How responsible are pre-adolescents when it comes to crime and murder: are youthful offenders merely disturbed children desperate for approval, who are manipulated into slaying by the ''Fagins" of the underworld? Or are they merciless psychopathic killers?
In the Bostonian world in which Detective Jane Rizzoli and forensic pathologist Maura Isles intersect, killers sometimes walk free, thanks to lack of evidence, and when the body of a young filmmaker is found, police don't know where to begin.
Isles, who was raised Catholic, begins to notice a pattern of particularly gruesome murders - the victims are killed in different ways, but each death mimics the martyrdom of a saint.
Isles discovers the event linking the bodies - all attended the same day-care centre 20 years ago, and had accused the family running the school of sexual abuse, Satanic rituals, and the murder of one of their fellows. Now those who gave evidence are being killed .
Full of twists and red herrings, I Know a Secret is an intriguing read, and well up to the usual Gerritsen standard.
• This article was originally published in The Times.
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