Tess Gerritsen

Author

Tess Gerritsen

37 books3 series

Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D. While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she be…

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Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.

While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction and in 1987, her first novel, Call After Midnight, was published. It was just the first of 32 suspense novels that she’s written over a 36-year writing career. She also wrote a screenplay, "Adrift," which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.

Tess's 1996 medical thriller, Harvest, marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list and her novels have hit bestseller lists around the world ever since. Among her titles are Gravity, The Surgeon, Vanish, Listen to Me, and her upcoming spy thriller, The Spy Coast, which has just been optioned by Amazon Studios for a television series. Her books have been translated into 40 languages, and more than 40 million copies have been sold around the world.

Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series "Rizzoli & Isles," starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander. 

She lives in Maine.

AUTHOR CAREER

Publication timeline

Published and upcoming books by publication year. Undated TBA titles are excluded.

1987–202837 cataloged publications

Select a year to see its books and known publication months.

THE AUTHOR’S WRITING

Writing profile

Genres are based on books catalogued in Risingshadow’s English-language database. A book may belong to multiple genres.

Main classification

Science Fiction1 (3%)
Horror3 (8%)
Other33 (89%)

Each book counts once. Multiple primary genres use the shared presentation order; books without a primary genre are Other.

Genres and themes

Thriller36 / 37 books
Mystery34 / 37 books
Suspense Thriller32 / 37 books
Crime Fiction31 / 37 books
Romance7 / 37 books
Horror4 / 37 books
Science Fiction1 / 37 books
Psychological Thriller1 / 37 books