P.S. I Love Books: Karin Slaughter

Showing posts with label Karin Slaughter. Show all posts

Friday, August 07, 2009

Day 244 - Undone [ARC Review]

Undone

Karin Slaughter

Series or Stand Alone: Grant County series, book seven

Release Date: July 2009

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pages: 448 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 5/5

Synopsis [from karinslaughter.com]:

Someone had spent time with her -- someone well-practiced in the art of pain... Three years ago former Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton moved to Atlanta hoping to leave her tragic past behind her. Now working as a doctor in Atlanta's Grady Hospital she is starting to piece her life together. But when a severely wounded young woman is brought in to the emergency room, she finds herself drawn back into a world of violence and terror. The woman has been hit by a car but, naked and brutalized, it's clear that she has been the prey of a twisted mind. When Special Agent Will Trent of the Criminal Investigation Team returns to the scene of the accident, he stumbles on a torture chamber buried deep beneath the earth. And this hidden house of horror reveals a ghastly truth - Sara's patient is just the first victim of a sick, sadistic killer. Wrestling the case away from the local police chief, Will and his partner Faith Mitchell find themselves at the center of a grisly murder hunt. And Sara, Will and Faith - each with their own wounds and their own secrets - are the only thing that stands between a madman and his next crime...

Review:

So I've never really been the "thriller" type. Movies, maybe. But I just never got into reading and enjoying the genre. But recently, my tastes for books seems to be expanding to include different flavors. Yum! But I digress, I don't really know what my expectations were before opening Undone. I was a little intimidated by the size of the book when I received it though. I think I groaned a little. But as I started reading I quickly forgot everything else. Karin Slaughter definitely has a way with words. And her characters, even secondary ones, really shine through in her writing.

Now, I'm gonna have a wee bit of a tough time talking about the book because it really is a spoiler for the rest of the series. You see, Undone is book seven in her Grant County series. This is the first time that she's bringing characters of two different series together in one book. I've never read anything by Karin before. So I wasn't aware of the characters or their lives prior to Undone, so I'm confidant in saying that this novel is suitable as a stand alone. There was plenty of background information provided. However, me being the way I am with series, I just have to go back and read it in order.

So I'll give you a bare-bones run through of the book because I would really prefer to leave all surprises for you to discover on your own. Sara Linton, former Grant County medical examiner, is now working in the emergency room at Grady Memorial in Atlanta. She has recently moved to Atlanta after suffering a devastating personal loss. It is at Grady Memorial where a victim of a car accident is rushed in. But the woman's injuries from being hit by the car are miniscule compared to the torture she had to have undergone to arrive in her current state. She is mute, blinded and has been horribly treated by someone truly evil.

This is where Special Agents Will Trent and Faith Mitchell step in with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. And since they can't take over the case from local authorities without jumping through a number of hoops, the two become frustrated with police politics. But after they find a second woman's body and stumble upon a torture chamber they know they have to act quickly to find the killer.

All three of these characters were so well put together. I thoroughly enjoyed the complexities of their lives and of their personalities. Each one has their own weaknesses and strengths that I really want to leave for you to find out on your own. But I didn't just love the characters, I loved Karin's writing as well. Now I must warn you, the scenes can be a bit graphic for some readers. I didn't mind them so much but I can understand some people skipping books with graphic violence in them.

So with the warning aside, I invite everyone to pick up Undone. It's a perfect way to see if you'll enjoy Karin's writing and the realistic world she has created. I know I will definitely be sticking with her and her books.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Day 243 - Spotlight Time

I'm very excited to shine some light on:

...author of the newly released novel in the Grant County series Undone.

I've had the pleasure of reading Undone, and let me tell you guys, it was really good! I've never read or heard of Karin before agreeing to join her blog tour, but I wish I had. I landed smack dab in the lives of these really great characters. But don't worry, this book stands alone just fine. I just have a lot of catching up to do =) Keep reading to find out more about Karin and her latest release!!

Author Bio:

Karin Slaughter is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including Beyond Reach and A Faint Cold Fear, which was named an International Book of the Month selection; she contributed to and edited Like a Charm. She is a native of Georgia, where she currently lives and is working on her next novel, which Delacorte Press will publish in 2010.

Visit Karin's website here:

http://www.karinslaughter.com/.

About the Book:

In the trauma center of Atlanta’s busiest hospital, Sara Linton treats the city’s poor, wounded, and unlucky—and finds refuge from the tragedy that rocked her life in rural Grant County. Then, in one instant, Sara is thrust into a frantic police investigation, coming face-to-face with a tall driven detective and his quiet female partner…. In Undone, three unforgettable characters from Karin Slaughter’s New York Times bestselling novels Faithless and Fractured collide for the first time, entering an electrifying race against the clock—and a duel with unspeakable human evil.

In the backwoods of suburban Atlanta, where Sara’s patient was found, local police have set up their investigation. But Georgia Bureau of Investigation detective Will Trent doesn’t wait for the go-ahead from his boss—he plunges through police lines, through the brooding woods, and single-handedly exposes a hidden house of horror buried beneath the earth. Then he finds another victim.…

Wresting the case away from the local police chief, Will and his partner, Faith Mitchell—a woman keeping explosive secrets of her own—are called into a related investigation. Another woman—a smart, upscale, independent young mother—has been snatched. For the two cops out on the hunt, for the doctor trying to bring her patient back to life, the truth hits like a hammer: the killer’s torture chamber has been found, but the killer is still at work.

In her latest suspense masterpiece, Karin Slaughter weaves together the moving, powerful human stories of characters as real as they are complex and unforgettable. At the same time she has crafted a work of dazzling storytelling and spine-tingling mystery—as three people, each with their own wounds and their own secrets, are all that stands between a madman and his next crime.

Want a sample??

Read an excerpt:

She squinted her eyes at the road ahead, deciding she should have her vision checked again. She was not so far from seventy herself, and her eyes seemed to be getting worse every year. Dusk was a particularly bad time for her, and her vision tended to blur on objects that were at a distance. So it was that she blinked several times before she was sure of what she was seeing, and only opened her mouth to warn Henry when the animal was right in front of them.
“Jude!” Henry yelled, one arm shooting out in front of Judith’s chest as he wrenched the steering wheel to the left, trying to avoid the poor creature. Judith thought, oddly, about how the movies were right. Everything slowed down, time inching by so that each second seemed to take an eternity. She felt Henry’s strong arm bolt across her breasts, the seatbelt biting into her hip bones. Her head jerked, slamming into the door as the car swerved. The windshield cracked as the animal bounced against the glass, then hit the roof of the car, then the trunk. It wasn’t until the car shuddered to a stop, spinning a full 180 degrees on the road, that the sounds caught up with Judith: the crack, thunk, thunk, all overlaid with a high-pitched screaming that she realized was coming from her own mouth. She must have been in shock, because Henry had to yell at her several times, “Judith! Judith!” before she stopped screaming.
Henry’s hand was tight on her arm, sending pain up her shoulder. She rubbed the back of his hand, saying, “I’m all right. I’m all right.” Her glasses were askew, her vision off-kilter. She put her fingers to the side of her head, feeling a sticky wetness. When she took away her hand, she saw blood.
“It must’ve been a deer or . . .” Henry put his hand to his mouth, stopping his words. He looked calm but for the telltale up and down of his chest as he tried to catch his breath. The air bag had deployed. A fine, white powder covered his face.
Her breath caught as she looked ahead. Blood had spattered the windshield like a sudden, violent rain.
Henry pushed open the door but did not get out. Judith took off her glasses to wipe her eyes. The lenses were both broken, the bottom part of her bifocal on the right side missing. She saw that the glasses were shaking, and realized that the tremor came from her own hands. Henry got out of the car, and she made herself put on her glasses and follow him.
The creature was on the road, legs moving. Judith’s head ached where it had smacked into the door. Blood was in her eyes. That was the only explanation she had for the fact that the animal–surely a deer–appeared to have the shapely white legs of a woman. “Oh, dear God,” Henry whispered. “It’s–Judith–it’s–”
Judith heard a car behind her. Wheels screeched against asphalt. Doors opened and closed. Two men joined them on the road, one running toward the animal.
He screamed, “Call 9-1-1!” kneeling down beside the body.
Judith stepped closer, then closer yet. The legs moved again–the perfect legs of a woman. She was completely nude. Bruises blackened her inner thighs–dark bruises. Old bruises. Dried blood caked around her legs. A burgundy film seemed to cover her torso, a rip at her side showing white bone. Judith glanced at her face. The nose was askew. The eyes were swollen, lips chapped and split. Blood matted the woman’s dark hair and pooled around her head as if in a halo. Judith stepped closer, unable to stop herself–suddenly a voyeur, after a lifetime of politely looking away. Glass crunched beneath her feet, and the woman’s eyes shot open in panic. She stared somewhere past Judith, a dull lifelessness to her gaze. Just as suddenly, her eyelids fluttered closed, but Judith could not suppress the shudder that went through her body. It was as if someone had walked over her grave. “Dear Lord,” Henry mumbled, almost in prayer. Judith turned to find her husband gripping his hand to his chest. His knuckles were white. He stared at the woman, looking as if he might be ill. “How did this happen?” he whispered, horror twisting his face. “How in God’s name did this happen?”