Blindsighted

Rating:
Summary: Lots of potential;
Review: I love to read mysteries / police procedurals. The appearance of a new novel by a new author, especially one that seems to be the beginning of a new series, draws me like a moth to a flame.

Karin Slaughter has produced such a book with Blindsighted.

I have lots to say about this book, most of which will go unsaid because I am not in the business of spoiling things for other readers. (You can read the main summary to get the details, anyway.) Instead, I will focus on what I liked and disliked about this work.

First, the good stuff.

While Dr Sara Linton is the nominal main character, Slaughter gives plenty of ink to Jeffery Tolliver (Linton's ex and the police chief), and Lena Adams, one of Tolliver's detectives. The author uses third-person perspective, which allows her to explore these and other supporting characters in depth.

Though I'm no doctor, the medical jargon and general gory goings-on seem authentic. Slaughter does indeed pile it on a little thick, but only in a few places.

The writing style is snappy, and the book is a fairly quick read. The situation hooked me from page one.

Now for the griping.

The book has, as I mentioned, a good pace; but that only becomes truly obvious after the first hundred pages or so. Until then, the author reminds me of Little Johnny One-Note and his Wonder Kazoo, trumpeting the twin themes of 1) It's ok to be gay, and 2) All men are scum. Really, it got way old way fast.

Another problem is the personalities of the characters. We're informed of these people's past histories in great and laboring detail, and really, some of these characters are not pleasant people.

Finally, there is just way too much exploration of these characters' problems for one book. With many such series, we get to the third or fourth outing before knowing this much about the players.

On balance, I have to give this book four stars because 1) I enjoyed reading it (for the most part), and 2) it holds lots of promise of things to come.

Here's hoping Karin Slaughter finds a way to moderate her tone (and her characters), and produces more volumes for my already overstuffed bookcase.

Rating:
Summary: A Bloody Good Mystery, In More Ways than One
Review: Sara Linton is the local Pediatrician for Grant County but moonlights as the coroner as well. She keeps up her work as the coroner to be closer to her ex-husband, Jeffery Tolliver, who is the Chief of Police.

Sara finds Sibyl Adams dying in a toilet cubicle in the local diner. Someone has been at her with a knife, brutally slashing her. Unfortunately, Sara is unable to save her. A few days later another victim is found murdered and stretched out nude, as if crucified, on the hood of Sara's car and now she knows there is a sick serial killer at work who enjoys leaving clues.

It is now Sara's responsibility to tell her ex what she's found and also to tell Sibyl's twin sister Lena, who is a rookie detective working directly under Sara's ex. Will they be able to stop the killer before he strikes again, or will the murders continue to creep closer to home, closer to Sara?

Blood and gore galore in this book, but despite that I found it to be a thrilling read with characters that I cared for, scenes that I believed in and a story that kept me reading away, wanting more.

Reviewed by Leeann Douglass

Rating:
Summary: A Great Debut
Review: First, a disclaimer: If you are queazy when it comes to violence, this book may not be for you. There's plenty of violence, but it's not over the top. Rather, it is important to the story.

I picked up Blindsighted and decided to read it based on the description on the inside flap. I had never heard of the author, but I like to try new writers I haven't heard of. The book reeled me in right away. The writing is fast paced and vivid.

Without revealing too much, the plot centers on a series of brutal assaults and murders. Slaughter doesn't shy away from describing the assaults, and the following autopsies are just as graphic. Coroner Sara Linton and her ex-husband, who is the sherrif, work together to solve the mystery of who is the murderer. The chemistry between these two characters is good, but I felt like I wanted to know more about their past. There are a few other central characters that are well developed, but some just breeze through the story without the reader paying them much attention.

I liked Blindsighted a lot. For her first novel, Slaughter writes incredibly well. She is definitely a talent that hopefully will bring us many more novels.

Rating:
Summary: Blindsighted
Review: Those who have compared Karin Slaughter with Patricia Cornwell and Thomas Harris have done Ms Slaughter no favours. I think Blindsighted has very little in common with any of the other authors' work except, perhaps, in the degree of nastiness of the murders. Sara Linton, Ms Slaughter's principal protagonist, is a much more human and believable character than Kay Scarpetta, and Thomas Harris has taken Hannibal Lector way beyond the bounds of this planet - perhaps in search of Scarpetta's niece, the egregious Lucy who threw off the constraints of earthly credibility years ago.

Thus, it is a pleasant change to read a different kind of mystery novel from a fresh new voice. Ms Slaughter's scenes in Grant County, Georgia ring true. Her characters are small town people, with small town attitudes and small town fears and prejudices. They don't perform superhuman feats. Sara Linton, a pediatrician doubling as Medical Examiner, works no Scarpetta-esque miracles of forensic science. Her ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver performs no brilliant feats of detection or deduction. Throughout the story there is an under-current of tension from the yet to be resolved issues from their failed marriage and former lives. These are real small-town people, dealing with their real-life problems while trying to cope with a terrifying series of gruesomely brutal murders where the victims are chillingly used as a means to an even more sinister end.

This is a book which grabs the reader's attention from page one and retains it to the bitter end. It is a fine foundation for what should be an enthralling series.

Rating:
Summary: Blindsighted
Review: Karin Slaughter comes out on the bookshelves with a bang and a half. I'll agree with some of the reviews, disagree with others: hence opinion. Anyway, I must say that, though there is a lot of graphically described violence, the violence is in no way excessive. Author Laura Lippman was quoted as saying she thinks Slaughter may well be the next Thomas Harris, and I must disagree; because while Slaughter is very good, she's not that good. At times you think that you might be reading the work of a veteran, then on the next page, you might realize that you are indeed reading the work of a first-timer. However, Slaughter has a plausible, if drawn-out, ending, and the book, from start to finish, is rather intense. Yeah, go ahead and do yourself a favor and read this one.

Rating:
Summary: Disagree with the Violence Criticisms
Review: I won't rehash the the storyline as it has been already fully described by other readers. I just want to respectfully voice my disagreement with the many reviews here and other venues that criticize the violence in the book. I've had this book for over a year and kept putting off reading because of those opinions. Yes, there was violence and rape, but other than the autopsy description of the first murder I didn't think the author went overboard in a gorefest. I don't want to give anything away, but as the rapist drugged his victims, the description of the rape and violence came from this drugged state and was somewhat softened. Okay, yeah, I know - rape is rape, but I wasnt' cringing from the description. All in all, I thought the book was well paced, had good characterizations and plan on reading Kisscut and Karin's newest.

Rating:
Summary: Chilling Thriller
Review: Dr. Sara Linton, Grant County's pediatrician and coroner, meets her sister Tessa for lunch one afternoon. When she excuses herself to use the washroom, she finds Sybil Adams slumped over on the toilet. As well as being viciously raped, Sibyl has been cut, two deep knife wounds form a cross over her stomach. When Sara begins the autopsy, she soon sees the full extent of the killer's brutality. Along with Police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, Sara's exhusband, they soon realize they're dealing with a sadistic killer who is terrorizing Grant County. I read Kisscut first but unlike a lot of other authors, Slaughter doesn't give away any clues. So if you read a book in the wrong order, which I seem to do a lot, you won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Blindsighted with language
Review: The book was recommended by my local bookseller and the author hooked me immediately with her easy style. I disagree with another reviewer's criticism of "wooden dialog". I appreciated the insight into the different characters backgrounds. Where so many authors expect the reader to accept at face value why something happened Ms Slaughter gave the reader some history as to why. Parts of the book were violently disturbing but I could understand the descripton as necessary for giving the reader a sense of the horror that was happening.
So, after reading the first paragragh you might ask, "Why only 2 stars?" It is due to the language used to describe the macabre rape sequenses. The rapist was violent, disturbed and demeaned his victims. Why the author chose to use the word love and have one victim say, "He made love to me." is beyond my comprehension. This has nothing to do with political correctness but everything to do with decency. Apparently the author has never had to counsel a rape victim nor must she have any friends who have gone through the horror of rape. If she had she wouldn't use the word love in such an obscene manner. It wasn't just a victim but the author describes the rapist as making love to his victim who is staked out on the floor with nails through her palms pinning her down.
Ms Slaughter wrote what could have been an excellent book. As an author she knows the importance of language and I am sorry she didn't take care with hers.

Rating:
Summary: Sensationalistic garbage . . . this is entertainment?
Review: This book sickened me. Slaughter seems overly determined to churn out the most vile, mean-spirited, sensationally violent story she can dredge from the depths of her nightmares. BLINDSIGHTED contains way too many scenes of graphic rape, torture, and brutality against women, all the while beating the reader over the head with in-your-face male-bashing. Every male character in this book comes across as stupid and/or sexually depraved while every female character is portrayed as a victim of the twisted male mindset. PUH-LEASE! If the author was shooting for realism, she missed the mark by several thousand light years. I mean, come on. There is no denying that male sexual predators and clueless, stupid men exist among the general population, just as there are women who suffer because of them. But this book is so heavyhanded it reads like a self-help textbook for a battered women's support group. Basically the author is shouting, "All men are bad and evil and predatory; all women are good and noble and victimized." Is there something in the air or water in the tiny rural burg of Heartsdale, Georgia that makes these gender attributes so black and white? If there really is any such town in the U.S., I'll be sure to steer far clear of it.

Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is just another Thomas Harris wanna-be hack, serving up gratuitous violence and vicious crimes against women under the guise of entertainment. She caters to the lowest common denominator among the reading public. This book offers little in the way of imagination and presents nothing new that hasn't been done better by more talented writers. BLINDSIGHTED has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

I applaud the author for her six-figure book deal with her publisher, Morrow. I also applaud the PR folks at Morrow for a job well done (through their million-dollar promotional campaign they convinced the gullible book-buying public that this was a quality thriller, and that the new Patricia Cornwell had arrived). What disturbs me even more than the content of this book is that so many people find this drivel to be entertaining. I wonder, is this a reflection of our troubled society? Is it a comment on the current state of the publishing industry? Both? And shame on an excellent author like Peter Robinson to give this garbage a positive blurb on the dust jacket. But hey, isn't it wonderful that we live in a country that allows pornographic trash like this to be published?

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Bag
Review: This was an "good listen" (I checked out the library's audio version) but also a baffling mix of both accomplished and clunky writing. The main characters -- Sara, Jeffrey, and Lena -- were well-realized and three-dimensional. I could handle the gore, though it wasn't always comfortable. In fact, I thought that Slaughter wrote far more convincingly in the creepy parts than about the day-to-day events and interactions. The book needed a once-over by a decent editor; the dialogue was often wooden and trite, and I could guess at bits of conversation before it left a character's mouth. Descriptions of appearance and action were more often than not pedestrian. For example, a laugh too frequently would be "humorless," or the dialogue would be framed by " . . .Sara noted. . ." (I'm a lawyer, and I don't speak that way!) Slaughter also pointedly inserted the title word "blindsighted" several times, as it applied to various characters -- in case we didn't get it on our own.

That said, the book was entertaining and the shifts in point-of-view kept the momentum going and effectively cranked up the tension. I guessed the murderer, though not his "backstory," midway through but didn't find that a problem. The reader on the audio tape was excellent -- didn't overdo the Southern accents.

I agree with the reviewer who recommended Peter Robinson's mysteries (featuring Inspector Banks of Yorkshire), which combine intriguing plots and fine writing. For those who enjoy their stories dark and their detectives fallible, haunted, and headstrong, pick up Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels, set in and around Edinburgh.