Kisscut

Author: Karin Slaughter
Genre: Suspense
Type: Hardcover
Series: #2 in the Grant County series
Source: Local Public Library
Publisher: William Morrow
First Published: 2002
Opening Lines: "Dancing Queen," Sara Linton mumbled with the music as she made her way around the skating rink. "Young and sweet, only seventeen."

Book Description from GoodReads: Saturday night dates at the skating rink have been a tradition in the small southern town of Heartsdale for as long as anyone can remember, but when a teenage quarrel explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton -- the town's pediatrician and medical examiner-- finds herself entangled in a terrible tragedy.

What seemed at first to be a horrific but individual catastrophe proves to have wider implications. The autopsy reveals evidence of long-term abuse, of ritualistic self-mutilation, but when Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver start to investigate, they are frustrated at every turn.

The children surrounding the victim close ranks. The families turn their backs. Then a young girl is abducted, and it becomes clear that the first death is linked to an even more brutal crime, one far more shocking than anyone could have imagined. Meanwhile, detective Lena Adams, still recovering from her sister's death and her own brutal attack, finds herself drawn to a young man who might hold the answers. But unless Lena, Sara, and Jeffrey can uncover the deadly secrets the children hide, it's going to happen again ….

My Rating: 3 stars

My Review: After reading and loving Blindsighted a couple of weeks ago, I eagerly picked up this second installment of the series asap. This is definitely not a series for squeamish people and Slaughter wastes no time describing, in graphic detail, several disturbing and even depraved situations. 

These violent situations put me wellllll outside my comfort zone and, unfortunately, they seemed to be the focus of the book. It took me almost 100 pages before I felt invested in the plot because it felt like more time was spent trying to shock the reader instead of developing the characters. 

The story is intriguing and twisty, but I can't say I liked Sara, Jeffrey or Lena as main characters. Sara and Jeffrey's relationship has a lot of baggage and they always seemed petty and mean towards each other making me wonder why they even wanted to try to be together again. I was also hoping Lena's character would have been fleshed out more but perhaps that will be addressed in the next book (?).   

Overall, this is an edgy, graphic addition to this series and while not my favourite, I'll continue with it (mainly because I liked Blindsighted so much). I want to see if this style of suspense is for me and I'm hopeful that the focus will be less on shocking, icky situations and more on the suspense and characters.