Trained as a medical doctor, Tess Gerritsen built a second career as an internationally bestselling novelist. Her 32 novels include The Summer Guests, The Spy Coast, Gravity, and The Surgeon. She has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon). Time Magazine named The Surgeon one of the best mystery/thrillers ever written.

Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series "Rizzoli & Isles." 

Her novels are translated into 40 languages and more than 40 million copies have been sold around the world. She lives in Maine.