Body Double

Dr. Maura Isles, a pathologist and medical examiner in Boston, spends her days with the victims of violent crime. Then a woman is found shot dead outside her home, and the body on the autopsy table has her face. Detective Jane Rizzoli and the other colleagues in the room see it too.

The resemblance goes past the face. The dead woman shares Maura's birth date and blood type, and Maura, an only child, has one explanation in mind. A DNA test confirms it: the stranger is her twin sister.

The murder investigation turns into a search through Maura's own past. Her questions lead to a seaside town in Maine, where she finds more disturbing facts about where she comes from. Meanwhile a killer is working his way across the country, and no one knows who he is or where he will strike next.

To understand her family and stop the killings, Maura must question the mother she has never met. This woman is cold and cunning, and possibly a danger to the daughter she bore.

This is a suspense novel in the crime and forensic thriller mould, with a police procedural frame and a personal mystery at its centre. It reads dark and tense, and the dread comes as much from family secrets as from the killer on the loose.