'The Silent Wife' Will Trent #10 by Karin Slaughter

 

From the BLURB: 

He watches.

A woman runs alone in the woods. She convinces herself she has no reason to be afraid, but she's wrong. A predator is stalking the women of Grant County. He lingers in the shadows, until the time is just right to snatch his victim.

He waits.

A decade later, the case has been closed. The killer is behind bars. But then another young woman is brutally attacked and left for dead, and the MO is identical.

He takes.

Although the original trail has gone cold - memories have faded, witnesses have disappeared - agent Will Trent and forensic pathologist Sara Linton must re-open the cold case. But the clock is ticking, and the killer is determined to find his perfect silent wife ...

 

‘The Silent Wife’ is the 10th book in Karin Slaughter’s ‘Will Trent’ crime series, and the 20th published book in her career that started in 2009 with the ‘Grant County’ series and the characters of Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver and his ex-wife coroner, Sara Linton.

Now – spoiler! – Jeffrey was killed in the sixth book of ‘Grant County’ (called ‘Beyond Reach’ and alternate title ‘Skin Privilege’) then Sara transitioned to the established Will Trent series, where over the course of the last eight or so books, she has started a relationship with Will.

This is all important to note because for the first time since his passing, Jeffrey is back. Kind of. ‘The Silent Wife’ sees one of Jeffrey’s old cases and convictions unearthed when a prisoner who swears black and blue that he’s innocent, points Will Trent and his partner Faith Adams (both of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation) to a potential killing spree for which he was imprisoned, but if his hunches prove true then it means a serial rapist and killer has been on the streets for eight years … the book flashes back to the case unfolding as it did then eight years ago when Jeffrey was chief of police at Grant County, shady cop Lena Adams was just starting out and screwing up, and Jeffrey and Sara’s divorce was only a year old and still raw over his uncovered unfaithfulness. The book switches between Sara and Will in real-time backtracking over the case to see if there are fresh clues and new murders, and Jeffrey in the past working in real-time of the past to track down someone who is murdering female students from the local college.

Now let me just say – I have never been so floored by the loss of a fictional character as I was by Jeffrey Tolliver. I – and all ‘Grant County’ fans – were completely stumped and horrified by that twist we never saw coming, and I think in many ways we’ve all been (much like Sara) grappling with it ever since. After reading ‘The Silent Wife’ I even went back to ‘Beyond Reach’ and read that last chapter again and … tears. Floods of tears. Just like the first time it sucker-punched me.

So when I flipped the page in ‘The Silent Wife’ to find a chapter in Jeffrey’s head as he was then – I gasped. I cried. It was like a pressure-valve lifting and all the old hurts over his loss came flooding back because it was also so damn good to have him back. And this is where Slaughter I think knows her audience so dang well, because I’m sure I’m not alone. I am sure that (again – keeping pace with Sara’s emotional trajectory) majority of us were probably at the point of finally being fully invested in the ‘Will Trent’ series and his and Sara’s relationship … to then yank us back to the past heightens everything. Brilliantly. Viscerally.

This is of course why Slaughter did it. ‘The Silent Wife’ even unfolds with Sara and Will at a precipice point in their relationship (he’s proposed but … abysmally. They both agree to circle back to talking about it but never do and suddenly six-weeks have passed and they can both feel the clock ticking as to what to do about their relationship).

Meanwhile; Sara and Jeffrey in the past are at a point in their relationship that readers have only gleaned second-hand from both parties. The time before first book ‘Blindsighted’ when they’re in the thick of their animosity over Jeffrey’s cheating and subsequent recent divorce (even if it’s blatantly obvious that there’s still love there, it’s only amplifying the hurt right now).

At both points in time Sara is on the edge with the two men in her life – down one path we know that she and Jeffrey reconcile and give it another go that only ends with his murder. But in ‘The Silent Wife’ the events of ‘Blindsighted’ haven’t happened, and Sara has yet to confide in Jeffrey all the truths of her past, including her own rape when she was in college.

Down the other side we have Will and Sara – crazy about each other, but still plagued by their respective pasts. And the reopened case presents an opened wound to be exposed; Will is literally coming face-to-face with the ghost of the late, great Jeffrey Tolliver. The love of Sara’s life, who Will wonders if he’ll always feel second-best to as he grapples with the reality that had he not died – Sara would still be married to him. And Sara is trying to squeeze her love and missing Jeffrey around the way her heart has expanded to need Will, to love him dearly.

It is SUCH a good place for this story to spin around. Absolutely, delicious and juicy and exposing the very reason I kept coming back to this series – the relationships.

In fact, at the back of the book in a spoiler-filled Author’s Note, Slaughter outright admits; “I bet you guys didn’t notice that I’ve been secretly writing love stories. Really gritty, violent, love stories, but still.” I noticed. Lots of us did. I started reading Slaughter’s ‘Grant County’ series when I was 22(!!!) and actually – fun fact! – ‘Blindsighted’ was the very first book I reviewed on my blog! It was the first proper-proper crime series I delved into and it was the tension-filled relationship of Jeffrey and Sara that hooked me (aside from a great whodunnit procedural) I wouldn’t have kept coming back to this series if I didn’t love the characters and want to see the best for them. And ‘The Silent Wife’ is really sticking them all under a microscope in the most amazing, curious way.

There’s so many layers in this book.

It’s also fascinating to see Slaughter admit that Tolliver maybe wasn’t the best police officer like everyone (and probably fans) remember. That’s illuminated in ‘The Silent Wife’ and a case that is literally spun around Jeffrey missing clues and letting a killer get away. It’s also highlighting Lena Adams genesis as a dirty cop … I’ve never liked Lena (I mean; who does?) but I’ve also been bitingly aware of the fact that when we met her in ‘Blindsighted’ it was on her worst day and one that irrevocably changed her – the murder of her sister. What’s fascinating in ‘The Silent Wife’ is – we see the actual genesis of Lena’s foolhardy broken morality just beginning. In stupid, human mistakes sure – but also in Jeffrey seeming to make the connection that she could be what Will later dubs his “grey rabbit”, a cop who gets her hands dirty so others can keep theirs clean, she’s will to go down the rabbit hole of grey-areas.

And here I’ll just say – Lena is also in the present and being interviewed by Will and Faith, and much like our spidey-senses were tingling in anticipation of Will’s ex-wife Angie coming back, Lena’s presence in ‘The Silent Wife’ really works to drop breadcrumbs that Slaughter is not done where she’s concerned. She seemingly got her happily-ever-after with Jeffrey’s son Jared and a baby on the way (I dread her rubbing that in Sara’s face like I know she will) and Faith Adams has the best summary of this seemingly perfect life for one of the most undeserving individuals, when she says;

“Fucking Lena.” Faith flapped down the visor to look in the mirror. “How did that bitch get J.Lo’s life with Lizzie Borden’s personality?”

How indeed.

But I am of the belief that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was right; "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” I think we haven’t seen the back of Lena and her toxicity, but I also believe that she will be exposed for who she really is. Eventually.

At both points in time, we see Sara at a fractious point in both her relationship with Jeffrey and Will. What’s interesting is how differently those trajectories play out, but also what’s illuminated as we observe the men satelliting around the women they love. For Jeffrey, we see him rewriting history and changing the narrative … the same way Lena Adams does in her field-notes. Will has really grown as a character, and though it’s all internalised – we see him reasoning out and talking through his emotions and why he’s experiencing them. That’s Sara’s influence crowding out his head and heart.

What was almost uncomfortable for me to realise while reading ‘The Silent Wife’ was … poking at the idea that maybe Will is the better suitor overall. Much as Jeffrey was – well, Jeffrey. Brilliant and charismatic, bull-headed and egotistical – someone who hurt Sara deeply and repeatedly, but also loved her like no other … Slaughter’s Author’s Note also highlights this when she says she knew Will was going to have to earn Sara’s love. Both between them, and for fans. And reading ‘The Silent Wife’ and the healthier way that he and Sara confront the pitfalls of their relationship head on (eventually) – it’s abundantly clear that he’s done that. Tenfold.

I was uhmming and ahhing whether or not to give this book 4.5 stars or not. The only criticism I have is the whodunnit was very obvious and I had it figured out within a few chapters. But looking back at all the juicy tension and character development and retrospectives … and knowing that this book is Slaughter at her absolute *best* and highlighting the complexities that make her series so wonderful, I am convinced that she always meant for there to be an element of the obvious for the whodunnit. Because a lot of this book is observing the things that are right in front of our faces, but we’re not yet ready to confront and examine or admit to ourselves.

So it’s five-stars from me, and a hearty wish that I already had details of what’s next from my favourite of all crime-writers.

 

5/5

Series I read

So, I was having an interesting Twitter-talk with the lovely blogger Wendy Darling of Midnight Garden … we were discussing our love of Karin Slaughter and how dedicated we are to her series, and why. 

It’s an interesting thing to think about – the series you read. Especially interesting for me, when I think of the series I've stuck with for the long-haul, and those I've let fall by the wayside. 

There are actually plenty of books that I dropped half-way through their never-ending series and for various reasons. ‘Stephanie Plum’ just got stale. ‘The Hollows’ was writing relationship cheques that the characters weren’t cashing, in my opinion. ‘Anita Blake’ just got … not good … though I still recommend this series, just with the asterisks of; “They get really bad around ‘Obsidian Butterfly’ – you have been warned.” I’m even teetering with J.R. Ward’s ‘Black Dagger Brotherhood’ because it’s getting pretty ridiculous to just keep filtering in new characters I don’t give a damn about just to keep this world alive.  

So, there are plenty of series I've abandoned. Maybe I’ll get back to them one day (I do occasionally sneak-peeks at Amazon reviews of ‘The Hollows’ to see if Ivy and Rachel’s romance is being further developed) but I mostly think the ship has sailed.  

So what are the series I've committed to, and can’t see myself ever wavering from? What makes them so special? There aren’t many – but below are the (ongoing) series I read religiously and feel quite devoted to.  

Grant County by Karin Slaughter 

Karin Slaughter will always hold a special significance for me, and not just because ‘Blindsighted’ was the first book I ever reviewed on this blog. Rather, it’s because ‘Grant County’ was the first crime-thriller series I ever persevered with. In the past I'd tried making a dent in my mum’s impressive Patricia Cornwell collection, but was totally unmoved by the first book. And then I tried Slaughter (possibly because her name in crime-fiction seemed an easy win) and ‘Blindsighted’ absolutely hooked me. It wasn’t even that, as a novice in the genre, ‘Grant County’ was “lite” crime-fic (ask anyone; Slaughter writes some of the nastiest, goriest worst violence against women . . . sometimes, she reads like the Patrick Bateman of crime-fic) rather, what hooked me in Grant County was the characters and, more importantly, the relationship between series protagonists Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver – the county coroner and local police chief, respectively . . . and ex-husband and wife. There was a moment in ‘Blindsighted’ when Jeffrey is really unprofessional and says this to Sara, after she’s conducted an autopsy;

‘Sometimes,’ he began, ‘when I wake up in the morning, I forget that you’re not there. I forget that I lost you.’ 

‘Kind of like when you forgot you were married to me?’ 

He walked toward her, but she stepped back until she was a few inches from the cabinet. He stood in front of her, his hands on her arms. 

‘I still love you.’ 

‘That’s not enough.’ 

He stepped closer to her. ‘What is?’

In my 2009 review of ‘Blindsighted’, I express an annoyance at how little Slaughter feeds readers about Jeffrey and Sara’s marital demise, especially since sparks are still there . . . it frustrated me then, but now I can see that that’s actually what kept me coming back to this series. Yes, the whodunit mysteries are terrifying and brilliant, but it was Slaughter’s impeccable and thorny characters and their relationships that kept me coming back. 

Will Trent by Karin Slaughter 

For that reason, I didn’t know if I could make the trek from ‘Grant County’ to her new ‘Will Trent’ series (especially after I felt so bruised following some ‘kill you darlings’ cruelty. . . ) but then Slaughter bought all the romantic complications of ‘Grant County’ and amplified them by including one of the most genuine and charming but horribly tortured characters, ever, in Will Trent. 

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

You want to know how much I love this series? I named my dog ‘Murray’, after the character of young Ian Murray (and mostly because ‘Rollo’ didn’t suit my little jackshund). This is the series that has my deep and abiding love, a love that will never waver and is willing to wait 5 years between books . . . It is a love that grows stronger with each new instalment, as I’m left to pine after characters and wonder on their predicaments (no mean feat, since books often finish on cliff-hangers that are more hand-biting than nail-biting). 

I started reading ‘Outlander’ back in 2007, and was quite lucky in that I got to consume books 1–6 over one summer holiday. Since then I've only had to wait for ‘An Echo in the Bone’ and now ‘Written in my Own Heart’s Blood’, which is coming June this year. Of course, when I tell people that I’ll have to clear a week of my life in order to sit down and properly read & appreciate Gabaldon’s latest offering, they look at me with a somewhat perplexed expression. These are 800+ page books (‘Written in My Own Heart’s Blood’ is actually rumoured to be 1008 pages) and the series is now eight-books deep . . . then I explain that these are kinda time-travelling books (but not really) that cover historical events like the Battle of Culloden and the American Revolution, but at the centre of it all is a love story between an ex-army nurse from the 1940s and a 1700’s Highland warrior called Jamie Fraser (*cue swoon*). At this point, I find myself alone on a soapbox talking to empty air. And that’s okay, I get it. These books are hard to surmise, and it doesn’t help when my love for them leaves me utterly inarticulate and I usually just grunt appreciatively; “Oh my God, Jamie is so amazing and these books are just so URGHkeejiwjwioeufjnkndewmdkwjo . . .  y’know?” 

Though I do fully anticipate that the Starz TV adaptation will bring quite a few newcomers to this wonderful series (I mean, have you seen the lead actor? Yowza). 

Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs

This is another series that I have a serious soft-spot for, because it was the first urban fantasy I ever read and it converted me to a genre that I'd previously been pretty snooty about. 

But, if I’m honest, I almost didn’t read beyond ‘Moon Called’. I remember at the time reading and enjoying it, but not being sure if it was a series I'd be sticking with … but then there was a moment in the last six pages. I can actually pinpoint the exact moment when I knew I'd be coming back for more;

… ‘So, Bran tells me that or ordered you to keep an eye out for me.’ 

He stopped laughing and raised both his eyebrows. ‘Yes. Now ask me if I was watching you for Bran.’ 

It was a trick question. I could see the amusement in his eyes. I hesitated, but decided I wanted to know anyway. ‘Okay, I’ll bite. Were you watching me for Bran?’ 

‘Honey,’ he drawled, pulling on his Southern roots. ‘When a wolf watches a lamb, he’s not thinking about the lamb’s mommy.’

And I was sucked right in. It was Briggs layering mythology on top of whodunit central-story and throwing in a tangled relationship web to boot. ‘Mercy Thompson’ remains the benchmark for all other urban fantasies for me. I can only think of one other UF author who has done such a fine job of building up a protagonist’s world from the ground-up …

Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews

‘Kate’ and ‘Mercy’ came out around the same time (2007 and 2006, respectively) and have roughly the same number of books in the series right now. But they’re totally different, while also hooking me for very similar reasons.

Much like Mercy, when readers first met Kate in ‘Magic Bites’ she was the epitome of a loner. She had secrets to keep and a past to keep hidden, and she had been raised not to trust anybody but herself. But slowly, slowly husband/wife writing-duo Ilona Andrews teased out a love/hate relationship for Kate in the form of were-lion Curran. Now in the upcoming seventh book ‘Magic Breaks’ (out in July) the very fact that Kate has now accumulated a family and a whole community who depend on her – she has so much more to lose. 

I think both ‘Kate’ and ‘Mercy’ keep me coming back because I’m so invested in the heroines’ journey. I've seen them come leaps and bounds, completely change and transform for the people they love – and now all that they’ve gained is teetering on the edge and is in constant threat of being taken away from them. Of course I’m going to stick around for the long-haul, when the journey has been so rewarding.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Fiona Staples (Illustrator) 

I remember reading this and going, “Ohhh. Okay. Now I get it.” Now I get how people can be so obsessed with graphic novels/comic books. Now I get the impulse to rock up to a convention centre decked out like your favourite character. Now I get the visceral *need* to know what happens next, and not give a damn if you get drip-fed in small instalments that always end on a cliff-hanger. Now I get it, thanks to ‘Saga’. 

This is the first comic series I've dedicated myself to. I’m so obsessed that I can’t even wait for the Volume’s to be released, I now have a standing order to receive each instalment once a month.

What hooked me is just damn good story and these characters who I instantly started rooting for. It’s an intergalactic love-story about Alana and Marko who have gone AWOL from their respective armies in order to raise their daughter, Hazel. The story is actually narrated by Hazel, who is a baby when the story begins but is looking back and narrating as a somewhat older, wiser soul … and that’s probably what really hooked me. The knowledge that Hazel grows up and has her own problems somewhere in the future that she’ll get around to telling the reader, once we understand the whole background to her complicated life. I love it. I especially love that Brian K. Vaughan was inspired to have Hazel narrate by reading children’s books to his kids, which often adopt that sort of whimsy. 

'Broken' Grant County #7 by Karin SLAUGHTER

From the BLURB:

When the body of a young man is discovered deep beneath the icy waters of Lake Grant, a note left under a rock by the shore points to suicide. But within minutes, it becomes clear that this is no suicide. It's a brutal, cold-blooded murder. All too soon former Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton -- home for Thanksgiving after a long absence -- finds herself unwittingly drawn into the case. The chief suspect is desperate to see her, but when she arrives at the local police station she is met with a horrifying sight -- he lies dead in his cell, the words 'Not me' scrawled across the walls. Something about his confession doesn't add up and deeply suspicious of the detective in charge, Lena Adams, Sara immediately calls the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Shortly afterwards, Special Agent Will Trent is brought in from his vacation to investigate. But he is immediately confronted with a wall of silence. Grant County is a close-knit community with loyalties and ties that run deep. And the only person who can tell the truth about what really happened is dead.

I adore Karin Slaughter’s ‘Grant County’ series. It is the series I read that is most removed from my regular genre habits – it is the most ‘hard-core’ crime fiction of my reading list.

‘Broken’ is the seventh book in the series which is set in Grant County, Georgia. Original narrators were Sara Linton; local paediatrician, coroner and ex-wife to police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver, who also narrated. One of Jeffrey’s young police officers, Lena Adams, was also a central focus of the series.

One of the reasons I love these books so much, and why this is the one crime-fiction series I read religiously, is that Karin Slaughter understands what it is that brings readers back. Character. For all the fascination that each ‘whodunnit’ holds, and as sickly compelling as Slaughter’s explorations of the darker side of small-town living is, it’s ultimately the characters that keep bringing me back to this series.

With suicides, the victim is the murderer. The person upon whom the blame rests is also the person whose loss is felt most deeply. They are not around to take the recriminations for their death, the natural anger anyone feels when there is a loss. What the dead leave instead is a void that all the pain and sorrow in the world can never fill. Mother and father, sisters, brothers, friends and other relatives – all find themselves with no one to punish for their loss.

And people always want to punish someone when a life is unexpectedly taken.

Karin Slaughter excels in writing fucked up characters. They’re fractured and frustrating to read – and that’s half the battle, and half the fun. Slaughter makes her readers work – she doesn’t make anything easy and the word ‘convenient’ is not in her dictionary. When we first met them in ‘Blindsighted’ Sara and Jeffrey had been divorced for several years after he cheated on her. It took them several books, but eventually they peeled back the layers, re-established trust and realized that love and forgiveness are one in the same, and life is too short to deny your feelings. Meanwhile, Lena Adams went into a downward spiral of masochism and emotional denial that built and festered over several books, reaching a crescendo in sixth book, ‘Beyond Reach’, when her reckless actions contributed to the untimely death of Jeffrey Tolliver.

The death of main character, Jeffrey, flipped the series on its axis. Fans were saddened and outraged. But after the initial jaw-dropping shock and gut-wrenching heartache, I was able to step back and appreciate Karin Slaughter’s courage in implementing such a massive shake-up to her series.

But whether or not Jeffrey’s death was a good or bad thing remains to be read. Fans weren’t terribly impressed with Slaughter’s next book after Jeffrey’s death, which featured Sara Linton in a new series called ‘Will Trent/Atlanta’ entitled ‘Genesis’. This new series had Sara crossing over with Will Trent, of Slaughter’s ‘Will Trent/Atlanta’ series, and hinted at a possible love connection between the characters.

Fans were somewhat disappointed. General consensus seemed to be that Jeffrey’s death was more of a hindrance than an inspired idea, and Will Trent didn’t adequately fit his leading man shoes. I tended to agree. I had attempted to read the ‘Will Trent/Atlanta’ series, but I couldn’t find the same level of connection to the characters that I felt with Sara and Jeffrey. But I did think that Sara and Will made a good team, and I was intrigued at a possible romance. Where I couldn’t stomach Will by himself in his own series, I liked him when he had Sara to bounce off of.

‘Broken’ is not a ‘Will Trent/Atlanta’ book – it is back in ‘Grant County’ and a wonderful addition to the series. ‘Genesis’ was set in Atlanta, and observed Sara Linton three years after Jeffrey’s death when she had removed herself from Heartsdale and seemed to repress much of her grief. It was a somewhat awkward follow-up book, mostly because (as a fan) I kept wondering about Heartsdale. I kept wondering what kind of a hole Jeffrey’s death had left in the town. I couldn’t even properly observe the impact of his death on Sara because it was hard to gauge her true emotions when she seemed so hell-bent on repressing them.

‘Broken’ is a true exploration of grief, for readers and Sara alike. It is set four years after Jeffrey’s death, and the ‘whodunnit’ concerns an internal affairs investigation into the police force Jeffrey once led.

Sara is home for thanksgiving, and is unwittingly dragged into a murder investigation when the prime suspect is found dead in his cell, having slit his wrists. Sara instantly sees holes in the case, especially concerning Lena Adams’s police procedures. Still harbouring deep resentment toward Lena for her part in Jeffrey’s death, Sara calls in a ‘police widower’s’ favour, pulling strings to get Georgia Bureau of Investigations officer, Will Trent, down from Atlanta to lead the case.

This was a fantastic book. I think the title, ‘Broken’, is somewhat ironic. Because although Sara and the town of Grant County are rather fractured at the beginning of the book, still reeling from the repercussions of Jeffrey’s absence, the whole book is really about closure and acceptance.

Being home means Sara is forced to confront her loss, and the hole in heart where Jeffrey still lingers. I cried so many times throughout this book – it is a sad read, to be sure. But it’s also a little bit cathartic, and it seems to be Slaughter putting Jeffrey to rest, once and for all. By examining those who were closest to him, and observing how they’ve dealt with his loss, loose ends are tied up and the series can now move on. By the end of ‘Broken’ I felt reassurance and excitement for the series new trajectory, which was something I didn’t feel at the end of ‘Genesis’.

I’m intrigued/frustrated by the budding romance between Sara and Will. Intrigued because it’s clear that these two need one other and I loved reading them dance around each another and their feelings. Frustrated because Slaughter is writing a *slow* coupling for these two. I mean, snail’s pace stuff. It’s understandable, because ‘Broken’ is all about Sara accepting Jeffrey’s death (4 years after the fact) – she’s not going to rush into a new relationship. But still, I’m eager for some happiness for Sara after so much sorrow.

The hardest thing to read in ‘Broken’ has been the hardest aspect of all the ‘Grant County’ books – Lena Adams. I hate her. I hate her with a fiery, molten passion. It’s like Slaughter has written a bad guy in plain sight, masquerading them as an occasional good guy. I was 100% with Sara when she went into vigilante-mode against Lena. I would love for her to get her comeuppance. I know characters are best when they are shades of gray – but with Lena it’s very black and white for me – I hate her!

There was one HUGE twist in ‘Broken’ concerning Lena that totally threw me for a loop. So disgusted and angry was I with this fictional character, that I had to put the book down and walk away (muttering to myself), to cool down before I could finish the book.

I was very satisfied with this seventh instalment to the ‘Grant County’ series. Satisfied in a way I wasn’t with ‘Genesis’ as a follow-up to the death of main character, Jeffrey Tolliver. ‘Broken’ felt like a more justifiable explanation to his death, and exploration of its repercussions. I needed this book, just as much as the characters did. I can’t wait for the 8th instalment.

5/5

'Blindsighted' Grant County #1 by Karin Slaughter

With a surname like 'Slaughter' what else could she have become, other than a crime writer (and/or butcher)?...

The small Georgia town of Heartsdale is rocked when part-time coroner and pediatrician, Sara Linton, discovers Sibyl Adams body in the bathroom of the local diner. Sibyl has been brutally raped and left to bleed out from several stab wounds. Jeffrey Tolliver is the town's police chief and Sara's ex-husband, and it is up to him to fit the pieces of this horrendous crime together - a task made infinitely more difficult by the fact that Sibyl was the twin of one of Tolliver's coworkers, officer Lena Adams. The plot thickens when Sara discovers another body - pulling her further into the investigation of a potential serial killer.

This is the first of 7 books in Karin Slaughter's 'Grant County' series and I loved it! I have gone out to my local library and borrowed the next 6 books (as well as 2 spin-off series also set in the Grant County world). I was totally sucked in form the very beginning - not just with the crime itself, but the tumultuous relationship of Sara & Jeffrey. Since this is really my first foray into crime fiction I really appreciated having the romance on the side to occasionally relieve from some of the very gory and chilling scenes. The story is alternately told from 3 different perspectives - Sara Linton, Jeffrey Tolliver and Lena Adams. So when given free reign each character can potentially drag scenes down in medical or procedural jargon and expose - I was just really relieved to occasionally have a lull in the murder mystery to step back and examine the human drama of the characters involved.

That being said, I became increasingly frustrated with Lena's perspective. Even though it was her sister that was murdered, I really did not like her character and found myself rolling my eyes whenever I had to trudge through her narrative.

I also didn't particularly warm to Chief Tolliver. I think my not liking him was very calculated though. 'Blindsighted' is set 2 years after Jeffrey and Sara divorced because he was caught cheating. Neither character goes into great depth about the split, which is very frustrating, doubly so when the characters actions don't always coincide with their thoughts and feelings about one another. I was left wondering why Sara was still bothering with her lousy ex and wanting to hit Jeffrey over the head with a large object.

4.5/5