Tess Gerritsen life and biography

Tess Gerritsen is a well known New York Times-bestselling author of medical thrillers and the Jane Rizzoli crime thrillers. Tess Gerritsen, M.D. is a Chinese-American novelist and retired physician. Her first name is really Terry; she decided to feminize it when she was a writer of romance novels.

She received her medical degree in 1979 and started work as a physician in Honolulu, Hawai'i.

Inspired by the romance novels she enjoyed reading while working as a doctor, Gerritsen’s first novels were romantic thrillers. After two unpublished 'practice novels', Call After Midnight was bought by publisher Harlequin Intrigue in 1986 and published a year later. Gerritsen continued on to write another eight romantic thrillers for Harlequin Intrigue and Harper Paperbacks.

In 1996, Gerritsen published her first medical thriller novel, Harvest. Having already decided to pursue the medical thriller genre, the plot was inspired by a conversation with a retired homicide detective who had recently been travelling in Russia. He told her that young orphans were vanishing from the streets of Moscow, and police believed the kidnapped children were being shipped abroad as organ donors. Harvest was Gerritsen’s first novel to be published in hardcover, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list at #13. Following Harvest, Gerritsen wrote three subsequent bestselling medical thrillers, Life Support, Bloodstream, and Gravity.

In 2001, Gerritsen's first crime thriller, The Surgeon, was released; it introduced the character of homicide detective Jane Rizzoli. Although Rizzoli was only a secondary character in The Surgeon, the character has been a central focus of a series of nine novels pairing her with medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles. The books inspired the Rizzoli & Isles television series starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.

Although most of her recent publications have been in the Rizzoli/Isles series, Gerritsen wrote a stand-alone historical thriller, The Bone Garden in 2007. The Bone Garden, a tale of gruesome murders, takes place primarily in 1830s Boston and includes a character based upon Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Gerritsen's books have been published in forty countries and have sold 25 million copies.

Gerritsen co-wrote the story and screenplay, Adrift, which aired on CBS as Movie of the Week in 1993 starring Kate Jackson and Bruce Greenwood.

She has contributed essays in volumes published by Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. She also blogs regularly about the writing business, both on her own website and on a mystery writers site, Murderati.com.

Yakov's Lament (2012) a solo violin piece by French composer Damien Top is inspired by Gerritsen's novel Harvest.

Rizzoli/Isles series:
The Surgeon (2001) introduces police detective Jane Rizzoli
The Apprentice (2002) introduces medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles
The Sinner (2003)
Body Double (2004)
Vanish (2005)
The Mephisto Club (2006)
The Keepsake / Keeping the Dead (US / UK, 2008)
Ice Cold / The Killing Place (US / UK, 2010)
The Silent Girl (US / UK, 2011)
Last To Die (UK / US August 16 / 28, 2012)

Other works:
Call After Midnight (1987)
Under the Knife (1990)
Whistleblower (1992)
Never Say Die (1992)
Presumed Guilty (1993)
Peggy Sue Got Murdered (1994) re-released as Girl Missing
In Their Footsteps (1994)
Thief of Hearts (1995)
Keeper of the Bride (1996)

Medical thrillers:
Harvest (1996)
Life Support (1997)
Bloodstream (1998)
Gravity (1999)
The Bone Garden (2007) medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles is a secondary character

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