The silent girl : a novel
(Book)

Originally published: Ballantine Books, 2011.

Paperback edition includes the author's: Freaks: a Rizzoli & Isles short story (p. [437]-464), which was originally available via the Web in 2010.

"In the murky shadows of Boston's Chinatown lies a severed hand. On the tenement rooftop above is the corpse belonging to that hand, a red-haired woman dressed in black, her head nearly decapitated. Two strands of silver hair--not human--cling to her body. They are homicide cop Jane Rizzoli's only clues, but they're enough for her and medical examiner Maura Isles to make the startling discovery: that this violent death had a chilling prequel. ... Cracking a crime with bone-chilling echoes of an ancient Chinese legend, Rizzoli and Isles must outwit an unseen enemy with centuries of cunning--and a swift, avenging blade"--Page 4 of cover.

Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli is already at the crime scene when medical examiner Maura Isles arrives on the Chinatown rooftop. Rizzoli's gut says they're on the trail of a twisted predator and when a monkey hair is found on the body, other clues point Rizzoli and Isles in the direction of the fable of the Monkey King.