Not Just Another Thriller: Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen

 Last month I was in Letterkenny with a friend. I was in a charity shop scanning the shelves when I spotted Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen. 

This is an author Bill loves so I grabbed the book. I wasn't sure if he'd read it before, but the title didn't seem like one I'd seen before and besides, for 20 cents it didn't matter anyway. He hadn't read it and brought it with him when we came to care for our furry friend. Soon after he started it, he commented that this book isn't like what he's come to expect from her. He said more than once how good the book was and that he was sure I'd like it. So when he was done, I picked it up and started reading. I'll be honest, it didn't grab me at first. In fact, I set it aside to read a biography, which i finished yesterday. This morning, I was sitting here with a sleeping dog on my lap and this book was within reach. I picked it up again and read on. I was gripped. Later on I was glad that I had a quick supper planned because I was going to finish the book before I did anything else. And I did. It's an excellent book and I think the publisher did the book and the author a disservice in the way they packaged this book. They make it look like the usual thriller sort of book. There's nothing wrong with that--plenty of people love thrillers and that's what Gerritsen in known for, I suppose. It's certainly what Bill expected to find when he started the book, both because of the cover, the description on the back, and his knowledge of the author's work. There is a thriller aspect to the story, but it's so much more and, for me at least, that was the least interesting. 

This book has a dual timeline. The book starts with the main character of one of them, Julia, in Rome. She's a violinist in a quartet and is soon returning home to her husband and three-year-old daughter in the Boston area. She's looking for a souvenir for herself and she finds it in a dusty antique shop--a musical score for an intense piece of music she's never heard before. She buys it for €100 and brings it home. After a week or two, she gets it out and as she's on the patio with her daughter and the elderly cat, starts to play it. She's so intent on the music that she's unaware of the violent occurrence taking place. The cat is dead. A while later while she's playing again, another violent incident occurs. What is going on? Is there something wrong with the child? I confess that at this point, I wasn't having high hopes for the book, but then things moved to Italy in 1939, where the story shifted to Lorenzo, a talented violinist, and his Jewish family.  I was engrossed in this from the start and when it was time to switch back to Julia, I was annoyed. This changed though and I was soon immersed in both storylines which revolve around this piece of music. It was the historical storyline that gave me goosebumps, hit me emotionally, and was far more powerful--and all too familiar. 

I've read just a couple of Tess Gerritsen's books. One was fine and enjoyable. Then there was this one, which was at a whole other level. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time. 

Gerritsen herself seems to have many talents. She trained as a surgeon and her medical training is evident in parts of this book. She's also a pianist and composer who composed a piece of music called Incendio, the name of the composition at the center of this book. Here's a performance of the piece:

I'll close by saying that Bill was right--I did love this book--and I'm not really a thriller reader. I can highly recommend this one, though.

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