The Killing Place by Tess Gerritsen

Val Penny ♦ July 1, 2015 ♦ Leave a comment

I have always enjoyed the novels by Tess Gerritsen that I have read so, when I saw The Killing Place for sale in my local library, I was pleased to buy it. I feel Gerritsen writes her crime novels with some authority, particularly in relation to the wounds and injuries she describes as she qualified as a medical doctor. She is a graduate of Stanford University, California, USA. Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D. It was while on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. Now retired from medicine, she writes full time and lives in Maine.

This novel, The Killing Place was also published under the title Ice Cold in 2010. It starts when Maura Isles, the Boston Medical Examiner attends a medical conference in Wyoming. When it ends she decides to join a a fellow pathologist, his daughter and friends on a drive to a backwoods ski lodge. A wrong turn leaves their Jeep stranded in deep snow, they stumble down a private road into the valley of Kingdom Come. Something terrible happened in Kingdom Come. There are twelve identical houses stand abandoned.

After they take shelter Maura and her companions like the town’s previous residents seem to have vanished into thin air. However, footprints in the snow betray the presence of someone who still lurks in the cold darkness someone who is watching Maura and her friends.

Jane Rizzoli, her husband Gabriel, and Father Daniel Brophy fly to Wyoming to search for their missing friend. But police find a crashed vehicle with four badly burned bodies still inside along with Maura’s suitcase. The authorities assume that the dead woman is Maura. Jane is shocked and grieving but determined to find out what happened to her friend. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow. As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane comes up against an enemy who is quite merciless and then discovers the chilling truth about Maura’s fate.

It sounds like an exciting premise, but much of The Killing Place was too incredible to be exciting. It all seemed a bit forced. I did not enjoy the book nearly as much as other novels by Tess Gerritsen that I have read.

Valerie Penny