Sunday 19 September 2010

CRIME FICTION REVIEW: Broken - Karin Slaughter

Release Date: 08/07/10

BOOK BLURB:

When the body of a young woman 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 Lena Adams, the detective in charge, Sara immediately calls in 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.


REVIEW:

As a huge fan of crime, I always get butterflies in my stomach when a well known author brings out a title. Why? Well it’s due to the fact that I know that I’m going to get a certain level of book, I like to savour it as at some points of the year I really get some titles that don’t hit my reading tastes and these books are real pick me ups.

Within this, the latest offering from Karin, is a tale of murder, of blackmail and above all else a beautifully written piece of prose with a descriptiveness that takes the reader by the hand to the location. You get great characters, you get fully rounded emotional context and just when you think you’ve got things fathomed, you get smacked around the face with a verbal baseball bat that leaves you just as confused as you were originally. It’s a great way to take the reader on a tale, it’s a magical way to give them what they want and above all else there’s no prison term at the end for the reader to suffer. Great stuff.

No comments: