Settings & Atmosphere - Fiction, Detective Fiction, Women Detectives - Fiction

Faithless

Name: Faithless
Author: Karin Slaughter
ISBN: 9780440242918

by Karin Slaughter

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Overview

New York Times bestseller Karin Slaughter brings back her two most fascinating and complex characters–medical examiner Sara Linton and her ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver–in a heart-pounding tale of faith, doubt, and murder…

The victim was buried alive in the Georgia woods–then killed in a horrifying fashion. When Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver stumble upon the body, both become consumed with finding out who killed the pretty young woman. For them, a harrowing journey begins, one that will test their own turbulent relationship and draw dozens of life into the case.

For as Jeffrey and Sara move further down a trail of shocking surprises and hidden passions, neither is prepared for the most stunning discovery of all: the identity of a killer who is more evil and dangerous than anyone could have guessed.

Synopsis

Brilliant plotting, relentless suspense," raved the Washington Post. "A new synonym for terror," crowned the Detroit Free Press. The critics agree: no one writes suspense like Karin Slaughter, whose thrillers featuring medical examiner Sara Linton and her ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, have propelled her to the top of bestseller lists the world over. Now Slaughter fuses her unmatched grasp of forensic science and a mastery of complex relationships in a riveting tale of faith, doubt, and murder.The victim was buried alive in the Georgia woods then killed in a horrifying fashion. When Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver stumble upon the body, both become consumed with finding out who killed the pretty, impeccably dressed young woman. And for Sara and Jeffrey, a harrowing journey begins, one that will test their own turbulent relationship and draw dozens of lives into the case.Lena Adams is one of them. A Grant County detective for years, she has her own reasons for being ...

Washington Post - Patrick Anderson

… Faithless, the fifth installment, is the best yet. Slaughter continues to deftly balance the decency of Linton and her family against the terrible crimes that afflict their community … In her mid-thirties, she's one of the best crime novelists in America.

About the Author, Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including Beyond Reach and A Faint Cold Fear, which was named an International Book of the Month Club selection; she contributed to and edited Like a Charm. She is a native of Georgia, where she currently lives and is working on her next novel, which Delacorte Press will publish in 2010.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

Medical examiner Sarah Linton and her ex-hubby, Jeffrey, are out in the Georgia woods, discussing their past infidelities, when they make an unsettling discovery: the corpse of a beautiful young girl who was buried alive. Their search for her story and the culprit lead them first to a farming collective favored by ex-cons and then to a fanatical nondenominational church. As always, author Karin Slaughter leads readers into thickets of suspicion, then springs a trap.

Patrick Anderson

Publishers Weekly

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 Sanders. (On sale Aug. 30) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Grant County, GA, pediatrician/coroner Sara Linton returns for a fifth installment (after Indelible) in this excellent thriller series, accompanied by Chief of Police Jeffrey Tolliver and Detective Lena Adams. The trouble begins when Sara and Jeff discover young Abigail Bennett buried in a wooden coffin equipped with a breathing tube and bottles of water. According to the autopsy, however, she died while clawing at the inside of the coffin's lid, a victim of cyanide poisoning. When it comes to light that Abigail was a member of the Holy Grown farming collective, and suspicions turn to the members of the Church for the Greater Good, Sara, Jeff, and Lena not only have to face a ruthless, savage killer but also their own demons of doubt, indiscretion, and dysfunctional relationships. Combining personal issues like abortion and infidelity with a detailed police procedural, Slaughter once again displays her mastery of the fast-paced thriller that is not for the faint of heart. Highly recommended for all popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/05.]-Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A chilling discovery in an unmarked grave leads Grant County Medical Examiner Dr. Sara Linton and Detective Lena Adams to an evangelical family even more dysfunctional than theirs. Grant County Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver, Sara's former husband and present lover, makes the discovery on the shore of Lake Grant: An anonymous young woman has been buried alive in a wooden box, a metal pipe to the surface evidently not having provided enough air to keep her alive. Actually, Abigail Bennett's death was considerably more brutal than that, as Sara's unsparing autopsy will reveal. After she was buried-perhaps several days after-someone dropped cyanide into the pipe, abruptly cutting her bizarre imprisonment short. The trail that leads to Abby's family, soy farmers who run the Holy Grown farm under the aegis of Rev. Thomas Ward's Church of the Greater Good, reveals that this isn't the first time the family has buried one of its own in preparation for her correction and resurrection. And the closer Sara and Lena look into the Wards and the Bennetts, the more they wonder about their own untidy domestic entanglements-Sara's with an ex-husband she's keeping secret from her family, Lena's with a live-in abuser. Abating the Shock and Awe forensics that made Sara and Lena's first four cases (Indelible, 2004, etc.) so unforgettable, Slaughter turns a compassionate eye on a brace of female victims and still manages to come across as the toughest cookie in Georgia.