Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
Series: Grant County #1
Published by HarperCollins on October 1, 2002
Pages: 418
Source: Library
Narrator: Kathleen Early
Length: 12 hours, 10 minutes
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A small Georgia town erupts in panic when a young college professor is found brutally mutilated in the local diner. But it's only when town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton does the autopsy that the full extent of the killer's twisted work becomes clear. Sara's ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, leads the investigation -- a trail of terror that grows increasingly macabre when another local woman is found crucified a few days later. But he's got more than a sadistic serial killer on his hands, for the county's sole female detective, Lena Adams -- the first victim's sister -- wants to serve her own justice. But it is Sara who holds the key to finding the killer. A secret from her past could unmask the brilliantly malevolent psychopath .. or mean her death.

Review:

I’ve finally read my first Karin Slaughter book: YAY! Honestly, I never would have picked up this book based on this older cover – it just doesn’t call out to me – but I kept seeing Karin Slaughter’s name over and over, and I’d heard that I needed to start at the very beginning with her stories because most of them are connected. 

I was a little bit nervous about picking up Ms. Slaughter’s books since I’m sort of new-ish to crime/suspense/thriller reading. I’ve heard they can be intense, and this one definitely was. But I was also riveted from the first chapter.

As much as I loved how compelling Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter is, I also love the way the South is written into this book. I love it way down in my heart and soul. These characters experience things like Southern traditions and etiquette and disagreeing with their more narrow-minded neighbors, family, and coworkers in ways that are very similar to my own and it made me feel surprisingly close to them. I also loved the way Sara, the main character, related to and talked with her parents. 

I also love the relationships and interaction between the three main characters: Sara, Jeffrey, and Lena. Everything that happened in the private lives of these characters, outside of the case, impacted the investigation somehow. The dynamic among these three and their own family and friends was important, and might be the strongest thing about this book. Clearly Ms. Slaughter excels in writing relationships, which makes me very excited to read more of her books.

Sidenote: This book focuses heavily on police procedure and forensics, and the crimes and crime scene are described in detail. I cringed in several places, but I never felt like the details were gratuitous or ill-placed. I would say that even with the tough-to-read parts, Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter is nothing short of a page-turner. If you’re a sensitive reader or if gruesome details bother you in your crime fiction, you may want to think twice about picking this one up. Otherwise, I highly recommend the read because it was fantastic.

Check out my other reviews in the Grant County Series:

Blindsighted | Kisscut | A Faint Cold Fear | Indelible
Faithless | Beyond Reach

Audiobook Notes:

It drove me crazy that I couldn’t read this book in one sitting, so I grabbed the audiobook from my library. This made it much easier to keep reading when the suspense was about to kill me but I had to put the physical copy down.

Kathleen Early narrates this book. She was new to me with this listen, but when I looked ahead at Karin Slaughter’s other titles, it looks like many of them are narrated by Ms. Early, which is pretty exciting. I loved listening to her read the story. She has a nice, clear voice for reading without any extra noises or pauses. I’ve already checked out the next book in this series from my library and because I enjoyed this audiobook accompaniment so much, I took out the accompanying audiobook on loan from the library as well.

Title: Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
Series: Grant County #1
Narrated by: Kathleen Early
Publisher: HarperAudio
Length: 12 hours, 10 minutes, Unabridged