was a sad day when he passed. Since then the show has always had an empty feeling without him, but at least I still get to visit with Frost when I read the books.