A corpse suddenly comes to life in the cold storage of the Medical Examiner's office. A Boston policewoman, nine months pregnant, goes into labor when the Diagnostic Imaging department becomes the set of a hostage situation. A hospital security guard, killed by the reanimated corpse who turns out not to be dead after all, isn't registered as a hospital employee. Neither, it seems is the doctor who was tending to her. The hostage taker calls the local radio station as the cop's FBI husband watches the scene unfold from outside, and issues the statement that "the die is cast." An unidentified man, dressed similarly to the Tactical Operatives surrounding the hospital, walks into the building without being stopped.

This is just the begining of Tess Gerritsen's latest thriller, and the story gets better with every page. As a conspiracy gets uncovered the lead characters get thrust into more and more danger. Another winner, VANISH is a wonderful police thriller. ( )

This was the first book by Tess Gerritsen that I have read. I got in in a box of books from my brother I believe. Later i leanred it was part of a series featuring Jane Rizzoli. A Boston police detective, she and her counterparts, as well as the coroners office take on a group of "terrorists" who attempt to kill a woman in one of Boston's hopsitals. Later they discover in fact they are not dealing with terrorists, but rather the traffiking of female "slaves." These women/girls are brought into the US from Russia and sold into sexual slavery in brothels, etc. One hell of a thriller, and the author does an amazing job of ratcheting up the suspense. ( )

A nerve-wrecking read. I liked the details about not knowing how to be a mother instinctively. Because you don't. I can see how a book cpuld be only about the hostage situation, but there was more to this book. I like that. ( )

This one has a lot of fast paced action. In fact this is one of the best parts of the book. The author has a good grasp on pacing and things never slow down for long. The logic and the plot take a hit several times as the book needs a jolt of action and the plot is forced through changes that are somewhat illogical, but the action is well done. Another positive in the book is the authors use of the new Dept of National Intelligence and how the new agency redefines the usual conflict between the FBI and the local police force. The DNI turns out to be nobodies friend and that tension is used to good effect throughout the book. There is also another good plotting device that is done well where the author uses Eastern Bloc girls who are being smuggled into the country and then being forced into prostitution. In fact there are a lot of good things in this book and it could have gotten a lot higher rating from me except......

Jane, the heroine, is having a baby. And as it turns out, the birth of this baby is not a happy event (at least not for Jane), it is in some ways the opposite. The baby becomes more and more an obstacle and even more than that, an irritating impediment to Jane who wants to abandon the baby repeatedly to go back to catching bad guys. She does not appear to bond with her child even once in this book. This is actually a great premise for a book (professional woman having a baby and having conflicting feelings about her career and the birth of her child), one that this author would appear to be uniquely qualified to write about since the dust jacket says that she gave up her career as a physician to be a full time mother and writer. But this book actually only sees it as a plot device that helps to increase the frustration that the heroine feels throughout the book. In fact it ends up making you feel creepily like you might in some ways be observing the author's sub-conscious way of working out her own misgivings about her choice to give up her profession. The way in which Jane is so outraged that her husband would try to keep her from being a part of the investigation just because she has had a baby is well done but it is also clear that no bonding is occuring for the mom. And her choice at the end which puts her child in harm's way feels unfortunately like the author trying to ratchet up the tension so she can have a slam-bam finish to her book. It really felt manipulative to me. ( )

forced prostitution. . . conspiracy theory. . . high government officials. . . big defense industry. . . murder mystery. . .betrayal. . . . . . Put a pregnant cop and her FBI husband in charge of solving the mystery, and you're in for some action. ( )