{"product_id":"the-mephisto-club-a-rizzoli-isles-novel-isbn-9781101885284","title":"The Mephisto Club: A Rizzoli \u0026 Isles Novel","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eJane Rizzoli and Maura Isles—the inspiration for the hit TNT series—continue their action-packed crime-solving streak. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eEvil exists. Evil walks the streets. And evil has spawned a diabolical new disciple in this white-knuckle thriller from \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author Tess Gerritsen. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003ePECCAVI\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Latin word is scrawled in blood at the scene of a young woman’s brutal  murder: I HAVE SINNED. It’s a chilling Christmas greeting for Boston medical examiner  Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli, who swiftly link the victim to controversial  celebrity psychiatrist Joyce O’Donnell–Jane’s professional nemesis and member of  a sinister cabal called the Mephisto Club.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e On top of Beacon Hill, the club’s acolytes  devote themselves to the analysis of evil: Can it be explained by science? Does it  have a physical presence? Do demons walk the earth? Drawing on a wealth of dark historical  data and mysterious religious symbolism, the Mephisto scholars aim to prove a startling  theory: that Satan himself exists among us. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e With the grisly appearance of a corpse  on their doorstep, it’s clear that someone–or something–is indeed prowling the city.  The members of the club begin to fear the very subject of their study. Could this  maniacal killer be one of their own–or have they inadvertently summoned an evil entity  from the darkness? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Delving deep into the most baffling and unusual case of their  careers, Maura and Jane embark on a terrifying journey to the very heart of evil,  where they encounter a malevolent foe more dangerous than any they have ever faced  . . . one whose work is only just beginning.\u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author \u003cb\u003eTess Gerritsen\u003c\/b\u003e earned international acclaim for her first novel of suspense, \u003ci\u003eHarvest\u003c\/i\u003e. She introduced Detective Jane Rizzoli in \u003ci\u003eThe Surgeon\u003c\/i\u003e (2001) and Dr. Maura Isles in \u003ci\u003eThe Apprentice\u003c\/i\u003e (2002) and has gone on to write numerous other titles in the celebrated Rizzoli \u0026amp; Isles series, most recently \u003ci\u003eThe Mephisto Club, The Keepsake, Ice Cold, The Silent Girl, Last to Die, \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Die Again\u003c\/i\u003e. Her latest novel is the standalone thriller \u003ci\u003ePlaying with Fire\u003c\/i\u003e. A physician, Tess Gerritsen lives in Maine.Chapter One\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e They looked like the perfect family.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This was what the boy  thought as he stood beside his father’s open    grave, as he listened to the hired  minister read platitudes from the    Bible. Only a small group had gathered on that  warm and buggy June    day to mourn the passing of Montague Saul, no more than a  dozen    people, many of whom the boy had just met. For the past six months,    he  had been away at boarding school, and today he was seeing some of    these people  for the very first time. Most of them did not interest    him in the least.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But his uncle’s family—they interested him very much. They were worth    studying.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Dr. Peter Saul looked very much like his dead brother Montague,    slender and  cerebral in owlish glasses, brown hair thinning toward    inevitable baldness. His  wife, Amy, had a round, sweet face, and she    kept darting anxious looks at her  fifteen-year-old nephew, as though    aching to wrap her arms around him and smother  him with a hug. Their    son, Teddy, was ten years old, all skinny arms and legs.  A little    clone of Peter Saul, right down to the same owlish glasses.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Finally,  there was the daughter, Lily. Sixteen years old.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Tendrils of her hair had come  loose from the ponytail and now clung    to her face in the heat. She looked uncomfortable  in her black dress,    and she kept shifting coltishly back and forth, as though  preparing    to bolt. As though she’d rather be anywhere than in this cemetery,     waving away buzzing insects.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e They look so normal, so average, the boy thought.  So different from    me. Then Lily’s gaze suddenly met his, and he felt a tremor  of    surprise. Of mutual recognition. In that instant, he could almost    feel her  gaze penetrating the darkest fissures of his brain,    examining all the secret places  that no one else had ever seen. That    he’d never allowed them to see.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Disquieted,  he looked away. Focused, instead, on the other people    standing around the grave:  His father’s housekeeper. The attorney.    The two next-door neighbors. Mere acquaintances  who were here out of    a sense of propriety, not affection. They knew Montague Saul  only as    the quiet scholar who’d recently returned from Cyprus, who spent his     days fussing over books and maps and little pieces of pottery. They    did not  really know the man. Just as they did not really know his son.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e At last the service  ended, and the gathering moved toward the boy,    like an amoeba preparing to engulf  him in sympathy, to tell him how    sorry they were that he’d lost his father. And  so soon after moving    to the United States.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “At least you have family here  to help you,” said the minister.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Family? Yes, I suppose these people are my  family, the boy thought,    as little Teddy shyly approached, urged forward by his  mother.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “You’re going to be my brother now,” said Teddy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Am I?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Mom  has your room all ready for you. It’s right next to mine.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “But I’m staying  here. In my father’s house.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Bewildered, Teddy looked at his mother. “Isn’t  he coming home with us?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Amy Saul quickly said, “You really can’t live all by  yourself, dear.    You’re only fifteen. Maybe you’ll like it so much in Purity, you’ ll    want to stay with us.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “My school’s in Connecticut.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Yes, but the  school year’s over now. In September, if you want to    return to your boarding school,  of course you can. But for the    summer, you’ll come home with us.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “I won’ t be alone here. My mother will come for me.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e There was a long silence. Amy  and Peter looked at each other, and the    boy could guess what they were thinking.  His mother abandoned him    ages ago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “She is coming for me,” he insisted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Uncle Peter said, gently, “We’ll talk about it later, son.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the night,  the boy laid awake in his bed, in his father’s town    house, listening to the voices  of his aunt and uncle murmuring    downstairs in the study. The same study where  Montague Saul had    labored these past months to translate his fragile little scraps  of    papyrus. The same study where, five days ago, he’d had a stroke and    collapsed  at his desk. Those people should not be in there, among his    father’s precious  things. They were invaders in his house.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “He’s still just a boy, Peter. He needs  a family.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “We can’t exactly drag him back to Purity if he doesn’t want to come     with us.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “When you’re only fifteen, you have no choice in the matter. Adults     have to make the decisions.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The boy rose from bed and slipped out of his  room. He crept halfway    down the stairs to listen in to the conversation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “And really, how many adults has he known? Your brother didn’t    exactly qualify.  He was so wrapped up in his old mummy linens, he    probably never noticed there  was a child underfoot.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “That’s not fair, Amy. My brother was a good man.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Good, but clueless. I can’t imagine what kind of woman would dream    of having  a child with him. And then she leaves the boy behind for    Monty to raise? I don’ t understand any woman who’d do that.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Monty didn’t do such a bad job raising  him. The boy’s getting top    marks in school.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “That’s your measurement for  what makes a good father? The fact that    the boy gets top marks?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “He’s also  a poised young man. Look how well he held up at the service.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “He’s numb, Peter.  Did you see a single emotion on his face today?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Monty was like that, too.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Cold-blooded, you mean?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “No, intellectual. Logical.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “But underneath  it all, you know that boy has got to be hurting. It    makes me want to cry, how  much he needs his mother right now. How he    keeps insisting she’ll come back for  him, when we know she won’t.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “We don’t know that.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “We’ve never even met  the woman! Monty just writes us from Cairo one    day, to tell us he has a brand-new  son. For all we know, he plucked    him up from the reeds, like baby Moses.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The boy heard the floor creak above him, and he glanced toward the    top of the  stairs. He was startled to see his cousin Lily staring    down at him over the banister.  She was watching him, studying him, as    if he were some exotic creature she’d never  before encountered and    she was trying to decide if he was dangerous.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Oh!”  said Aunt Amy. “You’re up!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e His aunt and uncle had just come out of the study,  and they were    standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at him. Looking  a    little dismayed, too, at the possibility that he had overheard their    entire  conversation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Are you feeling all right, dear?” said Amy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Yes, Auntie.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “It’s so late. Maybe you should go back to bed now?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But he didn’t move.  He paused on the stairs for a moment, wondering    what it would be like to live  with these people. What he might learn    from them. It would make the summer interesting,  until his mother    came for him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He said, “Aunt Amy, I’ve made up my mind.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “About what?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “About my summer, and where I’d like to spend it.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e She instantly assumed the worst. “Please don’t be too hasty! We have    a really  nice house, right on the lake, and you’d have your own room.    At least come for  a visit before you decide.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “But I’ve decided to come stay with you.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e His  aunt paused, temporarily stunned. Then her face lit up in a    smile, and she hurried  up the steps to give him a hug. She smelled    like Dove soap and Breck shampoo.  So average, so ordinary. Then a    grinning Uncle Peter gave him an affectionate  clap on the shoulder,    his way of welcoming a new son. Their happiness was like  a web of    spun sugar, drawing him into their universe, where all was love and     light and laughter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “The kids will be so glad you’re coming back with us!”  said Amy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He glanced toward the top of the stairs, but Lily was no longer     there. She had slipped away, unnoticed. I will have to keep my eye on    her, he  thought. Because already, she’s keeping her eye on me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “You’re part of our family  now,” said Amy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As they walked up the stairs together, she was already telling  him    her plans for the summer. All the places they’d take him, all the    special  meals they’d cook for him when they got back home. She    sounded happy, even giddy,  like a mother with her brand-new baby.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Amy Saul had no idea what they were about  to bring home with them.New York Times bestseller; Rizzoli \u0026amp; Isles  The hit series on TNT Author of Die Again","brand":"Ballantine Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301180887269,"sku":"NP9781101885284","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781101885284.jpg?v=1767740474","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-mephisto-club-a-rizzoli-isles-novel-isbn-9781101885284","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}