Bloodstream

This was my first Tess Gerritsen and one of my first forays into crime writing – and wow, I was impressed! Gerritsen delivers a taut medical thriller that had me glued to the pages from the start. When the teenagers of the ironically-named lakeside town of Tranquility, Maine, are gripped by a wave of murderous violence, new town GP Claire is determined to find out what’s behind the almost superhuman levels of aggression in the seemingly possessed adolescents. Casting aside the arguments of the locals, who seem to be more intent on holding onto their town’s image as a haven for tourists than saving their children, Claire must do everything in her power to find a medical cause for the crazed killing and mindless fighting - show more particularly since her fourteen year-old son Noah is at risk too. Is it drugs? Some local pathogen? A chemical spillage of some kind? And could it be linked to the spate of similar violence that the town has been trying to forget for nearly fifty years? Whatever it is, the race is on to put a stop to it before it’s too late…

I found the novel haunting, chilling and utterly compelling from start to finish. Every time I had to set it down to do something else, I found myself thinking about the terrible events that had happened so far, and trying to piece together all the clues to work out what was happening. It is a testament to the book’s strength that it pervaded every waking moment so thoroughly, and I found myself completely caught up in the excitement as the pages flew by, gasping with shock one moment and welling up with tears the next. At the same time, Gerritsen balances the horror of the town’s predicament with a dry humour, which was very refreshing and helped keep the story feeling grounded and human; it stopped it – and the reader – from getting too swept up in its own darkness. Highly recommended! show less

This book has a storyline straight out of a Stephen King novel, about a small lakeside town with an unexplained eruption of violence from local teenagers. Dr. Claire Elliot, a newcomer to the town, is at the center of the controversy and soon discovers that this isn't a new thing for the town. There's a history of unexplained violence ... dating back several hundred years! The love story feels a bit superfluous, and the ending is very rushed - but I still enjoyed the book. Its a fun and thrilling chronicle of murdering madness in a small town.

Widow Claire moves to Tranquility, Maine, with her teenage son, Noah. Noah was hanging out with a bad crowd in the city and getting into trouble with the law, so she hopes the change to small-town life will be beneficial to him. She has also set up a practice as the new town doctor. Claire and Noah are still adjusting to their new life months later. Then when November and the cold weather rolls around, there is suddenly a rash of violent and deadly behavior among the teenagers in town. Claire begins to question her decision in making this move to what seemed like a peaceful town by the lake. What is the cause of this violent behavior in the town's teenagers, and does the answer lie within the waters of Locust Lake?

This was a terrific show more medical suspense/thriller. A real page-turner. I really enjoyed the medical aspect of the story. All of the characters, including the supporting ones, I found really interesting. I liked that the story was told from many points of view and not just that of the main characters. There was some romance between Claire and Police Chief Lincoln Kelly, but the story was mostly driven by the suspense. The book was chilling, grim, entertaining, and a very engrossing read that I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next and how it would all end. show less

I think I must be turning into a book snob. It seems that these days I can't read a thriller without rolling my eyes & being extremely critical of the plot line. I suppose I just prefer realism & maybe I need to stick to that type of novel. But I do enjoy a good thriller now & then, so I keep coming back to them. But this was another one that just seemed too farfetched to be even mildly believable. It was also fairly formulaic. The "heroine" of the story gets knocked unconscious, put behind the wheel of her car, & pushed into a lake. And surprise, surprise . . . she wakes up, frees herself from the car, & swims to the surface. Besides being totally unrealistic, that's a scene that's been written too many times previously. As a mild show more consolation, this was an abridged audiobook. As far as abridgments go, it seemed decent enough, but abridgments do tend to miss some of the depth of the story, which probably affected my overall enjoyment of this one. show less

I am a huge, self-confessed Tess Gerritsen fan. I love and adore her Rizzoli & Isles books (and the TV series which is totally different from the books, but the character interactions are great. The mysteries...not so much). So, I assumed that I would like Bloodstream. I assumed that I would LOVE Bloodstream after I finished the prologue. It (the prologue, I mean) was nail-bitingly creepy. I was seriously holding my breath while frantically clicking on the Kindle. I thought that the prologue would set the tone for the book. Ehhh, it didn't really happen that way.

Again, this book starts off with a BANG!!! I think it may be one of the creepiest prologues from a mystery book that I've ever read. The chapters following the prologue were show more still plenty creepy and more than a little intriguing. In fact, the beginning chapters of Bloodstream reminded me heavily of a UK movie called The Children (totally recommended, by the way. It's creepy, underrated, and due to what happened in the movie, it will never be remade and subsequently ruined by American filmmakers). So much that I thought it was sort of going to go that way (which I really would've preferred). But it didn't.

There were just too many things going on in this book. It's a parasite. No, it's evil. No, it's an actual person. No, it's the evil corporations. No, it's the parents' influece causing the kids to go violently crazy and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Seriously, everything was packed in here. Every single excuse was packed in here. I understand that the point of mysteries is to keep you guessing, but it was just too much. And the resolution was very anti-climactic and the ending a bit abrupt. So much that I kept clicking the Kindle thinking "It can't really be over..."

However, my main issue with Bloodstream was that I thought every single character in it was an idiot. That makes it REALLY hard to root for them. I understood why the teenagers were bratty (they were teenagers, therefore, are supposed to be bratty and then if you add in what's actually happening then it's sort of understandable), but all of the adults were pissing me off, too. They were acting worse than the children. So, I didn't feel a huge sense of remorse when they started getting picked off.

I did give Bloodstream two stars instead of one because the premise was very intriguing and so promising (which was why the execution was so disappointing). Plus, it's Tess Gerritsen so you know the book was a huge page-turner. All I could think about in my 8AM college math class was how to get back to this book, so that's something. In the end, I thought that Bloodstream was just okay and I definitely liked all of the books in the Rizzoli and Isles series more than I liked this one. show less

Tess Gerritsen writes excellent thrillers with nice complex characters, and I enjoy her books a lot. This one was no exception, but I was rather disappointed by a very "deus ex machina" ending. In the last 40 pages or so, the improbabilities keep piling up and it all gets a bit much - the way the (positive) ending was achieved left me feeling rather cross, you know, " do you think I'm stupid or something, Gerritsen?"”

Dr. Claire Elliott thought that moving to rural Maine would be a way to get her life back together and to protect her son from the unsavory influences he had in Baltimore. But after months of living in Tranquility she has yet to be accepted by the locals... and strange things are happening. Teens are becoming suddenly violent, unable to control their aggression... and the consequences are deadly. Claire is certain that there is a biological cause... but can she find it in time to save the town... and her own son?

This medical thriller drew me in with its detailed setting and likable characters. Although the premise is fairly far-fetched, Gerritsen has talent in creating creepy, tension-filled scenes. I didn't want to put it down!