Review: The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen

The weather has turned cool and the leaves are falling, so it's time to curl up with a good book. Tess Gerritsen's latest is a chilling ghost story and Kerry Hammond is here with her review.

The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen released on October 1, in Hardcover, by Ballantine Books. Gerritsen is the author of the bestselling series featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles. The Shape of Night is her seventh standalone novel. I’ve been a long-time fan of Gerritsen’s work, both her Rizzoli and Isles series and her standalone novels. 

In the book, Ava is a food writer working on a new book. Her manuscript is long overdue and her editor is breathing down her neck, so she leaves her Boston apartment and rents an old house, Brodie’s Watch, that sits on the ocean in a small town in Maine called Tucker’s Cove. As we learn more about Ava, we realize that her book isn’t the only reason she’s decided to spend the summer in Maine, she is also struggling to forget something horrible that happened in her recent past, something she can’t seem to get over.

There are rumors that Brodie’s Watch is haunted, but Ava doesn’t believe in ghosts. Her research tells her that the original owner of the house was a sea captain named Jeremiah Brodie and she finds journals written by and about him. Perhaps it’s the research she’s done, or the wine and whisky she drinks so much of every night to drown her sorrows, but one night Ava sees Captain Brodie. But he doesn’t appear to be an apparition, he appears to be flesh and bone and he’s set his sights on her. Ava isn’t sure why the previous occupant, a woman very similar to herself, left the house in such a hurry, but she starts to wonder if Brodie is disguising more evil intentions.

What a great time for this book to come out, just in time for fall weather when you want to curl up on the couch under a blanket with a good book. Once I started reading, I didn’t want to put the book down. The Shape of Night is a ghost story, a love story, and a mystery—all rolled into one. Gerritsen is a great writer and she kept the pace of the story going, revealing more and more as you went along. I was able to picture the house, the sea, and even the ghost. I really enjoyed the story.

This book was provided to Mystery Playground by the publisher. The review was fair and completely independent.

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