Karin Slaughter: Pretty Girls

Graphic and unnecessary violence to "Pretty Girls"
Last year I read and really enjoyed Karin Slaughter's COP TOWN. This year I only partly read PRETTY GIRLS  because it was far too gruesome, with graphic descriptions of torture, beheading, necrophilia and so many inventive and gruesome ways of abusing females.

I found the first half of the book well written and plotted but as soon as Slaughter (appropriate surname) focussed graphically on the activity of a serial killer of pretty girls I started to feel sick. Most of this was totally unnecessary to tell an appalling story of a psychopath who had been operating for many years.

I didn't finish the book, and I rarely make such a decision. I asked myself if in reading this book I was contributing to putting such ideas of violence into the minds of unstable males.

Many best-selling thriller authors go out of their way to make their thrillers more thrilling by making the plot unbelievable. Slaughter has gone totally over the top with a plot charged with graphic and nauseous violence against women. She may be a good thriller writer (as COP TOWN showed) but after this book she is no longer on my read list.

Karin Slaughter: Cop Town

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Powerful and emotional story of a lost era
This is undoubtedly one of the best thrillers I will read this year. In "Cop Town" Karin Slaughter steps out with a stunning, powerful, gritty, emotional and very different stand-alone novel set in Atlanta in 1974, then one of the most violent cities in America. While the story is stunning so is Slaughter's character building, especially with Kate Murphy, a rookie female cop from a privileged background facing the macho dominated Atlanta PD of the time.

In 1974 Atlanta is a city at the start of a dramatic change in its culture with the election of African Americans to be Mayor and Chief of Police. The police force is still predominantly white males fighting to preserve their power in a rapidly changing environment. They are chauvinists, racist, macho, bigoted and many are Vietnam vets. Most of them have little time for rookies, especially females.

Kate is a beautiful young white woman still recovering from the death of her husband in Vietnam. Despite her wealthy background she is determined to make her way on her own and chooses to do this in the world of the police force. On her first day she has to run a gauntlet of groping of male cops who have little mercy for a rookie, especially a female. She meets another somewhat unsympathetic white female cop, Maggie Lawson, from a less privileged background who joined her uncle and brother into the force to show that she was as good as they were.

The force is facing a deadly challenge by a serial killer who is targeting cops, and the partner of Maggie's brother Jimmy had been killed the previous day. On her first day Kate is partnered with Jimmy as the force goes out on a city-wide search for the killer, with some prepared to take the law into their hands to avenge their own. Kate also joins Maggie and Gail, an undercover cop posing as a hooker, chasing clues to the killer to round up some traumatic first days on the job.

Kate meets people and goes to places she would never encounter before and is seriously is tested. She tells her family that Gail is one one of the most awful people but she's also one of the nicest people she had ever met in her life. Her father (a psychiatrist) tells her "Evil people can do good, and good people can do evil".

There follows an exciting chase through the worst parts of Atlanta to find the killer, but the killer always seems to be ahead of them. This is a fast paced and often emotional novel about people pushed to the limit by a madman and a young woman struggling to keep up with what is happening. In parts it is not for the faint hearted but in others it is really emotionally warming.

Karin Slaughter has made this a very different type of thriller by setting it in a dangerous era.  She is totally at the top of her game with this new standalone thriller, laced with atmospheric and gritty descriptions, great action, and above all a set of unforgettable characters. While Karin Slaughter has written other outstanding thrillers this one could outshine all of them. Highly recommended.

My thanks to The Reading Room and the publisher for providing an advanced reading copy of this book for review.

Karen Slaughter: Unseen

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Undercover Extremely Violent Slaughter
"Unseen" exposes the violent underbelly of the US drug and peodafile world when Will Trent from the  Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent goes undercover posing as Bill Black, a scary ex-con. In his most dangerous case yet, Will gets embroiled in extreme violence and nearly gets killed as he closes in on the world of "Big Whitey" a notorious and very violent drug lord.

In doing so Will puts his relationship Sara Linton at risk and highlights the complex law enforcement arrangements in the US. This book is not for the faint hearted and shows a very scary and dangerous part of US society that is totally foreign to someone like me who doesn't live there. The descriptions of violence were unnecessarily detailed.

I haven't read any other full length books in Will Trent series so I got somewhat lost in the background to the relationship between Will and Sarah, and also the bad feelings of both of them towards Lena Adams, a devil-may-care Georgia Detective. The plot vacillated with too many twists and turns to give it a real page-turning impact. After enjoying the short prequel I was disappointed that I didn't really enjoy the full book as much as others have.

Karen Slaughter: Busted

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Special Agent Will Trent is on his way to start an undercover assignment in Macon, Georgia, when he stops for a frozen coke at a gas station. He becomes a witness to a violent robbery and shooting of a policeman. Forgetting his undercover status he jumps on his powerful Indian Chief Dark Horse motor cycle and chases the gunman through crowded streets and onto the highway. He stops the gunman taking over another car and a hostage by sliding his bike at the gunman and nearly killing himself as he skids along the highway surface.

All of this action takes place in the first chapter. It takes a very skilled author to set such a pace so quickly. After that we meet Trent's boss Amanda and his partner Faith as together they investigate murder, shootings and robbery in a town, just south of Atlanta, renowned for crooked  officials, including the Chief of Police. They quickly find that it is also the sort of town where crooked family connections abound.

"Busted" is a short novella where Karin Slaughter has been able to spin an exciting and satisfying tale in a relatively few pages. A preview of Slaughter's next book in the very popular Will Trent series "Unseen: A Novel (Will Trent)" is included, where Will eventually starts his undercover assignment. I have already pre-ordered that book which is due to be released at the beginning of July.