The Killing Place by Tess Gerritsen

You know the sort of book that you start reading at 9:00 pm, and is read, cover to cover by 9 in the morning? Because you just CANNOT put it down? Well, this is one of them.

Another crime thriller from Tess Gerritsen. Another one from the Jane Rizzoli-Maura Isles series. Another classic Gerritsen. which has all the ingredients that make it so so so un-put-downable.

Maura Isles is in Wyoming to attend a conference. She runs into an old college mate, and takes up his offer to go along with him, his teenage daughter and his friends for a ski break. Their vehicle gets stranded in deep snow, and they end up in a place called Kingdom Come, where there is no electricity, nor do they have cell phone signals to call out for help. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no way of calling out for help, while a snowstorm rages around them  – not the nicest thing to do on a break, is it?

Kingdom Come, they discover, is a private road with twelve identical houses, all of which have signs that people have abandoned them all of a sudden. Food left on the table, food being prepared, abandoned, and not a soul in sight.  Even the cars are just sitting in the garages. Everybody seems to have just disappeared into thin air.

Maura’s friends get worried, when she does not return as scheduled, and does not take calls. They land up in Wyoming in an effort to look for her. A crashed vehicle is found with four charred bodies trapped inside it. Is Maura one of them? Kingdom Come also happens to be the residence of a cult headed by Jeremiah Goode. And all this is linked to Rat, a sixteen year old boy on the run, who forages to survive, to escape from the authorities.

Everything that follows is pure Gerritsen. You hang on to every word, wondering what more is to come. It is gripping, full of tension, and scary! A good read – if you like crime fiction. And the ending comes as quite a surprise. I would certainly recommend it, for those who like this genre of books.