Last to Die: A Novel

Front Cover
Ballantine Books, 2012 - Fiction - 338 pages
"Rizzoli & Isles - "Hit series on TNT
"Suspense doesn't get smarter than this. Not just recommended but mandatory."--Lee Child
For the second time in his short life, Teddy Clock has survived a massacre. Two years ago, he barely escaped when his entire family was slaughtered. Now, at fourteen, in a hideous echo of the past, Teddy is the lone survivor of his foster family's mass murder. Orphaned once more, the traumatized teenager has nowhere to turn--until the Boston PD puts detective Jane Rizzoli on the case. Determined to protect this young man, Jane discovers that what seemed like a coincidence is instead just one horrifying part of a relentless killer's merciless mission.
Jane spirits Teddy to the exclusive Evensong boarding school, a sanctuary where young victims of violent crime learn the secrets and skills of survival in a dangerous world. But even behind locked gates, and surrounded by acres of sheltering Maine wilderness, Jane fears that Evensong's mysterious benefactors aren't the only ones watching. When strange blood-splattered dolls are found dangling from a tree, Jane knows that her instincts are dead on. And when she meets Will Yablonski and Claire Ward, students whose tragic pasts bear a shocking resemblance to Teddy's, it becomes chillingly clear that a circling predator has more than one victim in mind.
Joining forces with her trusted partner, medical examiner Maura Isles, Jane is determined to keep these orphans safe from harm. But an unspeakable secret dooms the children's fate--unless Jane and Maura can finally put an end to an obsessed killer's twisted quest.
PRAISE FOR TESS GERRITSEN
"[Gerritsen] has an imagination that allows her to conjure up depths of human behavior so dark and frightening that she makes Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft seem like goody-two-shoes."--"Chicago Tribune"
"One of the most versatile voices in thriller fiction today."--"The Providence Journal"
" "
The Silent Girl
"Another great thrill ride . . . one of Gerritsen's best."--Associated Press
"An exciting and suspense-filled adventure."--Wichita Falls "Times Record News"
Ice Cold
"Gerritsen paces "Ice Cold" with surgical precision."--Salon
"The kind of book you'd read in one sitting."--"Chicago Sun-Times"
 

Selected pages

Contents

Section 1
5
Section 2
11
Section 3
15
Section 4
21
Section 5
35
Section 6
43
Section 7
51
Section 8
67
Section 19
167
Section 20
173
Section 21
181
Section 22
197
Section 23
205
Section 24
219
Section 25
237
Section 26
253

Section 9
75
Section 10
85
Section 11
99
Section 12
107
Section 13
119
Section 14
129
Section 15
135
Section 16
147
Section 17
153
Section 18
159
Section 27
265
Section 28
277
Section 29
297
Section 30
301
Section 31
311
Section 32
315
Section 33
327
Section 34
337
Copyright

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About the author (2012)

Tess Gerritsen was born on June 12, 1953 in San Diego, California. She received a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco. While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. Her first novel, Call After Midnight was published in 1987. It was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote the screenplay, Adrift, which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson. Her first medical thriller, Harvest, was published in 1996. She is the author of the Rizzoli and Isles series, which was adapted into a television show. She has won several awards including the Nero Wolfe Award for Vanish and the Rita Award for The Surgeon. She retired from the medical field and writes full-time. Her other novels include Presumed Guilty, Harvest, Gravity, The Bone Garden, and Playing with Fire.