Faithless

This is the first Slaughter that I have read, and at first I doubted whether another crime series with a female coroner as a leading lady - like Cornwell and Reichs - could offer anything new. But it does.... The crimes in this novel and the previous 4 in the series might be less complex than Cornwell and Reichs, but they fit the small town setting where normal people are victims of acts of violence that they didn't see coming and where 'the bad guy' is often someone closer to home than expected. What makes this and Slaughter's other books worth reading, are her very realistic descriptions of the experiences of the professional and personal lifes of her sympathetic leading characters.

Karin Slaughter has a knack for building and maintaining tension in her novels while using character development as a prime source of story depth. If this were a mystical novel, we would say that outer events reflect inner life, but it isn't the least bit mystical, but hard nosed suspense fiction, and all the more remarkable for that. Sara Linton may still love police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, her ex-husband, but she has never quite healed from the discovery that he has cheated on her. Even thought they are coming back together, when Jeffrey's ex-girlfriend tells him he needs to have tests for hepatitis, Sara has a sudden fit of jealousy. In the middle of their argument they trip over a murder site. They discover the body of a pregnant girl who was entombed alive for several days, and then killed by a lethal dose of cyanide poured down her through. Murder doesn't get any more gruesome than that, and suddenly differences are forgotten as they begin the hunt for a cold blooded murderer. Scant clues eventually lead them to a religious farm community in Grant County. This isn't so much a cult as a family business that gets its workers from outreach efforts in nearby cities. Their employees are temporary and drawn from some of the worst parts of society so suspects are many - was the girl murdered by an employee or kin, to avoid an unpleasant revelation or to silence other secrets? There are few clues, and Sara finds that her own family has ties with the Wards, and wherever she looks there are secrets. In a parallel them, Detective Lena Adams terminates an unwelcome pregnancy from Ethan, her sadistic boyfriend. Her path crosses that of another woman at the abortion clinic. Lena, overcome by her own feelings of worthlessness and guilt tries to help young Terri Stanley another nightmarish series of events that will eventually lay bare the whole rotten evil core of betrayal and murder. This is a shocking story, not just because of horror that is happening, but because we see deeper into many of the characters we have taken for granted, and the truth is not always comforting. This is a classic Karin Slaughter story. A disturbing study of a sleepy rural South that is neither all that sleepy nor all that safe. The setting provides a sharp contrast to to events that would seem less uncomfortable in an urban setting, and this hammers home the reality that people are vulnerable wherever they live.

This is another of Ms. Slaughter's books from the Georgia woods where Sara Linton and her ex-husband are involved in yet another murder mystery. In this book the story revolves around a very strange fundamentalist religion that has some particularly gruesome habits. This is quite possibly the best book in the series. It has been selected by the at least five major book clubs as a main or alternate selection. The real strength of Mrs. Slaughter's books is the character development she gives. You come away from her books thinking that you really know something about the people she creates, why they do what they do, who they are inside. It makes for a very good read.

Dr. Sara Linton and Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver are carrying a lot of emotional baggage. These ex-spouses work together in solving crimes--mostly gory, brutal, unspeakable crimes. The latest is a young girl found buried, presumably, alive. There's a pipe protruding from her burial place which should have provided air, but an autopsy reveals that the young girl who happens to be a member of a religious cult did not suffocate but was killed by cyanide, which was poured down the breathing tube. Further investigation reveals that the cult welcomes ex-cons who apparently haven't been rehabilitated. This book is not for the weak of heart. There are very graphic descriptions of murder victims. There is a subplot on domestic violence which is very revealing and it may be difficult for the reader to comprehend how a seemingly rational woman would allow herself to be continually victimized. The relationship between the Sara and Jeffrey remains unresolved, leaving room for at least a couple more books revolving around the strained relationship between this couple. I enjoy Slaughter's writing style and her willingness to take the reader out of his/her comfort zone while she delivers blow after blow of gut wrenching horrors that humans--in this case--in the name of God--do unto each other.

Over the course of four fine novels, Karin Slaughter has created a mythos involving Grant County, Georgia, a rural area whose soil seems steeped in dark and deadly acts. While the primary character of these books ostensibly has been county medical examiner Sara Linton, it is Jeffrey Tolliver, Linton's ex-husband and occasional lover, who is the prime motivator of FAITHLESS, Slaughter's latest effort. Tolliver is an extremely interesting character, a not-entirely likable individual who nonetheless is possessed with a self-assuredness that ultimately holds him in good stead during periods of difficulty that are usually of his own making. As the police chief of Grant County, Tolliver and Linton have been thrown together professionally even when at odds personally. So it is ironic that at the beginning of FAITHLESS, when Tolliver is in the process of capsizing another attempted reconciliation, he and Linton should stumble, literally, upon a crime scene involving the body of a young woman who apparently has been buried alive. The search for the victim's identity leads Tolliver to a family living in isolation on a farm that does charitable work involving ex-convicts and has strongly fundamentalist Christian beliefs. Tolliver and Lena Adams, one of Tolliver's officers, are somewhat put off by the traditional values of the victim's family, but are also professional enough to realize that their philosophical differences with the family cannot be permitted to cloud their investigative judgment. Yet there are a number of suspects among the family, and their natural reclusiveness and distrust of strangers merely add to the suspicion of the authorities that all is not right. When another disappearance is connected to the family, it becomes clear that plenty is not right. Ultimately it is the motivation of the murderer that uncovers his or her identity, as FAITHLESS moves steadily toward a cataclysmic climax. FAITHLESS may well be the most ambitious of Slaughter's works to date. While the search for the young woman's identity and her murderer is its primary plot vehicle, this is a work driven as much by its characters as by events. Tolliver, Linton and Adams are tragically, almost fatally, flawed, yet continue to rise above their problems and, if not always triumph, at least battle to a draw. This is particularly true of Adams, who is a roiling mass of contradictions, perhaps the most noteworthy being that she is a police officer in an abusive relationship. Her problems are highlighted when she encounters, in both a professional and personal capacity, another woman in similar straits who she is called upon to help --- even though Adams cannot help herself. Domestic abuse isn't the only topic that Slaughter explores here. Issues such as abortion, fundamentalist Christianity, and traditionalism dip and swirl throughout the novel. Her treatment of these issues, and others, is extremely evenhanded, with all points of view presented with equal fervor and with