Tag / Karin Slaughter

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Book 23 (of 52) – Faithless

Faithless – Karin Slaughter

While walking through the woods near their home, Jeffery Tolliver and Sara Linton find a dead girl buried in a hand-made coffin.  The investigation into her death leads to a church and a farm straddling the county line and has ties to Sara’s family’s secrets.  While they get closer to finding the culprit, Lena is forced to deal with the physical abuse that her so-called boyfriend has been doing to her.

After four and a half months, I return to Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series with the fifth and penultimate entry, Faithless.  Knowing what is coming, I both want to jump to the next entry and also put it off.  Either way, I should be finishing the series soon, leaving me with just a handful of one-offs.

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Book 13 (of 52) – Pieces Of Her

Pieces of Her – Karin Slaughter

When a video from a shooting at the local mall goes viral, Andy’s mom quickly kicks her out of the house and sends her away.  She starts to piece together that her mother may not be what she seems, finding clues that lead her from Georgia to Texas and, ultimately, to Illinois, where she learns the truth: her mother was part of a terrorist group and is now living under an assumed name.  When she is taken hostage by one of her mom’s old confederates, Andy learns that while her mother may not be who she thought she was, she is still her mother and will fight for her.

I first became acquainted with Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her in 2022, when I watched the adaptation on Netflix.  I remembered the main beats, but I think the ending was different.  There is another book in this series which I will get to one of these days, along with her other series that I am in the middle of.

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2024: The Year In Books

As 2024 comes to a close, my fourth full year of remote working, I managed to once again surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 61 books, two books more than my previous high set last year and my fourth consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I completed the challenge in mid-November and surpassed last year’s total in mid-December.  I read 22,622 pages, by far my highest total of all time and just the second time I’ve managed to surpass 20.000 pages.

Of those books, only five were non-fiction and, of the remaining 56 novels, only five were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with two hard covers, two paperbacks, 53 e-books and no audiobooks.  I continued to take advantage of my library card, which helped me procure 46 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

Over 69% of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 19 authors that I read for the first this year were:

Jessica Knoll Isabella Maldonado Kathleen McGurl Lisa Taddeo
Lisa Jewell Millie Bobby Brown J.M. Dillard Lee Goldberg
Avery Cunningham Margot Douaihy R.F. Kuang Jessica Simpson
Jeffrey Lang Dayton Ward Holly Wilson Karin Smirnoff
Walter Beede Michael Connelly Rob Harvilla

Karin Slaughter, Jeffery Deaver, Laura Lippman, Elin Hilderbrand, Jessica Knoll, Michael Connelly, Minka Kent, Lee Goldberg, Rebecca Forster, Stephen King, and Sarah Pekkanen were the authors that I read multiple titles from during 2024.

17 of the books I read were released this year, while only three of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1997.

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Book 58 (of 52) – This Is Why We Lied

This Is Why We Lied – Karin Slaughter

This Is Why We Lied, the twelfth entry in Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series, picks up just after Will and Sara’s wedding, as they arrive in a mountain retreat for their honeymoon.  When the resort manager is killed, the honeymoon gets put on hold so they can investigate.  With everyone on the mountain a suspect, including a man from Will’s past, they try to piece together the timeline leading up to the murder and figure out who the killer is.

Now that I’m caught up on the series after four plus years, another new entry makes it to the top of the to-read pile rather quickly.  Thankfully, Slaughter avoids the crutch of having the villain have some sort of personal connection to the primary players in the investigation, although there was a chance to do so.  I will patiently wait the next entry while continuing to work through her earlier Grant Country series.

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Book 52 (of 52) – Indelible

Indelible – Karin Slaughter

When two gunmen take over the Grant County police station, killing one and taking the rest hostage in the process, Sara Linton tries to keep her ex-husband alive without letting on who he is.  The GBI, led by Amanda Wagner, arrive on the scene and use Lena Adams, on her first day back on the force, to infiltrate the station and get the lay of the land.  Sara, thinking back to the first time she met Jeffrey’s family and friends when he brought her to his hometown, learns who the shooters are, but can she use that knowledge to stop them from killing again.

Indelible is the fourth entry in Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series and introduces some new characters who will become integral parts of her later Will Trent series.  This certainly wasn’t my favorite work of hers. as the flashbacks to the past and Jeffrey’s origin story, while it tied into the A-plot, seemed to overwhelm the rest of the story.  I’ve got two more entries in this series to go, so I should be wrapping it up relatively soon.

For the second straight year, Karin Slaughter is the author of my goal-reaching 52nd book.  This is just the fourth time since I started this “52 books in 52 weeks” challenge back in 2010 that I made it to the finish line. I should be able to give my personal record of 59 books, set last year, a run for its money.

 

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Book 38 (of 52) – A Faint Cold Fear

A Faint Cold Fear – Karin Slaughter

An apparent suicide becomes suspicious when Sara Linton’s sister, Tessa, is brutally attacked while the police investigate the scene nearby.  A second murder the next day at the local college, also staged as a suicide, puts police chief Jeffrey Tolliver on edge, believing there is a link between the three crimes.  When the investigation starts to lead to Lena Adams, Jeffrey’s former protege, it complicates things for all involved, making it unlikely they will be able to stop the killer before another body turns up.

A Faint Cold Fear is the third entry in Karin Slaughter’s older Grant County series.  Because I read the first two out of order, I couldn’t really remember where things left off with all of the characters.  With three more books to go in this series and a new Will Trent entry just released, there will be plenty of Slaughter to go around for the foreseeable future.

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Book 17 (of 52) – Blindsighted

Blindsighted – Karin Slaughter

The sleepy community of Grant County, Georgia is rocked when a blind woman, the sister of a police detective, is found raped and mutilated.  After a second woman, a local college student, is found after having been crucified and raped, the local pediatrician/coroner tells her ex-husband. police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, about her own attack years prior in Atlanta.  When a third woman goes missing, the clues start to come together, but is there still enough time to stop the rapist before he moves on to another victim?

Blindsighted is the first entry in Karin Slaughter’s older Grant County series, which I am once again reading out of order, both within itself and in relation to the Will Trent series.  Because of this, some of the reveals play a little differently.  For one, the reveal of Sarah’s rape is completely blunted, as this is already known information.  On the opposite side, the initial murder of Sibyl Adams cuts much deeper, having more familiarity with her character and with Lena from future stories.  With four more books to go in this series and a new Will Trent entry coming later this summer, there will be plenty of Slaughter to go around for the foreseeable future.

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2023: The Year In Books

As 2023 comes to a close, my third full year of remote working, I managed to far surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 59 books, four books more than my previous high from last year and my third consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I completed the challenge in late November and surpassed last year’s total in mid-December.  I read (or listened) to 21,394 pages, by far my highest total of all time and only the fourth time I’ve passed 10,000.

Of those books, eleven were non-fiction and, of the remaining 48 novels, only four were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with 53 e-books and two audiobooks.  I continued to take advantage of my library card, which helped me procure 44 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

Over 61% of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 22 authors that I read for the first this year were:

Selma Blair Stacy Willingham Gillian McAllister Chuck Klosterman
Gabrielle Zevin Ronan Farrow Matthew Perry Amor Towles
Jason Rekulak Emily St. John Mandel Bonnie Garmus Thomas Mullen
Naomi Hirahara Maitland Ward Busy Phillips Elliot Page
Jinwoo Chong Maureen Ryan Minka Kelly Britney Spears
Emily Henry Rebecca Makkai

Jennifer McMahon, Karin Slaughter, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Erle Stanley Gardner, Grady Hendrix, Jeffery Deaver, Laura Lippman, Ruth Ware, and Stacy Willingham were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2023.

18 of the books I read were released this year, while only five of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1934.

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Prolific Authors Wrap Up

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, since I’ve far surpassed my reading output of any year on record, I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through October. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 118 books, so there could be some movement over the past two years, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time span.  Today, we wrap things up with a look back at the 97 authors I’ve read more than once.

Largest Increase (since 2021)

The Silent Wife – Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter – 6
Erle Stanley Gardner – 5
Jeffrey Deaver – 4
Grady Hendrix – 4
Richard Osman – 3
Alex Finlay – 3
Taylor Jenkins Reid – 3

Largest Increase (since 2011)

The Skin Collector – Jeffery Deaver

Jeffrey Deaver – 14
Erle Stanley Gardner – 14
Richard Castle – 13
Karin Slaughter – 12
Mary Kubica – 8

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Book 52 (of 52) – After That Night

After That Night – Karin Slaughter

After That Night, the eleventh entry in Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series, puts the focus on Dr. Sara Linton, who is testifying in a rape trial when the defendant’s mother, a former colleague of Sara’s from her residency, lets her know that there is a connection between this case and Sara’s own rape from 15 years earlier.  While Will and Faith start investigating off the record, Sara looks back to her past to see if she can find the connection while still maintaining her sanity.  What they find horrifies them: a rape club that has been ongoing for years.  Once they get the approval to turn this into a real case, can they turn their theories into proof and stop the rape club from the inside?

After It took me four plus years to read through the earlier books in the series, a new entry made it to the top of the pile rather quickly.  Slaughter once again leans on the crutch of having the villain have some sort of personal connection to the primary players in the investigation, something that was a hallmark of the early entries in the series.  At some point, you’d think they’d take a hard look in the mirror and ask some hard questions, like why is everyone we know a serial killer or rapist?

And there we have it, book #52!  For just the third time since I started this “52 books in 52 weeks” challenge back in 2010, I made it to the finish line.  Last year, I did it with just a couple of weeks to spare.  This time around, I’m a whole month ahead of schedule.  I should have little problem surpassing my personal record of 55 books, set all the way back in 2022.