Fallen

June 1, 2004
With its excess of mundane details and paucity of action, George's second novel (after Taken) is more likely to lull readers to sleep than keep them up until the wee hours of the morning. The Pittsburgh police are baffled by the murder of pediatrician and philanthropist Dan Ross. According to Dan's widow, Elizabeth, he had no enemies, which leaves detective Richard Christie with few leads. While Richard investigates the murky circumstances surrounding the long-ago death of Dan's best friend, Elizabeth seeks refuge in the arms of her new next door neighbor, Frank Razzi, a widower and part-time college professor. It's clear from the start that there's something shady about Frank, and the story's sole suspense lies in anticipating his motives and his connection to Dan's past. Although some readers will appreciate the rich character portraits George paints with painstaking detail, others will grow impatient waiting for the story to shift out of neutral.

May 2, 2011
At the start of Slaughter's gripping third novel to combine characters from her two Georgia-based series (after Broken), Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Faith Mitchell arrives at the Atlanta house of her widowed mother, Evelyn, to find serious trouble: her mother, a retired police captain, is missing; a dead man is lying on the laundry room floor; and an Asian man is holding her mother's pistol to a Hispanic man's head in Evelyn's bedroom. More violence follows. Faith's partner, Will Trent, tries to gather clues without stepping on any jurisdictional toes in the ensuing investigation, but Will fears that Evelyn's kidnapping is tied to a corruption scandal involving Evelyn's past as a narcotics officer, an angle he knows Faith doesn't want to consider. Will's deepening friendship with Dr. Sara Linton, currently working in an Atlanta E.R. and one of the few people able to crack his protective shell, adds depth. Familyâbiological, professional, and everything in betweenâplays a key role in a thriller sure to please Slaughter's many fans.

June 1, 2011

Still more proof, if any were needed, that the most monstrous demons in Grant County, Ga., are lurking in the master bedroom.

Faith Mitchell, of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, returns home late from a training seminar to find her house trashed, her baby daughter locked in the shed, a man lying dead on the laundry-room floor—Faith herself will kill two other intruders before they can escape, and a third corpse will turn up in the trunk of the family car—and her mother gone. Capt. Evelyn Mitchell was eased into retirement from the Atlanta PD years ago after her narcotics squad was implicated in a web of corruption. Two of her former colleagues are doing time; a third, former Det. Boyd Spivey, is on death row for murder. So it's not all that surprising that gang-bangers would have broken into her house looking for a big score. But why are their surviving colleagues in Los Texicanos and the Yellow Rebels suddenly so determined to annihilate each other, and how does Evelyn's abduction fit into the picture? "I think we must be caught in the middle of some kind of war," Faith's boss, GBI deputy director Amanda Wagner, tells Faith's partner, endlessly troubled Will Trent. The mounting body count, however, pales beside the ferocious conflicts among regulars in this high-octane series (Broken, 2010, etc.). Faith's brother Zeke, returning from an Air Force posting, instantly resumes his long feud with her. Will is alternately abused by Amanda Wagner and his spiteful wife Angie. And Faith's climactic showdown with her mother's abductor will reveal far more personal motives for the runaway mayhem than she ever could have imagined.

Ex–County Coroner Dr. Sara Linton does seem to be managing a break from her own Job-like sufferings, at least for this installment.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2011

As in last year's Broken, Slaughter brings together Will Trent and Sara Linton from her two popular series for another rousing case. They're helping Special Agent Faith Mitchell, who went to pick up her baby at her mother's but instead found her mother missing, the babe in the toolshed, and a bloody handprint on the door. The hugely popular Slaughter (20 million copies of her books are in print in 30 different territories) sees libraries as a matter of national security. Consider multiples; with a six-city tour.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2011
Special Agent Faith Mitchell of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is running late. She was supposed to pick up her infant daughter from her mother Evelyns house two hours ago and has been unable to reach her. Shes uneasy because her mother, a longtime police officer now retired, always answers her phone. Then she arrives to find the front door wide open and a bloodstain on the knob. Before the hour is up, Faith has shot two men dead, the police are treating her like a suspect, and she has no idea where her mother is. Slaughter has always known how to pace the suspense in her stellar crime novels, but she really outdoes herself here, moving crisply from her tense opening scene into a wider investigation that revisits a decade-old case of police corruption in the unit once supervised by Evelyn. And Faiths partner, Will Trent, becomes more fascinating with each novel; here his love affair with pediatrician Sara Linton provides new insight into his horrific childhood in foster care. In what might be her best effort yet, Slaughter reveals the heart and soul of her characters within a highly choreographed, unrelentingly suspenseful plot. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: In her twelfth novel, best-selling crime writer Karin Slaughter merges her Grant County and Atlanta series with stunning results, and her publisher is backing her up with an all-out publicity campaign.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)