International bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A Stanford University graduate, Tess went on to gain her MD at the University of California, San Francisco.

While on maternity leave as a physician, she began to write fiction. She published her first novel in 1987 and has since sold over 40 million copies of books in 40 countries, winning the Nero Wolfe Award and the RITA Award.

Her novels have been top-three US bestsellers and number-one bestsellers abroad. Critics worldwide praise her novels as “pulse-pounding fun” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “scary and brilliant” (Toronto Globe and Mail), and “polished, riveting prose” (Chicago Tribune). Publishers Weekly has dubbed her the “medical suspense queen.”

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

Now retired from medicine, she lives in Maine and writes full time.