'Follow Where Your Dreams Lead You'

“There is no better test of character than when you're tossed into crisis. That's when we see one's true colors shine through. So I try my best to make my characters personally involved in the plot, in a way that stresses them and tests them.” – Tess Gerritsen

Born in San Diego on this date in 1953, Gerritsen longed to be a writer but her family had reservations about the sustainability of such a career.  So she chose a career in medicine instead.  But the call to writing was too strong and in the mid-1990s she took the plunge, first doing short stories and then a series of romance thrillers. 

Her medical colleagues kept urging her to combine her writing skills and medical background instead, and finally in 1996 she wrote Harvest, her first medical thriller.  It’s the story of a detective and a doctor working together to solve the mystery of orphans disappearing and who they think are being used as organ donors. 

Three more bestselling medical thrillers followed before she started a series featuring a medical examiner/detective partnership – Rizzoli and Isles.  Twelve books and a television series later, the duo is still going strong.  Gerritsen also continues to write stand-alone bestsellers like The Bone Garden, Playing With Fire, and 2019’s The Shape of Night.  All told, she’s written 33 novels and several short stories.

“Where we go depends on what we know, and what we know depends on where we go,” Gerritsen said.     “We dream our dreams, and sometimes they take us to places we never anticipate. But they are our dreams, and we go where they lead.”

 

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