I read the author´s debut thriller about ten years ago and it made me a Slaughter fan within no time. Never before had I read something like it and for me, it was back then quite clear, that I had to read all the other books of this series too. With Sara, the author has created a woman like no other. And for me, Sara was the perfect figure to do the job of the coroner in the Grant County series. So, if you are not familiar with this series, I suggest you start reading it.
Blindsighted
by Karin Slaughter
Grant County Series #1
Publisher Arrow on June 23, 2011
Genre Thriller
Pages 416
Format Paperback
✶✶✶✶½
The sleepy town of Heartsdale, Georgia, is jolted into panic when Sara Linton, pediatrician and medical examiner, finds Sibyl Adams dead in the local diner. As well as being viciously raped, Sibyl has been cut: two deep knife wounds form a lethal cross over her stomach. But it's only once Sara starts to perform the post-mortem that the full extent of the killer's brutality becomes clear. Police chief Jeffrey Tolliver - Sara's ex-husband - is in charge of the investigation, and when a second victim is found, crucified, only a few days later, both Jeffrey and Sara have to face the fact that Sibyl's murder wasn't a one-off attack. What they're dealing with is a seasoned sexual predator. A violent serial killer...
Story
A college professor is brutally beaten up and found lying in her dying by Sara Linton on the toilet of a diner. The autopsy of the body shows that the body was not only raped cruelly but was literally pumped to the brim with Belladonna, a dangerous poison. While Sara and her ex-husband, chief of police Jeffrey Tolliver, are still puzzling over who could have done this and why the next badly battered young woman is already in front of Sara´s clinic. This time Sara wins the fight for her life. But then the sadistic beast strikes again and kidnaps Lena, a colleague of Jeffrey. And when Sara´s life is suddenly in great danger she and Jeffrey are certain who must be the culprit and a merciless struggle to survive in the ice-cold sea begins.
Style
I have rarely read as bloody and detailed as Karin Slaughter describes the terrible events and yet remains stylish and readable without falling into the fray. Eloquent and full of emotion, the author shows her characters and what they experience. In some places, I had to swallow a bit when the language became a bit obscene and very direct, but somehow it always seemed to fit, whether it was the character or the scene in general. The language the author gives her figures never seemed out of place. The fact that the plot takes place within a week is frightening and remarkable at the same time because the author undoubtedly uses it as a stylistic element.
Characters
Karin Slaughter lets the reader take an insight into the emotional world of the different characters and is still careful not to fall into any clichés. The figures are individual and realistic, convincing and have all their reasons why they act the way they do. Only the figure of the perpetrator could not completely convince me.
The protagonist Sara is a remarkable character. On the one hand, she wants to get rid of her ex-husband, on the other hand, her professional life and the fact that they both live in the same place and work are not exactly designed for this to actually happen. She is the coroner of the city where he is chief of police. Cooperation is inevitable.
Sara is not a typical southern woman. Large, red-haired, and untidy in terms of private life, she is all the more orderly in terms of her professional life. Since it is almost pedantically perfect. Where other women offer their husband a homely home with a table full of delicious delicacies when he comes home from work, it is more the man who has to take care of the cooking and cleaning up. Still, Sara is not an emotionally cold woman, on the contrary. Her family and children are more important to her. But also, her job as a pediatrician.
Conclusion
Karin Slaughter writes in a very impressive way. Blindsighted is an incredibly bloody story that is exciting from the first to the last line and comes up with many surprises. Good, I didn´t find a few things convincing but the idea and plot are captivating, and this thriller always provides you with some reading pleasure. If you don´t know the author yet or do and somehow have not read her Grant County series yet, this is the perfect start.
Happy reading
Karin Slaughter
Karin Slaughter, born 1971, is from Atlanta, Georgia. In 2003 her debut novel Blindsighted was published and went straight to the top of the international bestselling list and catapulted her onto the Thriller-Olympus. She is the #1 internationally bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including the Will Trent and Grant County series and the instant New York Times bestselling standalones, Cop Town and Pretty Girls. There are more than 35 million copies of her books in print around the world.
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