cover image Rizzoli & Isles: Listen to Me

Rizzoli & Isles: Listen to Me

Tess Gerritsen. Ballantine, $28 (320p) ISBN 978-0-593-49713-5

The case of Sofia Suarez, a widowed nurse found bludgeoned to death in her home, drives bestseller Gerritsen’s engrossing 13th mystery featuring Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles (after 2017’s I Know a Secret). The inoffensive Sofia appears to have had a blameless past, but why was she, as Jane and Maura discover, making surreptitious calls to burner phones in the days before her death? Following leads painstakingly gathered from police reports and interviews with people who knew Sofia, Jane eventually links her murder to a cold case several states away. Meanwhile, Jane’s mother, Angela, is worried about changes she sees in the neighborhood in which Jane grew up. Angela can’t understand why the parents of a missing teenage girl seem so unconcerned or why the new couple across the street never seem to leave the house. The tension rises as Angela’s vigilance leads her to draw false conclusions and puts her in personal danger. Gerritsen smoothly shifts between her complex plotlines as the action builds to a surprising conclusion. Newcomers will find this entry easily accessible. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (July)