The Mephisto Club: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

I liked The Mephisto Club best of the books in this fine series. If you've liked any of the earlier books, you should definitely read this one.

Most medical-detective thrillers are long on scientific deduction, little-known facts and brilliant solutions. As such, the typical entry in the genre can feel well, bloodless, even as bloody body parts pile up. To attempt to overcome that problem, more blood, guts and gruesomeness are added to the next story. Eventually, I find myself being repelled by such series.

Tess Gerritsen had been on that downward spiral too until The Mephisto Club. Although the blood, guts and gruesomeness will be pretty disturbing to many, in The Mephisto Club that extremity made sense for this story. She goes beyond the conventions of social psychology to address the possibility of evil incarnate wrecking havoc. Drawing on ancient tales referenced in various cultures and the Bible, Dr. Gerritsen adds a dash of terror by turning the hunters into the hunted that works quite well in making a gripping, chilling tale.

The story begins innocently enough as a family retrieves a nephew to live with them one summer after the boy's father dies. After that flashback, we sense that all is not well with the nephew.

Next, we move into the present where Dr. Maura Isles resumes her fascination with Father Daniel Brophy during a Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Their conversation is interrupted by a call from Detective Jane Rizzoli who has caught a gruesome homicide of a young woman that involves what seem to be satanic symbols and strange rituals. At the victim's home, the caller ID presents an unexpected connection that draws back into a part of her past that she wants to forget. On Christmas, there's a blow-up between Jane's parents that reverberates throughout the book.

At that point the flashback recommences with a look at the Saul family during the summer after the nephew came to live with them. Just as quickly, the story leaps forward to Italy where Lily Saul, the daughter, is hiding from someone or something in Italy.

The pace of the story picks up at that point as the clues to the young woman's murder draw attention to the members of the Mephisto Foundation, a group of scholars and intellectuals who believe that evil is incarnate in the world and specialize in helping the police root that evil out. Beyond that, the story is a little vague about the current activities of Mephisto but you'll probably be fascinated by Anthony Sansone, the foundation's head, and his background. Sansone is an inspired fictional character who adds a lot to this book.

You'll find almost all of the characters from the earlier books in this series somewhere in The Mephisto Club. What impressed me was the way that Dr. Gerritsen managed to evolve so many on-going characters in the space of a single book.

Fine work!

Although I am a fan of Gerritsen's other works, I did not enjoy this book. I found the plot lacklustre and the characters dry. Not at all exciting. Try reading Vanish or Life Support instead.

This was a quick, thrilling read that would have rated 5 stars had Gerritsen not left some threads hanging. As the review title implies, I would love for her to write a book continuing the story of the Mephisto Foundation.