Tess Gerritsen | |
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| Born | Terry Tom June 12, 1953 San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author, surgeon |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Stanford University (BA) University of California, San Francisco |
| Genre | Suspense, Mystery |
| Spouse | Jacob Gerritsen |
| Children | 2 |
| Other names | Terry Gerritsen (real name) |
| Website | |
| tessgerritsen | |
Tess Gerritsen (born Terry Tom; June 12, 1953 [1] ) is the pseudonym of Terry Gerritsen, [2] an American novelist and retired general physician. [3]
Tess Gerritsen is the child of a Chinese immigrant and a Chinese-American seafood chef. While growing up in San Diego, California, Gerritsen often dreamt of writing her own Nancy Drew novels. [4] Her first name is Terry; she decided to feminize it when she was a writer of romance novels. [2] Although she longed to be a writer, her family had reservations about the sustainability of a writing career, prompting Gerritsen to choose a career in medicine. [5] In 1975, Gerritsen graduated from Stanford University with a BA in anthropology, intrigued by the ranges of human behavior. [6] She went on to study medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. [5] She received her medical degree in 1979 and started work as a physician in Honolulu, Hawaii. [7] [8]
While on maternity leave, she submitted a short story to a statewide fiction contest in the magazine Honolulu. Her story, "On Choosing the Right Crack Seed", won first prize and she received $500. [7] [9] The story focused on a young male reflecting on a difficult relationship with his mother. Gerritsen claimed the story allowed her to deal with her own childhood turmoil, including the repeated suicide attempts of her mother. [7]
Inspired by the romance novels she enjoyed reading while working as a doctor, Gerritsen's first novels were romantic thrillers. [7] After two unpublished "practice novels", Call After Midnight was bought by publisher Harlequin Intrigue in 1986 and published a year later. [10] Gerritsen subsequently wrote eight romantic thrillers for Harlequin Intrigue and Harper Paperbacks. [7]
In 1996, Gerritsen wrote Harvest, her first medical thriller. [10] The plot was inspired by a conversation with a retired homicide detective who had recently traveled in Russia. He told her young orphans were vanishing from Moscow streets, and police believed the kidnapped children were being shipped abroad as organ donors. [11] Harvest was Gerritsen's first hardcover novel, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list at number thirteen. [12] Following Harvest, Gerritsen wrote three more bestselling medical thrillers: Life Support, [13] Bloodstream, [14] and Gravity. [15]
In 2001, Gerritsen's first crime thriller, The Surgeon , was published and introduced homicide detective Jane Rizzoli. Although a secondary character in The Surgeon, Rizzoli has been a central focus of 13 subsequent novels (see below) pairing her with medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles. [16] The books inspired the Rizzoli & Isles television series starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. [17] Gerritsen also made an appearance in the series' final season as a writer who helps Isles establish herself in the literary field. [18]
Although most of her recent books have been in the Rizzoli/Isles series, in 2007 Gerritsen wrote a stand-alone historical thriller titled The Bone Garden . A tale of gruesome murders, the book is set primarily in 1830s Boston and includes a character based on Oliver Wendell Holmes. [19] [20]
Gerritsen's books have been published in 40 countries and have sold 25 million copies. [16]
Gerritsen co-wrote the story and screenplay for Adrift, which aired on CBS as Movie of the Week in 1993 and starred Kate Jackson and Bruce Greenwood. [23]
Gerritsen 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.
She is also the composer of the musical piece "Incendio" for violin and piano, a waltz that features in the plot of her novel "Playing With Fire". [24] The composition has been recorded by violinist Susanne Hou. [25]
Gerritsen's mother told her traditional Chinese stories, e.g. about Monkey King. Her novel The Silent Girl uses Chinese martial arts and traditional motives in contemporary Boston. One of the victims is a Chinese chef.
Yakov's Lament (2012), a solo violin piece by French composer Damien Top, is inspired by Gerritsen's novel Harvest. [26]
Gerritsen is married to Jacob Gerritsen, who is also a physician. She has two sons. [27] She enjoys gardening and playing the fiddle, and lives in Camden, Maine. [4] [28]
The Surgeon received a RITA award Romance Writers of America in 2002 for Best Romantic Suspense Novel. [29]
In 2006, Vanish received the Nero Award for best mystery novel, and was nominated for both an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America and a Macavity Award. [30] [31] [32] She has also won approval from several of her contemporaries, including James Patterson and Stephen King, the latter of whom described her as being "even better than Michael Crichton".
Introducing Maggie Bird and Jo Thibodeau in this new series
Coma is Robin Cook's first commercially successful novel, published by Signet Book in 1977. Coma was preceded in 1973 by Cook's lesser-known novel Year of the Intern.
Laura Lippman is an American journalist and author of over 20 detective fiction novels. Her novels have won multiple awards, including an Agatha Award, seven Anthony Awards, two Barry Awards, an Edgar Award, a Gumshoe Award, a Macavity Award, a Nero Award, two Shamus Awards, and two Strand Critics Award.
International Thriller Writers (ITW), was founded October 9, 2004, at Bouchercon XXXV, the "World Mystery and Suspense Conference", in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Six months later, some 150 authors with more than one billion books sold worldwide had joined the organization as founding members. As of October 5, 2014, the organization's website said it had more than 3,100 members in 28 countries.
Karin Slaughter is an American crime writer. She has written 24 novels, which have sold more than 40 million copies and have been published in 120 countries. Her first novel, Blindsighted (2001), was published in 27 languages and made the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award shortlist for "Best Thriller Debut" of 2001.
The Sinner is a 2003 mystery novel by Tess Gerritsen, the third book of the Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli series.
Janet Tamaro is an American television writer, series creator, executive producer, and showrunner.
The Surgeon (2001) is a suspense novel by Tess Gerritsen, the first of the Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli series.
The Bone Garden is a 2007 novel written by Chinese-American novelist Tess Gerritsen, loosely part of the Jane Rizzoli / Maura Isles series.
Body Double is a 2004 novel written by Tess Gerritsen, the fourth book of the Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli series.
The Apprentice is a 2002 novel written by Tess Gerritsen, second book of the Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli series. Both the hardcover and paperback editions reached number 10 in The New York Times Best Seller lists.
Rick Mofina is a bestselling Canadian author of more than 30 crime fiction and thriller novels, with some 2 million copies of his books sold worldwide in nearly 30 countries. This includes an illegal Iranian translation of his first thriller, If Angels Fall. He grew up in Belleville, Ontario and began writing short stories in grade school. He sold his first short story at the age of fifteen. He sold subsequent short stories while in high school to various magazines. After finishing high school he worked for a few years in factories.
Barbara Parker was an American mystery writer. She wrote 12 novels, the first of which, Suspicion of Innocence, was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first mystery novel by an American author. Parker was on the national board of the Mystery Writers of America and was the chair of its membership committee for two years.
Kelli Stanley is an American author of mystery-thrillers. The majority of her published fiction is written in the genres of historical crime fiction and noir. Her best known work, the Miranda Corbie series, is set in San Francisco, her adoptive hometown.
Tana French is an American-Irish writer and theatrical actress. She is a longtime resident of Dublin, Ireland. Her debut novel In the Woods (2007), a psychological mystery, won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards for best first novel. The Independent has referred to her as "the First Lady of Irish Crime".
April Henry is an American New York Times bestselling author of mysteries, thrillers, and young adult novels.
Rizzoli & Isles is an American crime drama television series starring Angie Harmon as Jane Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander as Maura Isles. Based on the series of Rizzoli & Isles novels by Tess Gerritsen, the plot follows Boston Homicide police detective Jane Rizzoli and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Maura Isles combining their experiences and strikingly different personalities to solve cases. It premiered on TNT on July 12, 2010 and aired 105 episodes in seven seasons, concluding on September 5, 2016.
Nora Zuckerman is an American television screenwriter, who has worked on a number of television series, most notably the FOX science fiction series Fringe and the Syfy original series Haven, Suits, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Prodigal Son and most recently Poker Face. She often collaborates with her sister, Lilla Zuckerman.
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)I just found out that a solo violin piece called "Yakov's Lament" will have its world premiere in NYC on September 8th, performed by Met Concertmaster Darvarova at Symphony Space on Broadway and 95th. The composer, Damien Top, told me the piece was inspired by the orphaned boy Yakov in my medical thriller HARVEST.
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