Rating: 
Summary: Realistically Grisly
Review: I'll forego the summation, since that has been done several times, but would like to comment that I find Ms. Slaughter to be a stand-alone author. She isn't afraid to relay her intense knowledge of forensics or the realistically gritty scenes in an autopsy room. Her characters are flawed to the point of being extremely interesting. Some have compared her to Patricia Cornwell and others like her, but I think Ms. Slaughter's style is better - maybe when Cornwell was younger and not so bored with writing, athough Slaughter has her own uniqueness. I find her to be refreshing.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW
Review: I've read all three books by KS - this was by far the most graphic and best all around. I think we are starting to really know her main characters and we may not always like what they do, we still like them. The ending in this one was another "WOW". READ IT!!
Rating: 
Summary: A Fake Cold Fear
Review: If you like unpleasant characters (I don't) and don't mind hating your protagonist or wanting to slap her silly (I do mind) and if over-the-top gore is your style, by all means buy this book. As a bonus, you'll get a completely fake relationship between a true literary cliche these days, the ultra-talented woman, and her ex-husband. "Fake" is the word I would use to describe this book. It has fake people. Fake relationships. Fake environments. Most of all, it has a fake crime and fake criminal investigation. Maybe I was just in a bad mood the weekend I read the book. But it read like the literary equivalent of a bad made-for-television movie on one of the lesser networks. I am sick of writers who use all these weird touches like nailing people to floors and endings with twist after twist, when in real life these things rarely happen. I want to read a writer who can look at ordinary crimes in a new way and help me understand the minds of the people who commit them. Little about this book rang true. Others may find it more entertaining or satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: There's nothing faint or cold about this book!
Review: Karin Slaughter has certainly hit her stride with "A Faint Cold Fear." Her stated desire to be a better writer with each book is being realized -- there has been a continuing improvement in the overall tenor of each work. Story development has tightened and scene transitions seem to weave about each other under their own accord. This book's substance does not need to be hyped -- you'll start to read and not want to put it down until you've finished. Ms. Slaughter's books have matured and it's been very satisfying for me to have been reading through the process. In this book, people die, but there was not the squeamishness accompanying my reaction to the "off stage" details as there was in the earlier two books. Overt horror is not present, but the "what's going to happen next" question unveils itself early. This outing shows Sara's family interacting while under extreme stress. We also see more of Sara and Jeffrey's relationship. The complexity of their feelings for each other is revealing a "can't live with/can't live without" aura. Some of their problems appear to be rooted in their dedication to their jobs, and that a basic difference between them is that Sara is straight arrow and Jeffrey tends to bend things a bit. Then there is Lena, who just bends things. She is still wrestling with flashbacks to her experiences from the first book, "Blindsighted." She is a severely wounded woman, in body and spirit, whom empathetic people would want to try and reach out to if they knew her in real life. Her current life course seems to be on the fence between self-destruction and redemption -- redemption being the seemingly unattainable. There's an interesting twist at the end of this book which adds to the possibilities for future stories. I picked the perp relatively early (lucky guess), but the ending took me completely by surprise -- another instance of the reality Karin Slaughter does not shrink away from presenting on the pages of her books. "A Faint Cold Fear" is the third installment from Ms. Slaughter's Grant County series and a wonderfully engaging story -- buy it and enjoy the read!
Rating:
Summary: Why Compare?
Review: Karin Slaughter is not Patricia Cornwell... and may I add, Thank God! Why other readers try to compare there two authors just because the write on or about the same genre and are both females? Or because their main characters somewhat resemble each other in their roles? This story was very well laid out, with no "real" loose ends and a less predictable ending than your typical murder mystery novel. All her characters are well thought out (where appropriate) and their actions and reactions are normal and thus you can "relate" to them without too much second guessing. It is a relatively fast paced story line, not necessarily a page turner but interesting enough to keep your attention. One element I could not figure out is the character of Lena and her passionate stubbornness towards who is supposed to be someone she looks up to. Other than that the rest is a well worth the time, entertaining read. It helps a little bit in the understanding of the characters and circumstances if you've read the author's previous novel but it is not so much dependant on it that it wouldn't make sense, although there are many references to events that somewhat explain certain behaviors and traits of the actors. Definitely recommend it, and I urge the people to stop comparisons with Patricia Cornwell's work. If anything, you can say that Slaughter's characters and plots are better grounded. If you are a Cornwell fanatic then you will undoubtedly draw the parallels and stand behind your fave, but if you just like to be entertained with a good read then you will certainly enjoy this piece and the rest to come...
Rating:
Summary: One of the best authors that i have read recently
Review: Karin Slaughter is one of the best authors of the past decade, in my opinion. The Grant County series is a wonderful read. I have become very attached to the characters in the book. A Faint Cold Fear is one of the best in the series. You get so involved with the intense stories in Grant County that it is extremely hard to put the book down. Way to go Karin! please don't stop!
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Dreary, Not enough Plot
Review: Murder, Suicide, or Tedium Writers who work in the grim reaper/suspense/mystery genre have to walk a difficult line. Too little violence and the reader fails to connect with the dark side of the plot. Too much violence, especially if it is gratuitous, and the reader starts skipping paragraphs looking for relief. After all gruesome killings are a plot device, not an end in itself. All forensic fiction is based on a mild exaggeration of the medical examiner's role. Quincey aside, few of them ever take an active investigative role in an investigation. Either the writer has to create a twist to make this believable, or the book is good enough that the reader will overlook the obvious. In Karin Slaughter's stories of Sara Linton the 'twist' seems to be that someone close to Sara is drawn into the circle of victims. Otherwise, the picture of a pediatric physician who doubles as medical examiner and has enough time to track down killers would ring false. This worked in previous volumes but this time, faced with the fact that the crime that became Sara's raison d'etre, was entirely gratuitous. Far from advancing the plot it became the basis for a sub-plot that I found to be distracting as it was all about Sara's relationships and very little about the story itself. Most of this novel is subplots anyway. Possibly the one that irritated me the most centered on Lena Adams, now ousted from the police force and working as security at the local university. With suicide/murders popping out of the woodwork, Lena, who has, over three volumes, earned the honor of 'chief flake and angry person,' manages to screw up each and every investigation. Even worse, the ending makes it clear that she will go on to make even bigger messes, as her personality continues to worsen. At some point in this book I gave up. The investigation was often fragmented by devices that should have moved the plot forward, but instead it stayed stuck at mid-point for most of the novel. In the end the solution is pulled out of a hat with little sense of closure. To sum up, if you like really grim forensic descriptions of injuries, plots that are more about the distress of the main character than about the crimes at hand, and great handfuls of self-destructive psychotic behavior, you will probably really enjoy A Faint Cold Fear. Personally I'm a bit disappointed and am not sure I will follow this series into it's projected fourth and fifth volumes.
Rating: 
Summary: Faintly Fearful
Review: Nice try but a disappointing followup that does not reflect the talents of Karin Slaughter. The psychological intensity of her previous 2 books was missing, the characters unconvincing and the story line contrived. I struggled to finish it simply to know what had happened and found the final twist to be a redeeming piece. Hoping for better with her 4th novel.
Rating:
Summary: well written but gory
Review: One of the problems I had with this book actually suggests that maybe ms. slaughter is succeeding well with her writing: I really disliked most of the characters. The unfortunate side effect is that at times I didn't want to keep reading. I disliked Lena for her self-destructiveness and hostility, but I actually think that the character is well drawn and developed. I also disliked Jeffrey and can't understand why Sara tolerates him -- he strikes me as being seriously violent and a jumper to conclusions. As to the book as a whole, the solution was not very satisfying, especially as regards Sara's sister Tessa; I would have liked a more interesting, less contrived solution. Also I think the brutality was excessive.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended--for those with strong stomachs
Review: Suicide is running rampant at the Grant Institute of Technology. But after three suspicious suicides in a row as well as a near-fatal stabbing, Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton has a score to settle. If there's a multiple murderer stalking the college, she and her ex-husband, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver, will bring him or her to justice--even as the Linton Family struggles through its own crisis. Add to this emotional mix the troubles of former detective Lena Adams, now a college security guard, who is sinking deeper into the myre of her own embattled psyche and acting out against Jeffrey, her former boss, whom she blames for her misfortunes. In this third installment of the Grant County series, Slaughter has created a tense page-turner that at times portrays such raw emotions that it's uncomfortable to read. But the crimes are so
fascinating, so intricate, and the research so accurate that read it I did, with a vengeance. These characters are starting to feel like my own family. And when my nose wasn't in the book, I was talking about the characters as if they were real people. As with the previous title, KISSCUT, this book is recommended for those with strong stomachs. Fans of Patricia Cornwell should enjoy it.
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