Tess Gerritsen Books in Order

Tess Gerritsen is a Chinese-American New York Times bestselling author and retired physician, best known for the Rizzoli & Isles series, featuring Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles. She has received an MD from the University of California, San Francisco, and her medical training gives the books a credible view of how doctors think and how scientific findings can change in which way a murder investigation goes.

She began her writing career with romantic suspense, then moved into medical thrillers with Harvest (1996), her first New York Times bestseller. She introduced Jane Rizzoli in The Surgeon (2001) and Maura Isles in The Apprentice (2002). In 2023, she launched the Martini Club series with The Spy Coast, following a group of retired intelligence officers living in coastal Maine.

TIME included The Surgeon in its list of the 100 best mystery and thriller books of all time, and International Thriller Writers named Gerritsen its 2024 ThrillerMaster. Her books have sold more than 40 million copies and been translated into 40 languages.

This page lists all Tess Gerritsen books in order, including the Rizzoli & Isles, Martini Club, and Tavistock Family series, standalone medical thrillers and suspense novels, romantic suspense, short fiction, and anthology contributions.

Latest Tess Gerritsen Books

Rizzoli & Isles Series (Books in Order)

The Rizzoli & Isles series follows Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles as they investigate murders from different sides of the evidence. Jane first appears in The Surgeon, working the case with Detective Thomas Moore. Maura joins the series in The Apprentice, where her examination of the victims helps the police understand what kind of killer they are dealing with.

Each novel has its own main case, but Jane’s family life changes a lot across the books, while Maura gradually learns more about her own past. Tess Gerritsen’s medical background shows clearly in the autopsy scenes and in the way the clues they find help the police find a new direction in their investigation.

The series inspired the TNT television series Rizzoli & Isles, which ran from 2010 to 2016.

1. The Surgeon, 2001
2. The Apprentice, 2002
3. The Sinner, 2003
4. Body Double, 2004
5. Vanish, 2005
6. The Mephisto Club, 2006
7. The Keepsake, 2008 (also titled Keeping the Dead)
8. Ice Cold, 2010 (also titled The Killing Place)
9. Freaks, 2011
10. The Silent Girl, 2011
11. John Doe, 2012
12. Last to Die, 2012
13. Die Again, 2014
14. I Know a Secret, 2017
15. Listen to Me, 2022

Tavistock Family Series (Books in Order)

The Tavistock Family series follows siblings Beryl and Jordan Tavistock in two early romantic suspense novels. In Their Footsteps centers on Beryl, who begins asking questions about her parents’ deaths twenty years earlier. Her search takes her into international espionage, where former CIA agent Richard Wolf might be her only ally.

Thief of Hearts has Jordan as main character, a wealthy Englishman who becomes involved with Clea Rice, a reformed cat burglar who is trying to expose a crime. The books share the Tavistock family, but each follows a different sibling and has a separate romantic suspense story.

1. In Their Footsteps, 1994
2. Thief of Hearts, 1995 (also titled Stolen)

Martini Club Series (Books in Order)

The Martini Club series follows retired CIA operative Maggie Bird, who has settled on a chicken farm in Purity, Maine, after a mission ended badly. Her closest friends in town are also former intelligence officers. To everyone else they are members of a book club, but when Purity is in trouble, they use their old contacts and the skills that local police chief Jo Thibodeau does not fully understand.

Maggie leads The Spy Coast, while Jo and the other Martini Club members more important as the series continues. The Summer Guests brings the group to search for a missing teenager, and The Shadow Friends has Ingrid Slocum as main character after the consequences of an old Cold War mission she took part in reach Main as well.

Tess Gerritsen got the idea after learning that several people in her Maine community had worked in intelligence, including two former officers living on her street. Amazon MGM Studios is developing The Spy Coast for television.

1. The Spy Coast, 2023
2. The Summer Guests, 2025
3. The Shadow Friends, 2026

Standalone Novels

• Adventure’s Mistress, 1985
• Love’s Masquerade, 1986
• Call After Midnight, 1987
• Under the Knife, 1990
• Never Say Die, 1992
• Whistleblower, 1992
• Presumed Guilty, 1993
• Girl Missing, 1994 (originally titled Peggy Sue Got Murdered)
• Keeper of the Bride, 1996
• Harvest, 1996
• Life Support, 1997
• Bloodstream, 1998
• Gravity, 1999
• The Bone Garden, 2007
• No Rest for the Dead, 2011 (collaborative novel)
• Playing with Fire, 2015
• The Shape of Night, 2019
• Choose Me, 2021 (with Gary Braver)
• Fourteen Days, 2024 (collaborative novel)

Short Story Anthologies

• In League with Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon, 2020
• Birds of Prey: The Harlan Coben Challenge, 2022 (edited by Harlan Coben)
• The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2026, 2026 (edited with Otto Penzler)

Essays and Introductions

• Killer Year: Stories to Die For…, 2008
• In the Shadow of the Master, 2009
• The Dragon and the Stars, 2010
• Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads, 2010
• How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America, 2021

Tess Gerritsen Biography

Tess Gerritsen is an American author and former medical doctor whose work includes medical thrillers, crime fiction, historical suspense, and spy thrillers.
Official website: tessgerritsen.com

Tess Gerritsen was born as Terry Tom on June 12, 1953, in San Diego, California, to a Chinese immigrant father and a Chinese-American mother. She grew up wanting to become a writer, but chose medicine at her family’s encouragement to study for a more secure job. She studied anthropology at Stanford University, graduating in 1975. She then earned her MD from the University of California, San Francisco, where she met her future husband, Jacob Gerritsen. The couple later moved to Honolulu, and she worked as a physician for about five years.

She started writing during maternity leave in the mid-1980s. After completing several manuscripts that did not sell, she sold Call After Midnight to Harlequin Intrigue. Published in 1987, it became her first commercially published novel and began a run of romantic suspense books. She adopted the first name Tess because she wanted readers of those novels to know that the author was a woman, then continued using it throughout her career. She also wrote the screenplay for Adrift, a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.

She switched to medical thrillers in 1996 with Harvest, after a retired homicide detective told her about reports that children were disappearing from the streets of Moscow and might be victims of organ trafficking. The novel became her first hardcover release and her first New York Times bestseller. Three more standalone medical thrillers followed, Life Support, Bloodstream, and Gravity, before she created Jane Rizzoli in The Surgeon in 2001.

The book was originally planned as a standalone, and Jane was a secondary character whom Gerritsen intended to kill before changing her mind while writing. Jane returned in The Apprentice, which also introduced medical examiner Maura Isles, her partner. Their working relationship gradually became the most important part of the Rizzoli & Isles series, which became the basis for TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles TV series, which ran between 2010 and 2016. In 2023, Tess Gerritsen started a new series with The Spy Coast, the first Martini Club novel, which Amazon Studios picked up for television. The idea for this series started from her learning that a quite a few retired intelligence officers lived in her Maine community, including two former CIA officers on her street. The series follows retired spies who have settled in a small coastal town but still know how to investigate trouble when it comes their way.

She has also worked in film with her son, filmmaker Josh Gerritsen. She wrote the screenplay for the 2018 horror film Island Zero, which he directed, and they later produced the documentary Magnificent Beast, about the history of the human relationship with pigs. She lives in Maine with her husband, Dr. Jacob Gerritsen.

Tess Gerritsen Book Adaptations

• Rizzoli & Isles series – adapted into the crime drama TV series Rizzoli & Isles (TNT, 2010–2016), starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander
• The Spy Coast (Martini Club #1) – television series adaptation in development at Amazon MGM Studios (announced 2024)

Other Film and Television Work

• Adrift – original screenplay by Tess Gerritsen, aired as a CBS Movie of the Week (1993)
• Island Zero – original horror screenplay by Tess Gerritsen, directed by Josh Gerritsen (2018)
• Magnificent Beast – documentary directed and produced by Tess Gerritsen and Josh Gerritsen (2021)

Tess Gerritsen Awards and Honors

Awards

• Never Say Die – Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Harlequin Intrigue (1993)
• Gravity – Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Suspense Novel (1999)
• The Surgeon – RITA Award for Romantic Suspense (2002)
• The Surgeon – Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Suspense Novel (2002)
• Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Suspense (2002)
• Body Double – Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Contemporary Mystery (2004)
• Vanish – Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Suspense Novel (2005)
• Vanish – Nero Award (2006)
• Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Female Sleuth (2006)
• The Silent Girl – Crimezone Thriller Award (2012)
• Last to Die – Crimson Scribe Award, Suspense Magazine (2012)
• The Surgeon – TIME 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time (2023)
• ThrillerMaster Award, International Thriller Writers (2024)
• The Summer Guests – Richard & Judy Book Club selection (2026)

Nominations and Shortlists

• Call After Midnight – Golden Medallion Award for Long Contemporary Romance (1988)
• Presumed Guilty – RITA Award for Romantic Suspense/Gothic Romance (1994)
• Vanish – Edgar Award for Best Novel (2006)
• Vanish – Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel (2006)
• The Mephisto Club – Audible Sounds of Crime Award (2008)
• The Bone Garden – Sounds of Crime Award for Best Unabridged Crime Audiobook (2009)
• Ice Cold (also titled The Killing Place) – Nero Award (2011)
• The Silent Girl – Goodreads Choice Award for Best Mystery & Thriller (2011)
• The Silent Girl – Suspense Magazine Best Suspense/Thriller (2011)
• No Rest for the Dead – Suspense Magazine Best Anthology (2011)
• The Silent Girl – Nero Award (2012)
• Die Again – Val McDermid Award for Fiendish Forensics, Dead Good Reader Awards (2015)
• Playing with Fire – ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel (2016)
• Jane Rizzoli – Kathy Reichs Award for Fearless Female Character, Dead Good Reader Awards (2017)
• Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles – Holmes and Watson Award for Best Detective Duo, Dead Good Reader Awards (2018)
• The Spy Coast – ITW Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original Novel (2024)

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