Where evil waits

Boston Medical Examiner Laura Isles and police detective Jane Rizzoli are back once again in Tess Gerritsen's adrenaline-infused The Mephisto Club. The title refers to a loosely knit organization of wealthy do-gooders (or are they?) who claim to seek out evil and try to destroy it. They truly believe that evil has a face, and that modern-day demons are in our midst. When a corpse is found at the Beacon Hill mansion the club calls home, Rizzoli and Isles are brought in to investigate. It will not be the last death connected with the Mephisto Club, and indeed Isles and Rizzoli will soon wonder if they are to be next. The villain DOis as amoral as any in recent memory, a product of a complicated childhood, but with that special extra quality that cannot be attributed simply to abandonment issues. Flawlessly melding the forensic work of, say, "CSI," with the religious iconography of The Da Vinci Code, Gerritsen has crafted an eerie and compelling mystery, with a chilling and thought-provoking denouement. P.S.: this book demands a sequel!