Kisscut: A Grant County Thriller (Grant County Thrillers) - Softcover

Slaughter, Karin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062385399 ISBN 13: 9780062385390

Publisher: Harper, 2015

Synopsis

Gillian Flynn says, "Karin Slaughter is simply one of the best thriller writers working today."

Saturday night dates at the skating rink have long been a tradition in the small southern town of Heartsdale, but when a teenage quarrel explodes into a deadly shoot-out, medical examiner Sara Linton and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver find themselves entangled in a terrible tragedy.

Then a young girl is abducted, and it becomes clear that the first death is linked to an even more brutal crime, one more shocking than anyone could have imagined. Meanwhile, Detective Lena Adams, recovering from a staggering personal loss, finds herself drawn to a young man who might hold the answers. But unless Lena, Sara, and Jeffrey can uncover the dark truth, someone will die again.

Mercilessly suspenseful, utterly moving, this is a searing thriller from one of the world's most talented suspense writers.

About this title

Review:

Kisscut is a reminder that Karin Slaughter has--with just one previous novel--built a reputation as one of the most powerful and astringent thriller writers at work today. In fact, Slaughter's work represents a development of the Southern Gothic strain, and like so many of her illustrious predecessors, she is adept at exploring the darker reaches of the human psyche. As her last book, Blindsighted, sold over 25,000 copies, it would seem that many of us have become Slaughter aficionados.

Kisscut begins with a particularly explosive opening. In the car park of a skating rink in the small southern town of Heartsdale, chief of police Jeffrey Tolliver witnesses a teenage girl pointing a gun at a man. But the detective, there for a date with his ex-wife Sara (the town's medical examiner and paediatrician), is obliged to shoot the girl to save the boy's life. The subsequent autopsy brings to light a gallery of horrors, and as Tolliver and Sara undertake a particularly difficult investigation, they are met with a wall of silence.

Slaughter is now routinely compared to Thomas Harris, and the comparisons are not far-fetched. We're used to unflinching forensic detail these days (courtesy of such writers as Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell), but Slaughter is adept at unsettling the reader in a whole host of ways, not least through her recurrent suggestion that the patina of normality sustaining her characters is very thin indeed. Jeffrey and Sara's faltering relationship is richly drawn, though we find reduced attention given to their private problems as the novel progresses and the focus shifts more to the author's polished and consummate handling of the tortuous plot. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"Engrossing...[with] meticulous characterizations."--People

"A fast-paced thriller for those not faint of heart."--Library Journal

"Few young writers show more promise than the thirty-year-old Slaughter. She writes...with skill, anger, sensitivity, and compassion."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0062385399
• ISBN 13: 9780062385390
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 512