mystery

This past week, I finished Kisscut, the second book by Karin Slaughter. I'd read the first novel by this author a few months ago, and while I wasn't blown away by her writing, I was curious enough to consider the next book in the series. After all, this author received a three-book, six-figure contract based on the first book, so why not study her efforts to see what publishers are buying?

Returning to the Georgia-based setting are pediatrician and part-time coroner, Sara Linton, her ex-husband and police chief, Jeff Tolliver, and police detective, Lena Adams, who is still recovering from a brutal rape and attack depicted in the previous book. Sara interested me a great deal because of her relationship with her mother, but Lena, whose sister was murdered in the first book, wasn't as appealing. In fact, she's downright unpleasant at times. Maybe that's the point, as the second book explores.

Anyway, Kisscut starts off with the police shooting of Jenny, a 13-year old who threatened to kill boy outside a roller rink. Clearly distraught, the girl was last seen exiting the restroom... where the tattered remains of a pre-term fetus are found, flushed in the toilet. Are the two connected? Did Jenny intend to kill the father of her baby?

The story isn't just about Jenny, the baby (which actually isn't hers) and her attempted murder of the boy. In fact, it's a far more sordid, brutal tale of extensive child abuse, self-mutilation, incest and pornography. Slaughter thankfully doesn't go into explicit detail, though she still manages to sicken and horrify through alluded passages. It's a twisted, frustrating journey that layers trauma upon trauma, discovery upon discovery. The ultimate culprits aren't the usual suspects, and that makes the story even more difficult to handle.

For the most part, the text was engaging with a good balance between the A story (the mystery) and the B stories (Lena's struggle to accept what happened to her and move on, Sara/Jeff's rekindled relationship) with strong description and dialogue. Slaughter did improve from the first book, though Lena is still very much an angry, unlikable woman, and I haven't decided yet if I want to read the third book in the series.

For those who can stomach the actual story, Kisscut is a worthwhile read for an above average mystery... but it's not one I'd ever want to read or think about again.

Jenny Weaver was a smart, pretty, high school student with everything to live for...then why did she go crazy threatening to shoot her sometime boyfriend after she attempted to flush her twenty-eight week old baby down the toilet? This is the question that puzzles Dr. Sara Linton as she examines the body of the teenager after being shot by Chief Jeffery Tolliver.

As Sara examines the body she finds shocking evidence that proves Jenny could not have given birth to the child, and further still is more shocking evidence that leads to many un-answered questions.

Jeffery Tolliver, riddled with guilt over killing the young girl, is determined to get answers, so he begins his investigation with detective Lena Adams, a scarred woman trying to cope with the nightmares of her rape, and the death of her sister, but as the case unfolds the two will need Sara's help and what they uncover is more shocking than anything they could have imagined.

'Kisscut' is an excellent, MUST-READ thriller that needs all it's secrets kept intact so I can't go further into the plot. The book grabs you by the throat on page one, and holds you captive until the explosive finale. There has been much hype surrounding this book, and for once it's warranted; it's a fast-paced, well written, page-turner that readers will devour in one sitting.

Karin Slaughter has been compared to Patricia Cornwell but it's not a fare comparison because she's better, much better than Cornwell. 'Kisscut', being Slaughter's second novel, is a brilliant thriller that should land on all the bestseller list's, and prove her to be a master storyteller.

A MUST read!

Nick Gonnella

Kisscut is a sequel to Ms Slaughter's debut novel Blindsighted and it makes few if any concesssions to readers unfamiliar with the earlier work plunging us into a narrative in whch the events of the previous book cast a long shadow .For this reason I cannot recommend that people unfamiliar with the earlier work start their soujourn into Slaughterland with Kisscut and would instead urge them to start at the beginning and read Blindsighted ,which is to my way of thinking a better book anyway.

Events take place as before in a small Georgia town and begin with a violent confrontation in the parking lot of the town's skating rink when a teenage girl threatens to shoot a boy only to be shot by the town sheriff Jeffrey Tolliver .At first it is assumed the killing was due to the aborted foetus which is found in the venue's rest room being that of the dead girl and that the intended victim was the father.
This turns out to be untrue and the case is linked to a child abuse ring and to incestuous family relationships within the outwardly respectable and God fearing community . The true theme of the novel is "the worm in the bud "--how a respectable facade can hide moral corruption and a lack of self -knowledge ;the chief abuser is persuaded he is motivated by love rather than cynical and inexcusable exploitative impulses.
It is a tawdry tale ,heavy and oppressive with an air of sleaze and corruption hanging like a pall over the whole novel.There is physical and forensic violence here but the real violence is one of atmosphere -a miasma of corruption hangs over the events described in the book and the realisation of this quality is the ultimate triumph of the novel .It makes it honest but does make for comfortable reading and some will find the subject matter inherently disquieting .
The events of the previous novel I referred to earlier that impact on the book are more to do with character than plot -Tolliver and town pediatrician / pathologist Sar Linton are striving to re-ignite their relationship , hard driven cop Lena is still suffering the trauma of rape which she endured in Blindsighted and struggling to rebuild her professional and personal life .
This is well written but the absence of any lighness in atmosphere or incident make the book heavy going .
Slaughte is immensely talented but for my money need to lighten up a little -it would throw the themes of her stories into starker relief but adding a contarsting shade .