Tess Gerritsen, bestselling author of the Rizzoli and Isles series, will come to Skidompha Library on Aug. 11 as part of her international book tour for her newest novel, “Playing with Fire.” Gerritsen lives in Camden.
New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen will come to the Skidompha Public Library in Damariscotta on Thursday, Aug. 11 at 10 a.m. to discuss her newest novel, “Playing with Fire.”
“Playing with Fire” is Gerritsen’s second historical fiction novel. The novel, which bounces back and forth between present day Boston and Venice and World War II Venice, weaves a story of two strangers across time whose stories connect through a mysterious violin composition.
Julia Ansdell, a professional violinist in Boston, stumbles across an antique handwritten composition by an unknown composer while on tour in modern Venice. However, once home, she starts to question the waltz’s origins. Each time she practices the piece, harm comes to her and her loved ones. Worse, it seems to be coming from her young daughter, who appears changed after hearing Julia play the piece.
Back in pre-war Venice, composer and violinist Lorenzo Todesco is discovering the growing dangers of being Jewish and falling in love with a Catholic girl.
The cover of “Playing with Fire” by Tess Gerritsen.
Gerritsen, who lives in Camden with her husband Jacob, was formerly a practicing physician in Hawaii. While on maternity leave, she decided to fill her time with writing, something she did through the years as a hobby and for stress relief. Her first novel, a romance novel titled “Call After Midnight,” was published a few years later, in 1987.
It wasn’t until 1996 that she published her first medical thriller, “Harvest.” The new genre led to her Rizzoli & Isles series, which follows Boston detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles as they work together to solve crimes. The series quickly became an international success and has been adapted into a TV show on TNT.
However, Gerritsen still feels inspired to write stand-alone novels and short stories. Gerritsen said “Playing with Fire” was originally published as a short novella told solely from Julia’s perspective, but as the story continued to develop in her mind, she felt there was a whole other side to tell. While on vacation in Venice for her birthday, Gerritsen visited Museo Ebraico, the Jewish museum in Venice, and the Jewish Holocaust memorial plaque in Venice. While all the characters’ stories in her book were fictional, she did incorporate some events known to have occurred during that time, like the midnight round-up of Jewish Venetians on Dec. 5, 1943. She also used some real names.
Gerritsen said that while she was looking at the memorial plaque of all the Jewish Venetians who perished in the Holocaust, she noticed a large group of people with the same last name and envisioned what that night would have been like for that large family. “I thought, ‘that’s a story I need to write. (A story) about the Todesco family,’” Gerritsen said.
Gerritsen said she often explores the concept of evil in her thriller series and continued the theme with “Playing with Fire.”
“What drives people, who are seemingly normal, to do bad things?” she said she asks herself.
But with evil comes good. “Really, it’s about heroism under fire,” Gerritsen said of her book, adding that many people during hard times are good, but many are too afraid to act when faced with extreme consequences.
“Some made the right choice but died for it,” said Gerritsen of real tragic heroes during the Holocaust.
Gerritsen’s talk will delve deeper into her writing of “Playing with Fire” and her overall experience as a physician turned novelist and how her medical background weaves into each novel. As with all her novels, “Playing with Fire” incorporates medical issues, such as mental health stigmas and misdiagnosis.
“I always remind people I am a doctor. There’s probably going to be medical twists somewhere in there,” she said.
Gerritsen said a lot of people were surprised by the ending, but that she always leaves clues.
“I want people to read it slowly enough to take in what’s happening to Julia,” said Gerritsen, who despite categorizing “Playing with Fire” as historical fiction, interweaves styles of her popular thrillers into the novel with cliffhangers and unreliable narration.
The waltz titled “Incendio” in “Playing with Fire” is a real waltz composed by Gerritsen. She has been playing the violin since she was 12 and said the melody for “Incendio” came to her in a dream while she was writing the novel. “Incendio” can be heard at http://goo.gl/jZfqpM.
