Rating: 
Summary: nothing new to see here - pass it by
Review: there is nothing here that hasn't been done before. Everything in The Apprentice has been done before, somewhere else (often better) and as a result this is really just like reading good bits from other serial killer thrillers that have just been cut out and stuck in here in a different order. All the best crime novels are brilliant because they serve up a well-brewed mix of character, plot, and setting. This doesn't really fulfill any of those criteia, let alone all three. The plot is nothing new, Gerritsen has nothing original to say. This is highlighted not just by the fact that everything here can be found in a far better serial killer novel (I advise you to look toward "Mortal Fear" by Greg Iles, anything by Thomas Harris, or Val McDermid's "The Mermaids Singing" or Michael Connelly's "The Concrete Blonde" for really sublime serial killer books) but by the fact that "The Apprentice" is practically just a re-write of "The Surgeon"!. There is nothing particularly great about the setting, either. there is nothing here to really distinguish Boston from any other American city (or maybe that is just a factor of American cities, rather than Gerritsen's writing!), and the characters are quite bland as well. Rizzoli is nothing new at all. It's not even as if the depiction of a professional, gutsy woman-in-a-man's-policeforce hasn't been done before, either. Admittedly, Gerritsen does do it quite well, but in the end it actually becomes repetitive, tired. The prose ain't special, either. Occasionally, she does sparkle, but that is only when she narrates the short passages from the killer's point of view. Gerritsen doesn't exactly do anything WRONG here, but its all very run-of-the-mill, seen it before kinda stuff. It's a pageturner, too. I read it really quickly and it passed the time of day enjoyably. But that is not enough any more, certainly not in the field of serial killer novels. To be honest, it's a genre that's msotly had its day. Only really great writers who still have new things to say, original things, can still succeed in this genre, and they are the ones who are really getting down-and-dirty with humanity, reaching down into the murky, hellish depths of the souls of us all, and bringing back jewels. My advice to Gerritsen would be to leave this kind of stuff to Mo Hayder, John Connolly and Thomas Harris. My advice to readers would be to pass this by unless you MUST read it, and pick up something by an of the other authors I've mention, who are still capable of bringing something new to this type of book.
Rating: 
Summary: Hollow Follow-On Package
Review: This story is a sequel to Tess Gerritsen's more original book 'The Surgeon.' In 'The Apprentice' she largely recaps the trauma her protagonist Jane Rizzoli had to endure during the hot summer a year ago. Passages of inner monologue are meant to captivate the reader. Unfortunately, I was not captivated by Jane Rizzoli's rather flat and not very nuanced perception of her surroundings (including her constant feminist offense by anything male). Sure, there is plenty of medical detail of the slayings and forensics; but they do not seem to lend the book any soul. The characters have almost no depth which together with the detailed procedural descriptions of techniques used to investigate crime-scene evidence leave the reader very dissatisfied.
Around pages 200-250 (of 350) the actual plot is finally revealed, and I must admit that Ms. Gerritsen had a quite clever and almost convincing idea to link the series of 'apprentice' killings to a war criminal. But too little is made of this idea. The reader learns almost nothing about the 'apprentice.' Interspersed monologues by the 'surgeon' (the bad guy from her last book who in a run-of-the-mill fashion manages to miraculously escape from a medical ward and who is meant to act as a 'teacher' to the apprentice) do not help.
I would strongly recommend you choose another book to sink your precious time into.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been better, could have been worse
Review: While we usually hear this author's name mentioned alongside Robin Cook and Michael Palmer, we find this third (of her six) we've read so far to be more a typical, hard-core police procedural, focused far more on the psyche and activities of the book's brutal serial killers and their cop chasers than on medical speculation or intrigue. John Sandford's "...Prey" series jumps right to mind as a comparison -- and indeed, the plot and action are just as riveting, no small compliment. A direct sequel to the "Surgeon", Det. Jane Rizzoli is the central figure hunting what appears at first (but mostly to her) a copycat killer to bad guy Warren Hoyt she put away in the earlier novel. Lo and behold, Hoyt escapes prison mid-way through this novel, and the story picks right up as though he had never been gone, leading to the speculation that the "Dominator" killing people in the first half of this novel might be his apprentice (hence the title). Along the way, Rizzoli gets help from an Agent Dean of the FBI for whom she feels some perverse attraction (because she otherwise can't stand the guy); and all book-long, we get a heavy dose (almost tiresome by book's end) of this policewoman's feelings and efforts to excel in a male-dominated work world. Will she save herself in the very gripping conclusion?? Unlike other reviewers, we didn't feel the end chapter was particularly short-changed or overly abrupt -- this story just can't go on forever. We plan to try some of Gerritsen's earlier novels, but wish she would spend a little less time "selling" womanpower, provide us considerably less blood spilling, and provide us some creative medical scenarios ala Palmer. She certainly has the writing skills to pen great novels; we just find ourselves grossed out a little by these two monster stories.
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