Tess Gerritsen is an internationally bestselling author known for her suspense novels, particularly her medical thrillers and the Rizzoli & Isles crime series. A former physician, she has written 31 suspense novels over a 36-year writing career, and her books have been translated into 40 languages and have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series inspired the popular television show of the same name, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. Gerritsen has won several awards for her work, including the Nero Wolfe Award and the Rita Award, and has been dubbed the “medical suspense queen” by Publishers Weekly.
When did you first decide to become a writer, and how did your training as a physician inform your work?
My route to publishing was the old-fashioned way. After writing two unpublished manuscripts, I submitted my third manuscript—through snail mail!—to an agent and an editor at the same time, and they both took on my book. That was back in 1987, and I wrote that manuscript—a romantic thriller—while working part-time as a medical doctor, with two babies at home. I’d known I wanted to be a writer since I was seven years old, but I took a detour to medical school first. It turned out to be solid grounding for my later career as a writer, because that medical knowledge was vital for the medical thrillers I’d later write.
Your latest book, The Spy Coast, and forthcoming sequel, The Summer Guests, are both published by Amazon’s imprint. How has that experience differed from your previous publications?
I had an offer from another publisher for Spy Coast, but the Amazon offer came with the added bonus of a television deal—and how could I resist? Working with Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer team has been a fantastic experience, from editorial to marketing to design to publicity. They threw their full support behind the book, and I can see the result in the book’s impressive first-year sales. As for the TV deal, Spy Coast is now in development for a television series at Amazon Studios.
The new books are set on the coast of Maine in a fictional town filled with retired CIA officers, in a group that dubs themselves “The Martini Club.” What is the ongoing fascination with the CIA, and, in a world obsessed with youth culture, what recommends writing and reading about more mature characters?
As I’ve grown older, I’ve hungered for more books about my age group, stories that portray characters in their 60s and beyond as vibrant, active, and prepared for adventure...and danger.
In the small Maine town where I live there are a number of retired spies, and I was curious about what their retirements are like. After interesting careers abroad, why did they choose to live in this small town? Did they miss the excitement of their old lives? What if they were called back to that old life because of a brand-new crisis? That was the inspiration for Spy Coast. I think we’re all fascinated by spies simply because it’s a profession that’s closed off to us, because it seems glamorous, and because—of course—we’ve watched too many James Bond movies.
A number of your books have been made into TV series. How do you find that process?
It’s a thrill – even when the TV series deviates wildly from the books. While I’m sometimes puzzled, sometimes amused, by the changes Hollywood makes to my characters, I’m delighted that it introduces a new audience to my stories.
