Tess Gerritsen left a successful medical practice to write thrillers, and the leap of faith rewarded her. Her first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Since then she’s written 10 thrillers, a slew of romantic suspense novels, and a historical, all imbued with her trademark blistering pace and graphic medical details. Her current release, THE BONE GARDEN, is set in early 19th century Boston.

Gerritsen enjoys a large international following that keeps her on the top of bestselling lists worldwide. (Missed part one of our interview with Tess? Click HERE).

Enjoy part two of our interview with Tess Gerritsen.

Q: THE BONE GARDEN is a departure for you, a historical medical mystery set in a time when medicine seemed to be at its most horrifying, especially for women. Why did you decide to write an historical and what drew you to the topic?

TG: I’d been reading about childbed fever, and was so horrified by those epidemics, and the suffering of the dying, that I couldn’t stop myself from researching it more thoroughly. The more I read, the more fascinated I became in that era of medicine, when doctors killed more people than they cured. I’m a big fan of historical novels anyway, and I imagined a murder mystery played out against the backdrop of body snatchers and primitive surgery. I wanted the book to be more than just another serial killer novel; I wanted to show medicine in its infancy, when doctors were just beginning to understand contagion.

Q: What unique challenges did this story present you, if any? Was it challenging writing about an actual historical figure, in this case Oliver Wendell Holmes?

TG: It meant a lot more research! I read biographies of Holmes and his Hungarian counterpart, Ignaz Semmelweis. I read contemporary literature — Nathaniel Hawthorne and Holmes’s essays. I read accounts of childbed fever epidemics. I read contemporary newspapers of the times, and books on the Irish in Boston and the history of the Boston police. I read numerous books on Boston history. The real challenge was in trying to capture Oliver Wendell Holmes as a young medical student. I knew he was brilliant. I knew he was already a poet. But how to capture the man himself? As he appeared in THE BONE GARDEN, he’s a bit of a smart aleck, good-natured, and with a very clever tongue.

Q: In THE BONE GARDEN, you chose to weave the past with the present and basically tell two interconnected stories. Why? Was that a special challenge?

TG: It’s only in retrospect that we recognize the genius of Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the significance of his contributions. That’s part of the reason I used a past/present framework — because I wanted the current day characters to read these letters and understand that Holmes was not only brilliant, but also the man responsible for saving thousands of lives. I also wanted the love story to have some sort of redemption, some sort of happy ending to offset the tragedy of the past. I wanted the reader to walk away with the feeling that love DOES have another chance — even when it went terribly wrong a century ago.

Q: What has been the most rewarding aspect of THE BONE GARDEN? Would you write another historical?

TG: The most rewarding aspect? That I wrote the story I felt I was always meant to write. There are some books that you know are lurking inside you, and you know you’ll never feel entirely satisfied if you don’t write them. I feel a sense of relief that this story has been told. If I hadn’t told it, I’d forever feel a sense of incompleteness as an artist.

Q: You are an accomplished violinist as well as a novelist. Do you think being a musician helps with your writing?

TG: Not with the writing. But when I teach writing classes, my experience with music has allowed me another way to explain my craft as a writer. I often use musical analogies when I discuss writing — for instance, I compare the tension of musical discord with the tension of fictional conflicts, and how everything must be resolved before the reader or listener feels the piece is complete. I also compare musicianship with writing — and point out that you can’t be a good musician without listening to music, just as you can’t be a good writer without having read a lot of books.

Q: Why do you think genre fiction receives so little respect in literary circles when commercial fiction is the largest segment of the market?

TG: I think it has to do with the politics of exclusion. The more exclusive your club, the more important you think you must be. Those critics and readers who feel their tastes are high-brow couldn’t possibly value what everyone else in society loves. They disdain commercial fiction simply because EVERYONE else loves it.

Q: What are you reading now?

TG: I’ve just finished Valerie Plame’s book about working for the CIA. I’m about to start reading one of the many galleys that now sit on my bedstand.

Q: What’s next for you?

TG: I’m now working on a book called MADAM X, the next in the Jane Rizzoli series. It should be out next fall.

Thank you, Tess!

THE BONE GARDEN is available now at retailers everywhere.