A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter

A Faint Cold Fear (Grant County, #3)

by Karin Slaughter

THE STUNNING NEW THRILLER FROM INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER KARIN SLAUGHTER Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus. The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues - and the college authorities are keen to avoid a scandal - but for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don't add up. Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked. For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home. And as Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer, he discovers that ex-police detective Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial information. But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next victim...

Reviewed by Amanda on

3 of 5 stars

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Actual Rating: 3.5

It only took about 20 pages before something happened, and it shocked me enough to the point where it felt surreal, and that maybe I had misread. While it’s certainly possible that this was the whole point, it was so unexpected and upsetting. And then it seemed like this certain aspect of the entire plot was shoved underneath the rug and only addressed if it was necessary to drive the emotional plot between Sara and Jeffery forward. I sincerely hope that what happened will be addressed in the next book(s).

We also got to reenter Lena’s life. She is such a fascinating and broken character. She terrifies me to a certain extent, because she seems to always be five seconds from screwing up her life completely. After what happened to her, we can understand some of her inner turmoil and poor choices, but I found myself wanting to shake her and tell her to get it together.

The ending was unexpected (and good), but it took a while to get there. I’m finding that mysteries tend to be plot or mystery driven, whereas romances and other fiction tend to be character driven. Somehow that emotional connection with the character(s) makes the book harder to put down. It’s easier to set the book down during mysteries – and this one especially so. I found myself setting the book down of my own volition to do something else. It wasn’t that the plot or mystery was bad; more so it was simply I was not completely engaged and invested in finishing it as fast as I could so I could find out what happened.

I don't think this is the best book in the Grant County series, but it is still a good book.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 8 April, 2011: Finished reading
  • 8 April, 2011: Reviewed