I've read all of the books in this series. I enjoyed this one very much but I wanted to read more about Daniel and Maura. I wish the writer would write more about the main characters personal relationships. I think this would make the books more interesting. I enjoyed the last book more because I liked reading about Jane's family problems. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Quite simply a great read from the first page to the last. I couldn't put it down and am looking forward to Gerritsen's next!

From beginning to end the book was unstoppable Tess Gerritsen keeps getting better and better

No one does it quite like Gerritsen! Her main characters, Maura Isles (medical examiner) and Jane Rizzoli (detective) are not just hero type characters who solve crime. Both are women who have issues and who have evolved and continue to evolve throughout the series on a personal level. Take that, and add in gruesome murders, forensic and medical details, some history and you have a winner. I used to be a fan of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta, but Tess Gerritsen has kicked Cornwell off of my reading list and replaced Scarpetta with Dr. Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli.

Tess Gerritsens 'The Keepsake' was a decent enough read with some interesting and unexpected twists in the plot. However it was quite slow paced and ,dare I say it, even a tad boring in places. Points were quite laboured and the majority of the book had to read before anything of major significance happened. A series of barely hinted at clues left me infuriated and I feel that lead characters should have been more involved than they turned out to be. This is not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination and it is well worth a read so long as the reader is prepared to be patient with it.

I won't restate the plot...Suffice to say, I liked this one - a good thriller without the usual dose of romance that ruins many a book for me. The mystery was intriguing, the archeological facts very interesting - including asides about mummification procedures, the process for shrinking heads, and the science associated with bog bodies. The story moved along at a very fast pace and it was easy to read this one in a sitting. The two female protagonists were busy doing what they do best - investigating an unusual case with intuition and clever deduction. The threads of the case were all tied up at the end despite some red herrings and I look forward to the next in the series. Recommend: BUY!

First Sentence: He is coming for me.

A 2000-year-old mummy has been discovered in the basement of the Crespin Museum in Boston. With much fanfare and publicity, it has been brought to Pilgrim Hospital for CT scan analysis. Dr. Maura Isles, on of those in attendance, soon realizes something is amiss. The corpse within has a modern dental filling and a bullet in her leg.

The mummy is transferred to the morgue and the case assigned to Det. Jane Rizzoli. When a second, then third corpse that has been transformed into the appearance of an ancient artifact the police realize something is out of sync with archeologist Joesphine Pulcillo, working at the museum and the focus of the artifacts.

There is a blurb on the back cover of the book which says "...likely to keep you reading into the wee hours..." Well, it certainly did that. I should know by now that a book by Gerritsen is one I have to finish the same day I start it.

She know how to hook you in, take you down a very twisty road, build the suspense and keep you going to the very last sentence. Gerritsen's medical background was in evidence through the details of ancient forms of mummification offset by present-day forensic methods. I also enjoyed the historical and archeological information, both of those being fascinating to me.

The characters are interesting and fully developed. Jane Rizzola is a tough New Yorker, married and a mother; Maura Iles is refined, elegant and in a hopeless relationship. A common theme among the characters was self-delusion--wanting what you can't have. This theme was well-played in the story with a subtlety that offset the violence. Her dialogue and sense of place supported this theme.

Gerritsen is a very good writer and always a sleepless pleasure to read.

This was a good book, shocking that Maura didn't have a huge part in this book, but I really liked Josephine & Medea. The bond, running, and looking over your shoulder constantly. The book had a number of twists and turns and it was really good. Where do these authors pick up these ideas for their next pyschopaths??? LoL Can't wait for her next book!!

This book is her best so far, at least from my perspective. I just loved it! The story grabs you and keeps you enthralled from the very first and the ending is very satisfying and closes up all loose ends. There were several places where I cringed in my seat, had to cover the next page so as not to reveal a new clue too soon, all very melodramatic for me, but it shows just how good the book was, just how involved I got with the story. It was SO NOT predictable, with lots of twists and turns, but easy to follow and satisfying with each new 'reveal.' Not as much on Rizzoli's personal life as the last few, I'd have enjoyed more on that, but that's not really a flaw, just personal preference. Other favorites of Tess Gerritsen include The Sinner, Body Double and Vanish.

I enjoyed this novel for the most part. I appreciate the archeology and science angles that Gerritsen incorporates into the novel. These historical / scientific elements are interesting and, while I'm no expert, appear to be well researched. Who doesn't want to know how to make a mummy or shrink someone's head?

Unfortunately, these elements are really just window dressing for a pretty standard 'obsessive stalker turned serial killer' tale. The object of a killer's obsession is driven into hiding with her young daughter. Years later, the daughter, now fully grown and working in an obscure Boston museum, finds herself the object of a killer's obsession and the body count rises - except the victims were all killed decades earlier, their bodies preserved in bizarre ways. The bog bodies, shrunken heads, and mummy's that are found add an intriguing element when they are first introduced, but about mid way through the novel, these elements are largely abandoned as the traditional cat and mouse game plays itself out. I would have liked to have seen these elements integrated into the story in a less superficial way - but, at least they were there.

I found the characterization a little light. As can always be expected with series novels, a certain amount of time must be devoted to update regular readers on the personal lives of central characters. The ME's doomed romance with a priest had no bearing on anything else and is touched on so briefly it barely seemed worth mentioning. Thankfully, the author does show restraint here as well, avoiding the inevitable tendency most series authors have to fill their novels with the mundane details of a character's personal life.

The plot had the requisite twists and turns, all of which can be anticipated by veterans of crime fiction. I had actually anticipated a few extra twists that didn't come to fruition, something that arguably showed admirable restraint on the author's part. I did find that when the pieces all came together, not all of them fit very well. There are a few holes in the plot that I think the author probably could have addressed with small changes to the story. The plotting just wasn't as tight as it could have been.

Despite the fact that I sound like I didn't like this novel, the truth is, I found it pretty entertaining. Mostly I think I just see how much better it could have been. How the characters could be fleshed out a little more, how the plot could have been tighter, and how the archeology elements could have been integrated more fully into the story. I think this could have been an excellent novel, and instead Gerritsen opted to play it safe.

To play on the archeology theme: I think she could have dug a lot deeper and discovered something remarkable. 3 1/2 stars.

I love Tess Gerritsen's novels and I always buy them as soon as they become available. The Keepsake is one very good example of why I am such a loyal fan.

Her writing is crisp, the story fast moving and fascinating. The central heroine, Jane, is a homocide detective who is a small streetwise character that can stand toe to toe with the toughist of the big boys on the squad and has earned their respect. She also is a woman who has all the emotional hangups that females are known to experience. Jane shares these novels with a growing cast of interesting characters.

What is really neat about these characters is that they come in and out of the books, depending on the plot. After reading several of these novels it is like you really are becoming familiar with the people inhabiting the area.

The keepsake is a great story about a particularly gruesome murderer. The story is not so much one of blood and guts as one of the horror of what the killer does to the women after (at least we hope it is after) they die. The tale takes us to Eqypt and back to the mansion of a very wealthy and powerful man. At the center of this plot is a very quiet and quite beautiful young egyptologist. This young woman is harboring a secret that may shed light on the current growing number of exotically preserved bodies.

As always, I recommend highly this new taut, fast paced, novel by Tess Gerritsen.

Jane Rizzoli is one of the strongest female detective characters in the genre, and, after having her baby girl, she's back in action. Jane shines in this serial killer/stalker/confused identity thriller, as she struggles to unkink the many tangled lines in these crimes. Gerritsen appears to be attempting to show Jane as a whole person - mother, partner, cop, friend - and it's refreshing to see her uncertain at times, empathizing with other parents at others, trying to be supportive of her soon to be divorced detective partner. And the crimes in this installment are ingenious. While it's possible to make good guesses as to what "went down", there are some gratifying zigs and zags along the way, and at the conclusion, to keep the reader absorbed. 5 stars.

This is an engaging book. It draws you in nicely and the chapters are short so you can read and put down, read and put down. It is well written. The pathology and archaeology details seemded genuine so I'm guessing the author researched these topics. My major criticism is that about half way through you have it all basically figured out. At that point I often abandon the book. However it was sufficently well written and with lots of action that I decided to finish it. There were some minor plot twists toward the end but it turned out much as I expected.

Back to her best ... Bone Garden was disappointing ... but she's back with Rizzoli & Isles. Great story, lots of intrigue, and scary! 5 stars, can't wait for the next one!

If "Jane" had been "Rizzoli", and there had been just a little bit more character development, this book would have been over the top. The writing, as always, is excellent. The plot twists. The archaeological information is fascinating. But the family life is missing. Maura's internal questioning continued her story, but I missed Jane's mother, and Gabriel Dean. They were shadowy figures dispensed with in a few paragraphs. I like to see the "Jane at home" parts of the story -- it adds such dimension to her character. It didn't, of course, keep me from staying up half the night to finish the book. The writing and the plot pulled me right along. I couldn't put it down.

Watch out Patricia Cornwell! Tess Gerritsen is at the top of her game with The Keepsake - the best novel I've read in a long time! I was really impressed with Gerritsen's The Bone Garden: A Novel published last year and thought it was her finest work to date, but The Keepsake may be even better! I am a slow reader, and was able to read the 349 pages of The Keepsake in less than a week. Chapters 17,18, and 19 seemed a little slow to me but the rest of the book is full of surprises!

One thing that helps make this book so great is having Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles working together again. The Crispin Museum serves as a great setting for a novel featuring Mummification, Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem. As an added bonus to a fascinating story, readers learn how the process of mummification works, how to create a "bog body" and are given detailed instruction on how to make a shrinking head (please don't practice these methods on your neighbors!). Also in The Keepsake, we learn the dire consequences of having a disorganized museum of freaky items that you can't account for.

Believable, intriguing, fast-paced, page-turning, easy to read - it's everything I love in a novel!

The Keepsake is a tour de force of suspense! If you want plot twists and surprises, The Keepsake is for you. The beloved series characters are back. Dr. Gerritsen delves into the world of mummy archaeology and delivers historical facts in an entertaining way.

I've read some good books this summer, but this was the first I had difficulty putting down, even to eat or sleep. It was the good doctor _ Tess _ at her creepy best. In fact, I would rate it as her strongest book yet.

Earlier reviews have given enough of the plot, without too many spoilers, that there is no sense rehashing the book.

If you are looking for a book with excellent medical and police procedures, sympathetic good guys, using the word inclusively, and thoroughly rotten and evil bad guys, buy it or borrow it from your town or city library.

It's every struggling museum's nightmare. Discovering an Egyptian mummy moldering in their basement, the curators invite everybody to an electronic unveiling (CT scan) and the ancient relic proves to be a skillfully mummified modern murder victim. Oy.

Maine author Gerritsen's Boston series duo, pathologist Maura Isles and homicide cop Jane Rizzoli, catch a weird one this time. And it gets worse. A further search of the private museum turns up a cache of shrunken heads, one of which is another comparatively recent victim.

Meanwhile the newest museum hire, beautiful young Egyptologist Josephine Pulcillo, has a secret, which turns out to be even worse than she knows. She is also getting scary cryptic messages. These and the strange coincidences connecting her to the murder victims make her think it's time to run - again. But she loves her job and curbs her instinct until another preserved victim - a "bog body" - turns up in the trunk of her car.

The macabre museum and the archeology milieu provide a rich atmosphere for bestseller Gerritsen's fast-paced thriller, while Pulcillo's mysterious past tantalizes. Rizzoli follows threads that stretch back more than a quarter of a century while Isles mines the preserved corpses for clues to the murdered women's' deaths, every revelation adding a grim clue to a horrifying picture.

The action moves from summery Boston to the Texas desert and the wilds of Maine. Obsession and pathological sadism increase the stakes in this twisty page-turner which delivers action and surprises right up to the last scene. This is one of Gerritsen's best.

This book was only ok for me. I was a little disappointed in the writing. I wanted to read more about the killer and how he preserved his victims. It felt like that part of the story was brushed over. The story seemed to drag along, without much exciting happening. Just wasn't as good as Gerritsen can be.

I think this was one of Tess's best books yet. I was rooting for Josephine all the way - even when I was intrigued and wondering what she was hiding. Although Rizzoli wasn't as tough as she sometimes is, I liked that about her. It showed a depth of character and showed how she cared about others. Fantastic book! It was over too quickly.

I am not going to rehash the plot of the book, but wanted to comment that this book is an excellent read. The plot is fast moving and fun.

When The Keepsake is released in the UK it will be titled Keeping the Dead, "A Maura Isles Thriller". Well, Boston medical examiner Dr Isles really plays a rather by-the-numbers part in this story, and in any case this series hasn't always featured her at all. She first appeared in THE SINNER, which was the third of the seven to date, and in doing so added a bit of softer-hearted romance to what had been until then a really excellent hard-edged crime thriller series. The character of Detective Rizzoli, meanwhile, has lost some of its depth and meaning over the years and anyone buying into Tess Gerritsen for the first time might wonder what the fuss is all about. A series such as this is built around characterisation above all else, and it is so frustrating to see a very talented writer fail to develop what she has demonstrated the ability to do. In the series debut THE SURGEON (in 2001) and even more so in the sequel THE APPRENTICE (2002), Rizzoli's character was superbly created and developed, but when Maura Isles came on the scene - a character said by Gerritsen to be similar to her own personality in real life - not only has Rizzoli had to take something of a back seat but of late she isn't even called Rizzoli at all; instead the author has decided to use her first name of Jane in the narrative and this in my opinion has further diluted what was once the strongest feature of the brand.

As for this particular story, it eventually reminds me a little of the previous Rizzoli/Isles outing THE MEPHISTO CLUB, in that the writer thought of an exotic interest around which to wrap a murder mystery, and come the conclusion the reader wonders why the esoteric backgrounds needed to be there at all. In this case the background is the Egyptian art of body preservation or mummification. There is detailed information within the story about what it is, where it originates and how it can be done, but ultimately it really hardly matters in the big scheme of things because its meaning and significance withers away to almost nothing before the rather familiar bam-bam you're dead finale. A mother and daughter have been on the run for twelve years after a life-changing (OK, life-ending) event when the daughter was but a teenager. Living separate lives under new identities, they are hiding from those who seek retribution for the acts of a dozen years earlier. Not surprisingly, the story is basically about what happens when their cover is blown and the baddies track them down. The first half of the tale, which is steeped in archaeology and vivid descriptions of mummified bodies, is very good reading and at the time I thought Gerritsen was back on top form. What I then wanted, based on past experience, was some character development of either Rizzoli or Isles, but it just never happened. Rizzoli is now a married mother, and once again it's a shame that her husband - FBI Agent Gabriel Dean - barely features at all because he was great in THE APPRENTICE but here we are four novels later and he is as good as forgotten about. There's no point to his existence any more. As for Maura Isles, well this was really the poorest aspect of the tale, because the object of her affections - dog-collared Daniel - doesn't feature at all, and this is a man who we have been struggling to get to know for four novels now of the five that Maura Isles has featured in! Basically, he's just 'not there for her', but this has been the way from the outset it seems, and it's getting rather pointless. Maura's love-life is touched upon here and there in a thread that suggests that it will have some meaning and relevance later on...but nothing happens at all, and Maura is pretty much forgotten about for all of the concluding chapters.

The writing style is of a high standard throughout, however, as I guess we should expect from an author of such fame, fortune and experience. Yes, there's a decent story here and it's well told, but what let it down for me was the surprising lack of characterisation. Most of the surprise twists were very predictable and broadly speaking this was just another 'safe' publication by Tess Gerritsen, a story without any risks or shocks apart from the imagery on and around the autopsy table, where she is always at her most confident and imaginative. I enjoyed the beginning and the middle but it rather fizzled out into a neatly-tied ending and I felt a little short-changed as a result. Tess Gerritsen can do better than this, and having read all seven novels in this series I would suggest that next time around Maura Isles is demoted to just bit-part character (as she is already, but unintentionally) and 'Jane' returns as 'Rizzoli' and in the tough-cop guise she came on to the scene as six years ago. Perhaps Gabriel Dean could return; for too long there has been too much emphasis on female characters, and this series was at its best when there was a balanced gender split among the leading players.

Read 2 books last weekend -- this one & Kathy Reichs new one - Devil Bones or something like that. Short review. Gerritsen's book is fast-paced and concise -- it gets you to where you want to go. The only complaint -- don't really know why Maura Isles was the focus of a few chapters. Other than doing the necropsy at the beginning, her character offered little to moving the plot along and nothing to the resolution, so bringing in her relationship with the priest and the mysterious millionaire for a couple of chapters seemed like a waste. Maybe a prep for the next book? Compared to Reichs, who seems to want to fill pages and pages of minute detail about nothing we care about and few can understand, Gerritsen's book is the one that will keep you glued until the end. Reichs lost me after spending 2 pages describing the history of her neighborhood in a drive from a crime scene back to her house. It's like she wants to show how much she knows about everything no matter how absolutely STONE COLD DULL it is. Gerritsen - you don't learn a lot that doesn't pertain to the plot.

We've all heard about looking a gift horse in the mouth, but the Crispin Museum takes it one step further with dire results in this fast-paced police procedural starring Boston Police Detectives Jane Rizzoli and Barry Frost.

When the museum invited medical examiner Maura Isles to watch a CAT scan of Madame X, the perfect mummy they "found" in their basement, they had no idea that the test was going to uncover an all-too-fresh homicide victim. There's also an enigmatic note inside that leads the cops to an archeologist with other secrets of her own.

The insightful detectives unravel the mystery, of course, but it is a gruesome undertaking that's not for the faint of stomach.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

Boston-based medical examiner Maura Isles has examined a lot of corpses while on the job, but this one is special. The Crispin Museum invited the ME to attend a CAT scan of Madame X; the perfectly preserved mummy found in their basement who the curator believes will save their financially troubled facility.

However, instead of an ancient Egyptian royal, the modern medical test proves the mummy is a recent homicide victim. They also find a cryptic note inside. Boston Police Department Detectives Jane Rizzoli and Barry Frost lead the investigation. The message leads the cops to archeologist Josephine Pulcillo, who along with her mom has been on the run from an obsessed serial killer. Soon more modern day mummies are found, but the culprit remains elusively hidden in spite of Egyptian embalming knowledge.

The latest Rizzoli-Isles police procedural is a superb thriller that needs a graphic warning label not to read on a full stomach. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the mummy goes from ancient historical to contemporary and never slows down as obsession keeps a mother and daughter in fear of revealing secrets to the cops. Tess Gerritsen is at her best with this gruesome horrific murder mystery.

Harriet Klausner

I am not going to describe this book in a long review as I think it gives too much away. I will just say it is a great book, peaks your interest from page one!

Oh Man! Its about time we had another Jane Rizzoli book. I will order anything Tess writes but I really love the Jane Rizzoli books and she does not disappoint. The writing is crisp, the action is well plotted and again these characters do not dissapoint. I stayed up well into the night to read this book and I will highly recommend it to all my friends.

Fast-paced, suspensful, pages practically turn themselves!

Book goes beyond being a mystery - a great deal of information is conveyed: Egyptian burial methods, what constitues a bog, etc.

Characters have a depth and the conversations have a natural flow.

In her latest crime thriller featuring crack Boston Homicide Detective Jane Rizzoli, Tess Gerritsen's found a creative new wrinkle in the genre, blending archeology, psycophathy and obsession in this captivating new novel.

From the gripping opening chapter right through to the last pages, this book never lets up. Fast-paced with rich characterizations; flawless plotting and pacing; fascinating science; and not a wasted word anywhere.

If you're like me, and try to anticipate the twists ahead while you're reading, you'll find yourself regularly surprised as the story unfolds.

This is, flat out, one of the most entertaining books I've read all summer. Get it!

When the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead, they often layered amulets and jewels within the linen wrappings. Finding such treasures in a 2000-year-old mummy is not unusual, but "Madam X" is full of surprises.

After a CT scan reveals a bullet in the mummy's leg and modern dental work in the jaw, medical examiner Maura Isles and Boston PD Detective Jane Rizzoli have a murder investigation on their hands. The mummy was recently discovered in an unlabeled crate in the basement of the Crispin Museum, a small family-run museum in the Boston area. When Jane and her partner Barry Frost uncover more preserved human remains in the museum's storage area, they realize they have a very intelligent and unorthodox serial killer on the loose.

The discovery leaves them with more questions than answers. What is driving the Archaeology Killer (as the murderer is dubbed by the press)? Why does he go to such lengths to preserve his victims? What is his connection to Egyptologist Josephine Pulcillo -- a woman who, like Madam X, is harboring many secrets of her own? Most importantly, how do they stop him before he claims another victim?

As someone who has had a lifelong love of archaeology (in particular, Egyptology), I greatly enjoyed the archaeological elements in The Keepsake. The book was so vividly atmospheric and creepy that I found myself looking over my shoulder more than once during my reading - just in case.

Tess Gerritsen has created another chilling, fast-paced thriller that is sure to delight fans of the Rizzoli/Isles mystery series. Readers new to Gerritsen's writing will also find The Keepsake very accessible and enjoyable.

When a before unknown mummy is discovered in the storage basement of the small, private Crispin Museum there is great excitement all around Boston. People love mummies, and the press is out in force as "Madam X" is transported to the hospital to be checked out by a Cat Scan. One of our favorite medical examiners, Dr. Maura Isles, dubbed by the press "Queen of the Dead", is present at the invitation of the museum curator. But things do not go as expected, because mummies do not have modern dental work or bullets in their legs. Or a very personal message for the Crispin's Egyptology expert Josephine Pulcillo, who it seems, has her own deadly secrets.

Into the investigation steps the team of Detectives Jane Rizzoli and Barry Frost, familiar from Gerritsen's previous books in the series, and before long there are other grisly discoveries for the duo to delve into. Soon there is evidence that they have a serial killer on their hands and indications that Dr. Pulcillo is very intimately tied into this macabre mystery.

Now I must confess that I was a little concerned at the beginning of the book that, between a mummy, the dottering museum director and secret hiding places in dusty basements, I might have stumbled into a game of Clue with Professor Plum in the Conservatory with a candlestick. But fear not, very quickly things took on Gerritsen's customary fast paced, suspense filled and yes, quite creepy pace. Creepy is a very entertaining thing in her skillful hands.

One sign of good suspense story is that we, the reader, are kept on our toes. Just when we think we have it figure out, the rug is pulled out and we are happily dragged around another series of twists and turns. And be assured there are ample twists and turn in this latest appearance of the excellent characters of Isles and Rizzoli to keep we reader on the edge of our seats. The Keepsake is a taut, action packed, suspense story that will not disappoint Tess Gerritsen's many deserved fans.