Gravity opens in the Galápagos Rift nineteen thousand feet below the surface of the South Pacific. And it reaches a shattering conclusion two hundred twenty miles above the Earth. The connection between these two events, two years apart, lies at the heart of the mystery in this pulse-pounding medical thriller in space. Tess Gerritsen, a physician and a bestselling author, lends the story the authenticity of detail that it requires. And there’s little that’s far-fetched about this tale.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Two NASA flight surgeons star in the story
Mission Specialist Emma Watson, a NASA astronaut and physician, is training for a new mission in lower-Earth orbit at Johnson Space Center in Houston. She is preoccupied with the divorce proceedings underway with her husband, Dr. Jack McCallum, an inactive NASA flight surgeon. Then the wife of the flight surgeon on the International Space Station dies in a traffic accident, and NASA will have to bring him back. Emma is to be his replacement. The desperate sequence of steps needed before they can make the switch involves risk and is anything but simple. And Gerritsen describes it all with meticulous attention to technical detail, making us hold our breath all along the way.
Gravity: A Novel of Medical Suspense by Tess Gerritsen (1999) 342 pages ★★★★★
A cut-rate rocket seems destined for a role
Meanwhile, Sullivan Obie and his partner in Apogee Engineering are on the verge of bankruptcy at their fly-by-night rocket company in the Nevada desert. Their first product, a cheap, reusable launch vehicle, has exploded. And they’re desperate to secure the new funding to launch its successor. But Obie is the younger brother of Gordon Obie, director of Flight Crew Operations at NASA, and the connection helps convince the funders to take a chance. That, and Sully’s announcement that he himself will pilot the ship. Of course, we know that later the Apogee rocket will play a role in Gerritsen’s story. And how it does is among the many surprises in store for the reader.
A medical emergency is brewing on the space station
Before Emma’s flight to the International Space Station, an astronaut tending the biological experiments on board notices that mice are dying for no apparent reason. When she reports the problem to Houston, which in turn contacts the scientist who’d prepared the experiment, the response is immediate. Shut it down, and incinerate the mice and everything they’ve touched. Naturally, we’re aware that this is not the end of the problem. And it will prove to be crucial as the story speeds along its way to an electrifying end.
About the author
Tess Gerritsen retired from the practice of medicine to turn full-time to writing. She was born of Chinese and Chinese American parents in 1953 and raised in San Diego. Under her birth name of Terry Tom, she secured a BA in Anthropology from Stanford University in 1975, followed by an MD from the University of California, San Francisco.
Gerritsen wrote five medical thrillers from 1996 when her first, Harvest, appeared, to 2007. Since then, she has written thirteen books in the Rizzoli and Isles series of detective novels. She has also written sixteen romantic thrillers. Gerritsen’s books have appeared in 40 countries and have sold 25 million copies. She lives in Maine and is married to physician Jacob Gerritsen. They have two sons.
There is a more extensive biography on the author’s website.
For related reading
I’ve also reviewed the first of the author’s five medical thrillers: Harvest (A classic medical thriller about organ transplants). And check out 10 great medical and biological thrillers.
You’ll also find great reading at:
- 20 excellent standalone mysteries and thrillers
- 10 top science fiction novels
- Good books about space travel
- The five best First Contact novels
And you can always find my most popular reviews, and the most recent ones, on the Home Page.
