It is my observation (take it for what it is worth) that it is easier for male writers to appeal to females than for female writers to appeal to males.  Many females read such authors as C. J. Box, John Grisham, James Patterson and a whole host of others; however, males are less likely to read Julia Spencer-Fleming, Patricia Cornwell, Janet Evanovich and so forth.  Now, I admit there are men who read these authors, but I am talking generalities here. Men do not seem as likely flock to women writers or to identify as readily with female characters. This is Bev’s Rule #1.

I hypothesized this rule after I recommended a female author to my husband Roger. Her style was just too feminine for him.  I learned a lesson from this attempt to appeal to his feminine side.  I do not think he has one.  Anyway, Tess Gerritsen may be an exception to Bev’s Rule #1. 

            In last week’s column I mentioned Tess Gerritsen.   Gerritsen writes suspense/thrillers.  She is another doctor, turned writer, and the main characters of her best selling series are both females.  Dr. Maura Isles is a pathologist, and Jane Rizzoli is a homicide detective.  Gerritsen’s style is gritty, and she does not shy away from horrific topics as she does in “Body Double”.

With her opening sentence, “THAT BOY WAS WATCHING her again,” in the prologue to “Body Double” Gerritsen grabbed my attention.  It is fairly obvious from this beginning that something bad is about to happen, and it does. One of the best looking boys in class, “he looked exactly like Tony Curtis…” is paying attention to Alice, an awkward, unpopular, learning disabled teenager.  Elijah Lank convinces Alice to follow him into the woods so he can show her his science project.  His “project” is to discover how long it takes for cats that he starves to decompose.  Once in the woods, Elijah traps Alice in a buried box, planning to leave her there until she too decomposes.  

Moving forward several decades, pathologist Dr. Maura Isles returns to Boston from a Paris vacation.  She finds a crowd of police cars and crime scene tape surrounding her house and a murdered woman who was shot to death in a car in front of her house.  The woman is a dead ringer (no pun intended) for Maura. Raised as an adopted only child, Maura never knew her birth parents.  She is shocked when DNA proves the murdered woman is her twin. 

Maura begins a search for answers.  Her search leads her to a state mental facility for the criminally insane and a supposedly schizophrenic inmate who may be her mother.  This woman is apparently part of a grisly racket that involves the serial murders of pregnant women around the country.  The recently divorced Maura and pregnant Jane Rizzoli become uncharacteristically vulnerable as they tie together the web of missing person cases that spans decades.

 “Body Double” is a page turning, gripper of a novel.  I recommend it to women and men—including Roger.  If you like cozies, however, Gerritsen probably is not for you.

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