Kisscut

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended, Another Great Book
Review: This author is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Her books cross many lines in the sand that most of us are unwilling or unable to cross and that journey is refreshing, interesting, and disturbing all at once. This writer seems to be coming into her own on this novel and I can only see promise. The characters are real and you will come to love spending time with them. I love the theory of having three main characters without some kind of triangle involved. The relationship between Sara and Jeffrey is as true to life as it gets and you will root for Lena over and over again. This book is a quick read with plenty of page-turning suspence and a lot of twists that will keep your attention and will keep you guessing. Give this book a try and I promise your will be the next rave review for this book.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD MYSTERY
Review: This book is not for the faint at heart. The author has selected a sensitive topic (child pornography and incest) and the details of the crimes are factual and disturbing. The story will keep you hooked until the end. Excellent!

Rating:
Summary: Caveat Emptor
Review: I had high hopes for this book. Karin Slaughter has been annointed the "Next Thomas Harris" and the "Next Patricia Cornwell". After reading both this book and her first outing, I can definitely say I agree.

She incorporates all of the grisly titillation of Harris, without his research and depth of characterization. She has the same facile writing style and preposterous abuses of procedure that embody the last 3 outings of Cornwell.

The book does propell the reader through with sparse prose, and that is a definite skill. As other reviewers have mentioned, however, the characterizations are facile and lack of in depth research is very apparent.

Some research online reveals that several of the 5 star reviews of this book are written by the author's agent, publisher and bookseller friends.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating read
Review: I couldn't put this book down. Karin Slaughter is very talented writer and knows her stuff. This installment was much harder to read than the previous installment, Blindsighted. Anything that involves manipulating children really sickens me and this was not an easy read. I hope Ms. Slaughter will shine more sunshine into a series that so far is consistently dark. Jeffrey and Sara are both memorable characters as well as Sara's family. I look forward to the next book in this series.

Rating:
Summary: Unrelenting Horror
Review: I found Karen Slaughter's first book, "Blindsighted," so repugnant that I felt I owed her another chance. "Kisscut," which concerns the same characters as the first book, is better, but Slaughter has a long way to go.

... The plot concerns an unspeakable cadre of pedophiles who have wormed their way into the town where pediatrician/medical examiner Sara Linton, her ex-husband Jeffrey, the police chief, and Jeffrey's assistant, Lena, all live and work.

Sara is a bit more likeable in this book, although I still have trouble believing in her double career (...). Jeffrey has become a great deal softer in this book, and Lena,..., has turned from tough to terrorized. Now the three protagonists are drawn into the equally graphic and gruesome doings of the pedophiles, part of a seemingly nationwide group of child molesters and rapists.

The reader is not spared any of the hideously gruesome tortures inflicted on some of the child victims--and in my view, as in the first book, this aspect of the story is way overdone... The perpetraors in "Kisscut" are not that hard to figure out, but the story of how they are found out and investigated makes for a fairly good read.

The worst problem that Karen Slaughter has as a writer is not her plots, but her thoroughly unbelievable characters. None of the protagonists--or the villains, for that matter--rings true. There is not enough characterization or explanation to make their kneejerk reactions believable, and that's what keeps me as a reader at arm's length from the story. As in "Blindsighted," I never became personally involved in "Kisscut." It's a fairly interesting story, with more than its share of violence, and less than its share of any meaning.

Rating:
Summary: Karin Slaughter does it again.
Review: Karin Slaughter's books are getting better each time.

Blindsighted was good; Kisscut is better. The characters are more developed, and the mystery remains, well, a mystery, until the baddies are revealed. While Kisscut could stand on its own, the characters are struggling with the outcome of the events in Blindsighted, and that's something that needs to happen. Too often, in mysteries, the aftermath of a crime is ignored; the sleuth wraps it up and makes it go away, but for the victims, that doesn't happen. Life isn't that tidy, and it's good to see the characters working their way through their experiences.

The subject matter is difficult to read about, but it's something that does happen, and ignoring it won't make it go away.

And the writing's great. Slaughter's work is like pen and ink drawings, spare and accurate and absolutely right.

Rating:
Summary: Kisscut
Review: One of the best books I have read this year. Her other book, BLINDSIGHTED, is also one of my favorites. This is only her second book and she is truely amazing. DON'T MISS IT.

Rating:
Summary: Another derivative, cookie cutter Cornwell clone.
Review: There's nothing new here. Just the same old stuff you'll find in Patricia Cornwell's worst books (only not as skillfully written) and in dozens of other books trying to emulate her success.You've got an improbably perfect female coroner, flirting with an ex, a small town that hides secrets (worst cliche of all ) and both graphic physical and sexual violence involving kids in an attempt to shock and titillate (and sell books) from a safe distance. It's so shallow and the mystery so contrived and obvious that I have no doubt it will hit the bestseller lists so everyone who reads it can feel good about deploring the violence it depicts (all the while loving every juicy detail). I'd rather read a book with more insight into real human behavior or with something braver to say.

Rating:
Summary: Disgusting, and probably more accurate than we care to think
Review: Wow.

I am left monosyllabic after reading Kisscut, the second volume in a new series by Karin Slaughter.

First, let's discuss the writing.

Slaughter has made great strides since her first novel, Blindsighted. Her writing has improved (sorry, it's too intangible to say just how). She plunges the reader right into the story, and rarely allows one to come up for air until the end.

I read the first three chapters in about 3 seconds. She sets the tone very nicely, and the first dramatic confrontation is superbly written.

Slaughter spends more time with Jeffery Tolliver, the police chief, and his exploration of the events than with the nominal main character, Dr Sara Linton. Detective Lena Adams, still recovering (?) from her difficulties in the previous novel, gets too much ink (in my opinion) dwelling on what has happened to her.

Still, I have to say spreading the narrative between three main characters is a new approach. It's growing on me.

Then there's the subject matter.

A sensitive reader might wish to stop after the first few chapters, because the horrors begin to unfold quickly. Slaughter is either 1) a sick puppy, or 2) daring enough to present things other authors wouldn't touch on a bet.

I'll go with 2). This book explores the darkest side of human nature. The details are truly sickening at times, and I will not discuss them here (I'm no spoiler). I'm very sad to realize these things likely happen in real life much as they do in Grant county: daily and right under our noses.

For anyone with a strong constitution, this book is a must-read entry in what is becoming a fine new series.

Rating:
Summary: Small town realism
Review: Kisscut really captured small-town America to me. Other readers who haven't lived in small towns might find certain plot elements unrealistic, but they rang very true to me. In a town where everyone knows everyone else, and where we all just have to do our jobs whether we want to interact with that person or not, I thought Ms. Slaughter brought a lot of realism to her story. I won't give away any spoilers, but I can really picture certain elements of the plot happening in my small town.