I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Choose Me
by Tess Gerritsen, Gary Braver
Published by Thomas & Mercer on July 1, 2021
Genres: Psychological Thrillers
Pages: 334
Format: Hardcover
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From New York Times bestseller Tess Gerritsen and acclaimed thriller writer Gary Braver comes a sexy murder mystery about a reckless affair and dangerous secrets.
Taryn Moore is young, beautiful and brilliant...so why would she kill herself? When Detective Frankie Loomis arrives on the scene to investigate the girl's fatal plunge from her apartment balcony, she knows in her gut there's more to the story, especially after the autopsy reveals that the college senior was pregnant. It could be reason enough for suicide-or a motive for murder.
To English professor Jack Dorian, Taryn was the ultimate fantasy: intelligent, adoring, and completely off limits. But there was also a dark side to Taryn, a dangerous streak that threatened those she turned her affections to--including Jack. And now that she's dead, his problems are just beginning.
After Frankie uncovers a trove of sordid secrets, it becomes clear that Jack may know the truth. He is guilty of deception, but is he capable of cold-blooded murder?
Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver is a riveting mystery with an age-old battle of forbidden love between the sexes.
Can Frankie figure out what happened to Taryn?
Taryn Moore
Taryn is the heroine of the story, or is she? What she is…is a young, beautiful, bright college student whose father left her and her mother when she was young. Hence her issues with men. Taryn allows this one event to shape her life. In the book the name Taryn in Welsh means thunder. This description seems to fit her character well.
After her boyfriend from high school and college dumps her, she focuses on one of her college professors. At this point, I start to wonder if Taryn is actually the victim or just as guilty as Jack or Liam. Taryn has a man in front of her that cares and would do anything for her, but she chooses to go after the married man.
At first, I liked Taryn, but as the story progressed, I found that she was not someone I would ever call my friend. She is very self-centered and needy.
Jack Dorian
Jack is a married literature professor whose marriage is in a rough spot. He and his wife are busy with life and aren’t as close as he’d like, but he knows he still loves his wife. Yet he can’t seem to say no to Taryn. I liked Jack and thought he was a great teacher with strong character until he gave in and lost it all in one single night. At least that’s how I felt. After that, it didn’t matter what he did or what happened because his weakness ruined everything. I couldn’t see past that transgression.
Frankie Loomis
Detective Loomis is our investigator. She and her partner Mac have caught the case of Taryn Moore’s possible suicide.
I feel like we get to know Frankie through the investigation. She has had her husband cheat on her and tries so hard not to taint the investigation. I enjoyed being in her head. The way she thinks things through is brilliant. She was by far my favorite of the main characters.
The Question
Through the story, we find ourselves questioned about mythology and classic literature’s use of men using women and moving on to the younger or new ones. Is this accurately portrayed? Is the woman there for the man’s pleasure and advancement? Are her wishes and needs not valid? I feel like it comes back to personal choice and who we react to the choices of others. You can’t say every male will do the same in every incident, nor can you say that every female will respond to that incident in the same way.
I feel that our upbringing, childhood, and sell worth help establish our character. Those characteristics determine how we make decisions and respond to significant events in life.
Five Stars
The authors do a fantastic job of showing the different versions of women trying to make men love them. Not only did I try to figure out the mystery around Taryn’s death, but I also started thinking about these women from Greek mythology to present and contemplate love and revenge. My rating for Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver is five stars. I highly recommend it. This book kept me thinking.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver.
Until the next time,
About Gary Braver
Gary Braver is the bestselling and award-winning author of eight critically acclaimed mysteries and thrillers including Elixir, Gray Matter and Flashback, which is the only thriller to have won a prestigious Massachusetts Book Award. His latest is Tunnel Vision.
His novels have been translated into several languages, and three have been optioned for movies, including Elixir by director Ridley Scott. He is the only writer to have three books listed on the top-10 highest customer-rated thrillers on Amazon.com at the same time.
Under his own name, Gary Goshgarian, he is an award-winning professor of English at Northeastern University where he teaches courses in Modern Bestsellers, Science Fiction, Horror Fiction, and Fiction Writing. He has taught fiction-writing workshops throughout the U. S. and Europe. He is also the author of five college writing textbooks and has written short stories, book reviews, and travel articles for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor and elsewhere.
He was born and raised in Hartford, CT and holds a BS degree in physics and an MA and PhD in English. Before settling into college teaching, he worked as a project physicist. An avid bicyclist, hiker, and scuba diver, he lives with his wife outside of Boston.
About Tess Gerritsen
Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.
While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, “Adrift”, which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.
Tess’s first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Her suspense novels since then have been: Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), The Surgeon (2001), The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), The Bone Garden (2007), The Keepsake (2008; UK title: Keeping the Dead), Ice Cold (2010; UK title: The Killing Place), The Silent Girl (2011), Last To Die (2012), Die Again ( 2015), Playing With Fire ( 2015), I Know A Secret (2017) and The Shape Of Night (2019). Her books have been published in forty countries, and more than 40 million copies have been sold around the world.
Her books have been top-3 bestsellers in the United States and number one bestsellers abroad. She has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon). Critics around the world have praised her novels as “Pulse-pounding fun” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “Scary and brilliant” (Toronto Globe and Mail), and “Polished, riveting prose” (Chicago Tribune). Publisher Weekly has dubbed her the “medical suspense queen”.
Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the TNT television series “Rizzoli & Isles” starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.
She is also a filmmaker. She and her son Josh have just completed production of a feature-length documentary, “Magnificent Beast,” about the ancient origins of the pig taboo. Their previous film, “Island Zero”, is a feature-length horror movie that was released in 2018.
Now retired from medicine, she writes full time. She lives in Maine.
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