Faithless by Karin Slaughter
Series: Grant County #5
Published by Delacorte Press on August 30, 2005
Pages: 410
Source: Library
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The victim was buried alive in the Georgia woods–then killed in a horrifying fashion. When Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver stumble upon the body, both become consumed with finding out who killed the pretty young woman. For them, a harrowing journey begins, one that will test their own turbulent relationship and draw dozens of life into the case.

For as Jeffrey and Sara move further down a trail of shocking surprises and hidden passions, neither is prepared for the most stunning discovery of all: the identity of a killer who is more evil and dangerous than anyone could have guessed.

Review:

I feel a little bit mixed up after Faithless. On the one hand, Faithless is not my favorite in the series in terms of crimes and police procedure. But it isn’t my least favorite either. On the other hand: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED FROM SARA AND JEFFREY AND EVEN LENA! So this is my reason for a 4.5/5 rating – I would rate this a 5 for characterization but a 4 for the actual crime portion of the book.

I’m terrified to keep going into the last book in this series because I really like where these characters find themselves at the end of Faithless. I feel like Sara and Jeffrey can breathe a little bit in their relationship. And I feel like Lena has made some progress with her…extremely complex situation. Or at least I hope so? I maintain my claim that Lena is the wild card in this series.

I don’t want to spoil anything at all for this book, but I loved the religious tone that was given to the crimes and to the religious group that made up the pool of suspects. I tend to enjoy unusual or extreme religious characters; having them a part of this story took my mind down several possible paths as I tried to figure out who committed the crimes and why. Naturally, I was wrong about the whodunnit – I never guess correctly. But I had fun trying to figure things out.

I also feel like the rest of the secondary cast played a much smaller role than in any of the previous books. I’ll say again that I’m very nervous going into the sixth and final book in the Grant County Series, especially with the (!!!) set-up that Karin Slaughter gave us on the literal last page of this novel. She has done that several times before now in this series. It isn’t what I would call a cliffhanger ending, but HOLY MOLY, I am left sweating when I consider the possibilities of what could be ahead for these characters that I love so much.

Check out my other reviews in the Grant County Series:

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

Audiobook Notes:

As is my norm with this series, I excitedly borrowed the Faithless by Karin Slaughter audiobook from my local digital library because Kathleen Early IS the Grant County Series and I don’t even want to imagine these books without her reading them to me. SHE IS SARA LINTON, OKAY?

Imagine my surprise when I started the audiobook and five books into the series, we have a new narrator! I COULD NOT get into the story. I could not get lost in the crime or the procedure. I could not buy Sara’s interactions and conversations with Jeffrey, which were HUGE in this book. SO HUGE! I’m so used to the previous narrator’s sound as Sara Linton – it sounded like an entirely new person talking to Jeffrey as his wife, and just NO. Not here, okay? Not with this series. I could not forget that it was a narrator reading me a story for one single second. Prior to this, I felt like the main character, Sara Linton, was talking to me or to other people/characters around me and that I had been dropped down into the middle of everything, all nice and neat, to observe what was going on. IT WAS AMAZING. BEFORE.

Listen: I tried. I really did. But NOPE. I’m not here for this. I returned the audiobook to the library and was thankful that I didn’t buy it. I honestly wouldn’t recommend listening to it at all, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend using a precious Audible credit on it.

Sidenote: I noticed that this audiobook was published by Books On Tape instead of HarperAudio. This seems to be a first, and mid-series. HarperAudio used Kathleen Early as their narrator, who was amazing as THE voice of Grant County. Books On Tape, please please please redo these audiobooks. I’m sure this narrator is probably great, but this was such a big blow to this huge fan of Ms. Slaughter and the Grant County Series.

Title: Faithless by Karin Slaughter
Series: Grant County #5
Narrated by: Clarinda Ross
Publisher: Books On Tape
Length: 15 hours, 31 minutes, Unabridged