Tess Gerritsen

Internationally best-selling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Gerritsen went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.

While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, "Adrift," which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.

Gerritsen's first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times Bestseller List. Her suspense novels since then have been: Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), The Surgeon (2001), The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), The Bone Garden (2007), The Keepsake (2008), Ice Cold (2010; UK title: The Killing Place), The Silent Girl (2011), and her latest, Last to Die (2012). Her books have been published in 40 countries and sold more than 25 million copies around the world.

Her books have been top-three bestsellers in the United States and abroad. She has received the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon) and was a finalist for the Edgar award (for Vanish).

Her series of novels featuring homicide detective "Jane Rizzoli" and medical examiner "Maura Isles" inspired the hit TNT television series Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.