Broken

August 30, 2010
Natalie Ross brings an earnest performance to her reading of Slaughter’s latest thriller, a sequel to 2009’s Undone, a complex tale of murder and lies. Dr. Sara Linton reluctantly returns to Grant County, Ga., where her chief of police husband was killed, to spend Thanksgiving with her family. The last thing she wants is to become involved in the apparent murder of a young college student, but with the suicide of the prime suspect, the simple-minded Tommy Braham, Sara is soon deep into an investigation that isn’t only about murder, but coverups and corruption in the police department as well. With the help of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s special agent Will Trent, Sara discovers a tangled web of deception and danger. Slaughter has built an superbly plotted story where nothing is as simple as it appears. Ross delivers the prose smoothly, nicely differentiating between the characters. Some decisions in the sound editing tend to be more distracting to the story than effective, but these are few and easily dismissed. A Delacorte hardcover (Reviews, May 24).

Starred review from May 24, 2010
Slaughter brings her Grant County and Atlanta characters together for a second time (after Undone) in this superb thriller. When Dr. Sara Linton returns home to Grant County, Ga., for Thanksgiving, she hopes to steer clear of the police, especially Det. Lena Adams, whom she blames for the murder of her husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver. Yet when college student Allison Spooner is found dead in a lake and a local boy, Tommy Braham, is arrested for the murder, Sara reluctantly agrees to consult. The investigation soon spirals out of control after Tommy dies in custody. When Sara calls in Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Will Trent from Atlanta to take over the case, the local police greet Will's arrival with suspicion. Will must weigh Sara's personal vendetta against Detective Adams with the facts of the case, which grow more confusing the deeper he digs into the small county's secrets. Slaughter keeps the emotional tension high throughout.

May 15, 2010
A Georgia student's murder is solved all too quickly and violently—in a way that tears apart her community, fuels the hatred between Det. Lena Adams and former Medical Examiner Sara Linton, and promises still further violence.

If it hadn't been for the telltale cut on the back of her neck, Allison Spooner's death would have looked like suicide, complete with motive and farewell note. Shortly after Lena realizes that Allison's been murdered, a routine search of Allison's place leads to a sudden, bloody confrontation with a masked intruder that leaves all three officers involved—Lena, Det. Brad Stephens and interim police chief Frank Wallace—wounded. Miraculously, the intruder doesn't escape. Arrested none too gently, Tommy Braham confesses that he killed Allison because she spurned his advances. But his story, though it conveniently fits the facts of the crime, seems to require a killer who's both more intelligent and less weepy than him. When Sara, just returned to Heartsdale for a visit, arrives at the jail in response to a mysterious phone call, she finds Tommy dead. Furious at the incompetence of Lena, whom she still holds responsible for her husband's death (Beyond Reach, 2007), Sara phones the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who send Special Agent Will Trent to determine the question of Tommy's innocence or guilt—and incidentally to referee the latest round of the long feud between the two women.

As usual in this white-hot series (Fractured, 2008, etc.), the ongoing psychological warfare and the physical violence that punctuates it are far more memorable than the unmasking of the real killer.

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Starred review from June 1, 2010
Two of "New York Times" best-selling author Slaughter's ("Undone; Fractured") literary worlds collide as she brings us Special Agent Will Trent ("Triptych; Fractured") and Dr. Sara Linton from her Grant County series in one explosive, fast-paced murder mystery. A dead college student, enmity between local law enforcement and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and Sara's crippling memories combine to catapult readers through a quick-moving story that will keep them guessing until the end. VERDICT Move over, Catherine CoulterSlaughter may be today's top female suspense writer. Avid mystery and law-enforcement thriller fans as well as those who loved her series characters will devour Slaughter's latest. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/1/10; library marketing.]Colleen S. Harris, North Carolina State Univ. Lib., Raleigh

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2010
It has been three and a half years since pediatrician and former Grant County, Georgia, coroner Sara Linton has been home. Thats when she lost her husband, the towns much beloved police chief. Things have only gone downhill in that department since Jeffrey Tolliver died. Officer Lena Adams is getting sick of turning a blind eye to her new boss alcoholism and the departments increasing willingness to stray from the rule book. When a mentally disabled murder suspect commits suicide in a jail cell, Sara, convinced that a mishandled interrogation led the boy to take his own life, calls in Special Agent Will Trent. She also sees it as a perfect way to get back at Lena, whom she blames for her husbands death. But what the investigation reveals is that the towns poorest and most hardworking citizens are also the ones most likely to be exploited. With its relentlessly grim depiction of the desperate circumstances of those trapped by deep-seated poverty, Slaughters latest entry in her series overlays the standard police procedural with a burning sense of social justice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)