Faithless

Equal parts family drama and crime thriller, this satisfying story is well served by Clarinda Ross's measured approach. While a faster and more intense reading would have delivered more impact, as well as a lower CD count, the slower pace allows the listener to fully absorb the many conversations among the plethora of characters. Ross's narration also demonstrates skillful versatility. She's just as adept with the catty bickering between Dr. Sara Linton and her parents as she is with the crime-fighting efforts of Jeffrey Tolliver, police chief, who is Sara's boyfriend. While the reading is overall on the relaxed side, Ross delivers intensity and a faster pace when it's required. J.P.M. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

June 27, 2005
Georgia medical examiner Sara Linton returns in Slaughter's Grant County crime thriller series (Indelible
), and this time she's hot on the trail of a demented killer who buries teenage girls alive. Out in the woods chatting about past infidelities, Sara and ex-husband/lover Jeffrey discover a young girl buried in a grotesque coffin, dead despite a breathing pipe extending to the surface. The victim is soon identified as Abigail Bennett, a member of the Holy Grown soybean farming collective, a group curiously unfazed to learn a daughter was poisoned. Suspicion blooms around Holy Grown's many farmhands, mostly ex-felons on work release, but then centers on the parishioners who congregate at the Church for the Greater Good, a local congregation run by a shifty minister. Another shallow grave, physical violence and another girl's disappearance lead Sara, Jeffrey and assisting detective Lena Adams back to the Bible-thumpers and their unholy dealings. Issues of abortion, domestic abuse and forgiveness afford these recurring female characters three-dimensional humanity, nicely offsetting Slaughter's patented grim forensic detailing. Slaughter's fifth Grant County case offers tough love, suspenseful spadework and life-affirming vigor. Agent, Victoria Saunders.

Buried alive in a box underground, Abbie Ward is found--dead--by Sara Linton, a medical examiner, and her ex-husband, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver. Ward's family owns the soybean farm in Grant County; they're fundamentalist Christians who let their foreman, Cole, run the farm and family with an iron hand. Francie Swift reads each word with an intensity that drives the plot forward and keeps the suspense building. Linton and Tolliver work hard to solve this mysterious death as they face down characters who refuse to talk about it. Swift brings Slaughter's characters to life with mind-numbing precision and never-ending wonder at the brutality of man. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine