Indelible

Great suspense, one of those books you'll find hard to put down. This is the 1st book I've read by this author, but will not be my last! Kay

Two gunmen burst into the Grant County Police Station, killing cops along the way, thinking one of them is the Chief of Police Jeffrey Tolliver. Then they take pediatrician/coroner Sara Linton, Tolliver's ex-wife; the aging receptionist; another deputy and three children who'd been touring the station hostage. While being held against her will, Sara reflects on the past when she'd gone on her first vaction with her ex-husband. On their way to Florida they'd stopped in Sylacauga, Alabama, Tolliver's hometown, and he introduced Sara to his alcoholic mother and tells her about his shady past. She also met his best friend Robert. Later, Sara hears screams coming from Robert's home. She and Tolliver run over and find a dead man, apparently an intruder who had been shot and killed by Tolliver's friend. But had he really broken in or was everyone, including her ex-husband, covering something up? As you hustle through the pages it becomes clear that there is a connection between what happened then and what's happening now and as the book picks up steam here I found myself reading as fast as humanly possible, eyes darting over black and white type at the speed of light, so eager was I to get to the end. What a good book.

After reading "A Faint Cold Fear," I was very much looking forward to another one of Slaughter's entertaining and suspensful works of fiction. And I am here to write that she's done it again with "Indelible" in delivering a fast-paced, gripping, and suspensful novel. This book begins with Sara Linton, the county's peditrician and medical examiner (go figure), visiting her ex-husband, Jeffery Tolliver, at the local police station. As things start to roll, everything turns worse. Two men take everyone in the station hostage, leading to a un-stoppable read. One thing that made this book difficult to put down was the intricate weaving of present and past in the chapters that follow the first. As the flashback begins, you meet a younger, perhaps more naive, Sara, and a surprisingly more mature Jeffery Tolliver. With this flashback, Slaughter weaves the past to the present, explaining how this past that Jeffery and Sara lived has something to do with the present. The alternation often goes by chapters; and one is the flashback while the other morphs to the present. Slaughter seems to write very accesibly to the general public, allowing her writing to be read clearly and even at times deeply. You can feel the raw energy that the character is going through, and this, I believe, makes Slaughter worth the time to read. The characters themselves haven't changed much, but I would've liked to see Lena play a much more pivotal role in this story. New characters are introduced which seem to act similar, if not totally a mirror copy, to the original characters in the first three novels. And despite the short length of "Indelible" you meet a surprising amount of character development, which is also a plus. One thing, however, that seemed to annoy me, more than anything, is the typical, stale relationship that Jeffery and Sara share in the past and even the present. Both of them are predictable, with Sara being both clingy and naive, and Jeffery acting macho and cavalier. It surprises me that someone of Sara's integrity and character, all of which have been established well in the previous novels, would still consider Jeffery to be her one and only. They both stroke me in this new book as being so needy that one, in fact, could only settle for the other. Other than that, I think Slaughter has written another top-notch book and am eagrly looking forward to "Faithless".

As one can see from other reviews, a Karin Slaughter book invites "love it or hate it" reactions from readers. To those who hate it, I suggest read books from an author more to your liking. But to those, like myself who find her writing riveting, and to others who are looking for crime novels that are edgy, brilliantly conceptualized, character-driven, and amazingly well-written, I say bring them on. This fourth book in the series puts Slaughter's three protagonists--medical examiner Sara Linton, her lover and ex-husband police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, and police detective Lena Adams--in a nail-biting hostage drama. At the same time, Slaughter gives us the prequel story that explains the present crisis. Could not put it down, and when I was through, I was sorry I rushed to the end, because now I have to wait another year for the story to continue. Slaughter's books are not for "cozy" readers, but are among the best of the "harder-edged" books being written now.

I think Karin Slaughter is the real deal. She writes believable characters, great dialogue and great suspense. INDELIBLE just proves once again that Slaughter knows how to write a mystery novel and has plenty of surprises in store for the reader. What I enjoy most about Slaughter's novels is that there are always disturbing issues that are in your face and realistic. Implausible? I don't think so. This woman writes about the ugly side of life that many people don't either know about or don't want to face. No matter how graphic or disturbing, her books are captivating reads. I like her voice and she is original and again, the real deal. She deserves blockbuster status for continuing to write and improve with each new book. I applaud you Ms. Slaughter for your consistent characterizations, realistic dialogue and an all around great read. I highly recommend this novel if characterization is important to you as well as realistic dialgoue and realistic plots/actions/scenes. One of the best female suspense writers around. Read her. You won't be disappointed. As for trying to compare her to other established writers - don't. She's in a class all by herself. Other authors I enjoy: Julia Spencer Fleming, Michael Connelly (who has praised Slaughter as well), Clinton McKinzie and last but not least, Anne Frasier.