Review: Fractured by Karin Slaughter

Picture it. You are on the phone with your spouse, arguing. You come home to what is supposed to be an empty house to find the door partially open and window glass all around. You look around and then go upstairs where you see your teenage daughter lying there with blood all around. And standing over here is a man with a knife in his hand! He stand up. You scream and take a step back, falling down the stairs. As he runs down the stairs, knife still in hand, you kick him where it counts. After he falls you jump on him and in an attempt to subdue him, end up strangling him.

Detectives Faith Mitchell and Leo Donnelly of the Atlanta Police Department are assigned the case. Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is called in to check it out - the girl's grandfather is friends with the governor.

Is everything as it seems?

You'll have to read Fractured to find out! I thoroughly enjoyed the latest book by Karin Slaughter. I don't read the summaries before requesting books of favorite authors and assumed this was the next book in the Sara Linton/Jeffrey Tolliver series. But I quickly figured out that this book had other characters - great ones, as it turns out.

Agent Trent is quite unique - I love these type of books so it's hard to find detective types that are not familiar, but Karin Slaughter created a detective that is all his own. He has his own struggles that impede, or maybe enhance, his work as a GBI agent. Partnering him with APD Detective Mitchell brings out his unique-ness even more.

I truly loved this book and am putting it as the top read for 2008! As I am linking to Amazon, I read that this is the second in a series! The only book of Karin Slaughter that I haven't read, Triptych, is the first in the series. Ack! I am having breathing issues just thinking about reading a series out of order! But! I never knew it! It was a complete novel all it's own. There was a bit of a back story that wasn't mentioned, but as most of these detectives are not on their first case there's always something that happened in the past. So I didn't even miss it. However, I'm sure you know I will be requesting Triptych just as soon as I finish typing this review.

Rating: 5/5 stars