The Shadow Friends: A Thriller

From New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen comes a harrowing and emotional thriller where ghosts of the Cold War return with a vengeance--and cannot be outrun.

When a renowned disease expert and Russian defector dies mysteriously during a global affairs conference in Purity, Maine, the tight-knit band of former spies in the Martini Club once again sees their quiet coastal retirement interrupted by international intrigue. And when a waitress at the conference hotel is found murdered, Ingrid Slocum sees chilling links to a disastrous mission that nearly killed her three decades ago.

Desperate to uncover the truth, Ingrid's drawn back into the game by a magnetic ex-CIA colleague--and former lover--who was with her on the long-ago doomed mission. He convinces her to join him, and together they head to Amsterdam to track down her would-be killer.

Ingrid's frantic husband Lloyd and Maggie Bird are close behind, but a clandestine network of assassins is intent on stopping them. Forced to question every allegiance, the Martini Club must rely on the skills they tried to leave behind. Because in this game of revenge and deception, the past never dies--it just hides in the shadows.

(c) 2026 by Tess Gerritsen, Inc., all rights reserved.

International bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, she went on to earn her MD from the University of California San Francisco. While on maternity leave as a physician, she began to write fiction, publishing her first novel in 1987. She has since sold over forty million books in forty countries, winning the Nero and RITA awards. In 2024, she was named a ThrillerMaster by International Thriller Writers.

Gerritsen's novels are major bestsellers around the world. Critics praise her books as "pulse-pounding fun" (Philadelphia Inquirer), "scary and brilliant" (Toronto's Globe and Mail), and "polished, riveting prose" (Chicago Tribune). Publishers Weekly dubbed her the "medical suspense queen."

Gerritsen's series featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series Rizzoli & Isles.

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