3.5 stars

I think this is the second book by Karin Slaughter that I have sat down and read straight through.

For a forensic-type thriller I enjoyed it. Slaughter has thought up some pretty gruesome twists on a serial rapist/murderer plot, and I liked Tolliver, the chief of police, quite a bit. I also liked Sara Linton, the other main character. She is the coroner and also Tolliver's ex-wife. The tension get ratcheted up early on, and Slaughter keeps it up until the end. I only flipped ahead to see who did it ONCE, which is high praise from someone like me (I suffer from book ADD, lol)

I had a couple of problems with this book, though -- mostly to do with the way the series is being set up. The author seems to have glossed over a couple of really important details in the character development at the beginning and then drops them in (WHAM!) later on in the book. I'm not a big fan of that style, mostly because I spend the first half of the book thinking I've missed something. If there was foreshadowing going on I missed it.

That's the feeling that I got with most of the book - like you'd gotten dropped into town on Main Street, by sheer happenstance on the day there is a gory, nasty murder in the diner. You don't know anyone, you don't understand the dynamics of their relationships (and they are ALL related somehow) and you're left fumbling around for half the book until author lets us in on what's happened.

She seems to be being deliberately vague on some aspects of the main characters, when I think if she'd let you in on them you'd care a little more about her people. Maybe she's holding back - there are at least 6 books in this series, I think.

There was a storyline from the beginning that just seemed to get dropped and never picked up again. On the same day as the murder (main plot point) happens, Sara Linton, (a pediatrician at her day job) has just gotten word that one of her patients has terminal cancer. We get a few paragraphs about how hard this is going to be for her, how she has to set up an appointment with the family to give them the diagnosis, she thinks about the little boy (who, she thinks, has the largest Matchbox or Hot Wheels car collection she personally has ever seen) and reflects on the fact that in a year he'd probably be dead. She has the appointment with the family just before the briefing with the police on the murder, AND WE NEVER HEAR ANOTHER THING ABOUT THAT FAMILY AGAIN. What was the point? If it's a red herring it's a pretty stupid one, if you ask me.

There were a few things like that that bugged me about the book.

Overall, though, I'm invested enough to read the second book to see where Karin Slaughter takes me next. I'd recommend it for those who like police/forensic procedurals, with a smidge of romance thrown in.