Blindsighted

Rating:
Summary: Excellent First Book
Review: Karin Slaughter's first book is excellent, and I'm looking forward to the next two. Blindsighted is fast-paced and beautifully drawn. The town and characters come to life, and the use of English is succinct and clear--the literary equivalent of a pen and ink drawing.

This is definitely not a cosy--the crimes are cruel and have a psychological underpinning that makes them difficult to read about--but the reader is drawn on, needing to know what happens next and how it all ends, and whodunit.

Excellent.

Rating:
Summary: A farsighted author!
Review: There are synopses in many reviews of "Blindsighted", so I don't feel compelled to tell the story again and explain the relationships between the characters. I'll stick to the reality of the book as I feel it.

Pre publication "blurbs" made comparisons to best-selling authors. Karin Slaughter is not like anyone else I've read -- she has forged her own voice and given us a tightly drawn story. Her descriptions of place and time moved comfortably into my mind's outline of developments. Each detail wove its way into the fabric of the narrative. I needed to pay attention to things I thought superfluous at the time because they were important later. Plot details and twists hit without notice.

I found the story disturbing in the same way "Deja Dead" troubled me -- the thought of unspeakable acts committed against women intrudes on my sense of security. But the primary characters are believable, caring, flawed, insightful, professional, possibly near burnout at times -- just like you and me. You should read about them to gain new literary friends you want to know more about. You should read about them to learn about yourself. You should read about them to have examples of good people right there in your hands.

This book if full of real people in a great story. Ms. Slaughter has written a wonderfully crafted first installment of a promised trilogy, and with any luck we'll get more than three books in this series. "Blindsighted" reads like an established author wrote it. Read it and discover her for yourself. Except for my squeamishness at crime details and descriptions, I'm really glad I did.

Rating:
Summary: Realistic and Powerful Writing
Review: Karin Slaughter has written a real page-turner here. It's got blood and gore and violence that keeps the pulse pounding without hitting the stomach with nausea. There's action and suspense right from the start. But more than this, there's a realism and a humanity to the writing and characters that lifts this book above the usual run of the genre -- and that's something rare indeed.

Rating:
Summary: An ideal thriller
Review: "Blindsighted" is everything a thriller should be and more: the pacing fast; the characters engrossing; the setting vividly depicted and the murders gruesome. What is truly novel in "Blindsighted" is that the murders make a kind of ugly sense. Karin Slaughter's villan is evil but he has his reasons and that makes this book unusual in a genre filled with unmotivated murderers and synthetic heroes. There are no cardboard characters or serial killer cliches in this book.
But, what is most striking about this debut novel is the author's writing. Karin Slaughter writes vivid and unflinching prose and I look forward to her next book.

Rating:
Summary: Oooh, scary!
Review: I love thrillers, I admit it. And this one is a pip! I was hooked from page one and stayed up late finishing it, stopping only to make sure the doors and windows were locked. Yes, there is some graphic violence, but I didn't find it any more bloody than a lot of others I've read. What I loved more than anything was the suspense - the edge of your seat, nail-biting kind. The characters are well-drawn and real and the plotting inventive. I'm really looking forward to the next books in the trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: Grabbed me and wouldn't let go!
Review: Rarely do I come across a book that gets my attention so early and manages to hold me all the way through. BLINDSIGHTED offers the perfect combination of startling detail and interesting characters. The icky parts are minimal, but haunting. Slaughter offers enough about her characters' lives to make them real, but there's also lots more to tell about them in future books. I sped through the book in record time -- now I want to know what happens next!

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: I read Blindsighted in one sitting -- and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I thought that Sara, one of the main characters, rang very true as a strong woman who also had areas of confusion in her life. I liked the relationship with her ex-husband, which also seemed very realistic with its different layers.

I don't read a lot of gory books, so I skipped a few pages here and there, but I still think I got every bit of good out of the story that there was. It's a character book every bit as much as a thriller -- and it works on both levels. Skip the gore if it's too much for you, and you'll still enjoy the book. Read the details if you can, and you'll also enjoy the book. All around, a very good read.

Rating:
Summary: A Truly Spectacular Debut
Review: Blindsighted isn't just any new mystery. It's the debut of a significant new voice in crime fiction. The best news is that there will be two more books to come--at least.

Tightly plotted, unflinchingly true to life, and full of well-drawn, deeply understood, and fascinating characters, this book is a must for anyone who loves the genre. It's a must for readers who "don't like mysteries," too, because it's more than just a mystery. It's a fully realized and completely engrossing novel.

Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 stars
Review: Karin Slaughterâ''s debut novel comes with some thrills and quite a bit of emotion.

Dr. Sara Linton is a part time coroner and a full time pediatrician for the Heartsdale Childrens Clinic. Jeffrey Tolliver, Heartsdaleâ''s chief of police, is Saraâ''s ex-husband and sometime friend. Sara and her sister Tessa are eating lunch at the local diner. When Sara goes into the bathroom she finds Sybil Adams, an acquaintance, mutilated... and bleeding to death. The case hits pretty close to home because the towns only female detective, Lena Adams, is the victims sister.

Relationships and a wide range of emotions dominate the story creating a good depth to the characters. Ex-lovers, distraught families, and secret pasts all play a part in a sometime graphically violent and often emotional novel.

Recommended

Rating:
Summary: UGH!
Review: Gratuitous gore and violence, cliche characters and plot. The perfect book for all the readers of slasher serial-killer trash novels. After all the good things I'd heard about this book, I can't believe how poorly written and executed it turned out to be. And there's two more coming? Well at least I can take them off my 'want' list. Too bad Ms. Slaughter couldn't include some of the better aspects of the female crime-writers and their characters and leave the 'made-for-TV' movie stuff out.