The Silent Girl: A Rizzoli and Isles Novel    by Tess Gerritsen Order:  USA  Can Ballantine, 2011 (2011) Hardcover Read an Excerpt     Reviewed by Bob Walch 'The bullet slammed into her back, right between her shoulder blades. The impact sent her flying and she sprawled on her belly, her palms scraping across pavement. Her weapon flew out of her hands. The Kevlar vest had saved her, but the force of the bullet stole the breath from her lungs and she lay stunned, her gun somewhere out of reach.' Detective Jane Rizzoli has had better days. This little scrape isn't quite over yet, since the person who fired the shot is walking towards her with his gun drawn. Will she find a way to deal with this dilemma? Of course, but there's much more awaiting the Boston cop and also medical examiner Maura Isles as they try to solve a grisly Chinatown murder. Seven years earlier a murder-suicide left five people dead in a Chinatown restaurant. There was one survivor, a mysterious martial arts instructor who has been harboring a dark secret she dare not share. Now another death forces her to rethink her long silence. The recent murder victim was badly hacked up and some of her body parts were spread about the neighborhood. Most puzzling, though, was the discovery of non-human primate hairs and the metallic shard from an ancient weapon. Both these odd clues suggest a connection, odd as it seems, to the fable of the Monkey King, a powerful Chinese deity famous for its mischievousness and vengeance. How an old legend connects with a horrific modern day crime is anybody's guess. But if Rizzoli and Isles don't come up with an answer rather quickly there will be even more violent monkey business. Tess Gerritsen is a physician and internationally acclaimed writer. Her work has attracted a lot of attention. The Maine resident has been lauded as 'one of the most versatile voices in thriller fiction today'. Each novel is a little better than the last and this woman is bent on staking out her claim as one of the best new writers in the very competitive thriller genre. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Mystery books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews