Helpful Score: 1
If I could give this a ZERO rating, I would have. Shame on this author for writing books with such incredible sexism, torture and rape of women to include vivid gory bloody descriptions of flaying their sides and stitching them into a bed, or machetes in their back while they're chained to a wall or how much they hurt and where from being raped so many times...just disgusting books. The kind nightmares are made of. But even worse, to put this kind of mind-set and detail out to a public which already has enough serial killers and copycat crazies off their meds is beyond belief. Shame on her. No amount of money made is worth this. Don't spend a penny on her books.
Helpful Score: 1
I blew it this time! I had forgotten I didn't like her last book and I bought this one---don't bother---it is so terrible and just boring.
When the first 100-200 pages are nothing but 'he is so kind and caring' 'how can she love me if she knows the truth' ' why does he have this partner he doesn't like' 'what would I do without her'---and on and on until you wonder WHAT IS THE STORY HERE?
I struggled with the first 100+ pages and just had to give up, I don't like the going from past to present then back to past to present--what is the purpose of that? I think she could write a better story if she'd just stick to a storyline and forget all the extra stuff she puts in her pages.
When the first 100-200 pages are nothing but 'he is so kind and caring' 'how can she love me if she knows the truth' ' why does he have this partner he doesn't like' 'what would I do without her'---and on and on until you wonder WHAT IS THE STORY HERE?
I struggled with the first 100+ pages and just had to give up, I don't like the going from past to present then back to past to present--what is the purpose of that? I think she could write a better story if she'd just stick to a storyline and forget all the extra stuff she puts in her pages.
Another excellent story from Karin Slaughter. This ties up a lot of questions about Will Trent, and gives a whole lot of backstory about his boss Amanda. Every chapter provides a piece to a puzzle, that you have to store in the back of your mind until it all comes together in a very satisfying way. Lots of unexpected twists make this a great page-turner.
For years, Karin Slaughter has been tantalizing us with bits and pieces of Will Trent's history. Followers of Slaughter's popular series know that Will is an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. He is dyslexic, scarred physically and psychologically from years in an orphanage and on the streets, and barely made it out of his hellish childhood intact. An ill-advised marriage to a fellow orphan, Angie, has brought Will additional misery. Even though he is still Angie's husband, Will has fallen for pediatrician Sara Linton; Sara cares for him, as well, but she wonders if she can truly be close to a man who has so much emotional baggage. Slaughter's audience knows Sara intimately as a beautiful and brilliant physician and medical examiner who played a prominent role in earlier books.
In "Criminal," Slaughter tells her story in alternating chapters, some of which take place in 1974-75. In the opening scene, we meet a group of wretched female drug addicts. They are at the mercy of a brute who sells their bodies on the street and keeps most of the money they earn for himself. Nineteen-year-old Lucy Bennett started her habit when she took speed to lose weight. She graduated to "injectable amphetamine" and everything spiraled downward from there. Now, she feels as if "she'd swallowed a truckload of concrete" and her hair has been falling out in clumps. Her plight is particularly heartrending since she had once been a good student with a bright future. Now, she is just another streetwalker with dead eyes.
Slaughter places us squarely in Atlanta's underbelly: We witness the unspeakable torture and slaying of helpless women as well as the racism, sexism, and corruption that infected the city's police department in the mid-seventies. The changes that would eventually free women and African-Americans from years of subservience were just beginning.
At the heart of the novel is a shadowy and hulking figure who is obsessed with controlling the prostitutes whom he abducts. On his trail are twenty-five year old Amanda Wagner (Will's current boss) and her colleague, the "pushy and opinionated" Evelyn Mitchell. Both pound pavements, interview witnesses, and resolve to help those who have no one willing to fight for them. Their colleagues are mostly chauvinistic males who taunt and threaten them, but Amanda and Evelyn persist in doing their jobs under difficult circumstances.
This is a suspenseful, hard-hitting, and complex police procedural that provides a vivid portrait of a southern city in transition. Although the subject matter is often distasteful and depressing, Slaughter holds our interest by providing fragments of the truth but withholding the ways in which these fragments fit together. It is not until the final pages that the author ties up the story's dangling threads. "Criminal" is sordid, at times heavy-handed, and a bit drawn out, but it also a chilling, powerful, and poignant tale of hatred, revenge, insanity, compassion, and love.
In "Criminal," Slaughter tells her story in alternating chapters, some of which take place in 1974-75. In the opening scene, we meet a group of wretched female drug addicts. They are at the mercy of a brute who sells their bodies on the street and keeps most of the money they earn for himself. Nineteen-year-old Lucy Bennett started her habit when she took speed to lose weight. She graduated to "injectable amphetamine" and everything spiraled downward from there. Now, she feels as if "she'd swallowed a truckload of concrete" and her hair has been falling out in clumps. Her plight is particularly heartrending since she had once been a good student with a bright future. Now, she is just another streetwalker with dead eyes.
Slaughter places us squarely in Atlanta's underbelly: We witness the unspeakable torture and slaying of helpless women as well as the racism, sexism, and corruption that infected the city's police department in the mid-seventies. The changes that would eventually free women and African-Americans from years of subservience were just beginning.
At the heart of the novel is a shadowy and hulking figure who is obsessed with controlling the prostitutes whom he abducts. On his trail are twenty-five year old Amanda Wagner (Will's current boss) and her colleague, the "pushy and opinionated" Evelyn Mitchell. Both pound pavements, interview witnesses, and resolve to help those who have no one willing to fight for them. Their colleagues are mostly chauvinistic males who taunt and threaten them, but Amanda and Evelyn persist in doing their jobs under difficult circumstances.
This is a suspenseful, hard-hitting, and complex police procedural that provides a vivid portrait of a southern city in transition. Although the subject matter is often distasteful and depressing, Slaughter holds our interest by providing fragments of the truth but withholding the ways in which these fragments fit together. It is not until the final pages that the author ties up the story's dangling threads. "Criminal" is sordid, at times heavy-handed, and a bit drawn out, but it also a chilling, powerful, and poignant tale of hatred, revenge, insanity, compassion, and love.
AA+++ Excellent continuing story line
When a college student disappears with no trace, Georgia Bureau of Investigations Detective Will Trent is surprised when his supervisor, Amanda Wagner, keeps him off of the case. Amanda has good reason to distance Will from this assignment. This case ties into the disappearance and murders of prostitutes in 1975. It was the case that began Amanda's forty year career in homicide.
This book moves between the present and 1975. I liked the story in the present because I love the characters of Will Trent and Sara Linton. We get to see their growing relationship, and we learn more about Will's past. The 1975 portions featured young Detectives Amanda Wagner and Evelyn Mitchell as they try to solve the disappearance of several prostitutes. These parts dragged for me. I really disliked Evelyn and wasn't a real fan of Amanda either. And I thought the 1975 atmosphere was overblown. Yes, racism was a real problem (and unfortunately still is), but I find it very hard to believe that all of the men in the police departments were racist, sexist alcoholics. There didn't seem to be a redeeming male character in the bunch.
This series is still a favorite of mine. While I liked much of this story, overall book just didn't work for me. My rating: 3.5 Stars.
This book moves between the present and 1975. I liked the story in the present because I love the characters of Will Trent and Sara Linton. We get to see their growing relationship, and we learn more about Will's past. The 1975 portions featured young Detectives Amanda Wagner and Evelyn Mitchell as they try to solve the disappearance of several prostitutes. These parts dragged for me. I really disliked Evelyn and wasn't a real fan of Amanda either. And I thought the 1975 atmosphere was overblown. Yes, racism was a real problem (and unfortunately still is), but I find it very hard to believe that all of the men in the police departments were racist, sexist alcoholics. There didn't seem to be a redeeming male character in the bunch.
This series is still a favorite of mine. While I liked much of this story, overall book just didn't work for me. My rating: 3.5 Stars.
Being an Atlanta area native I've always enjoyed Slaughter's books. With Criminal she has hit an new all time best. When she developes Amanda and gives insight into Will's origins her writing skill becomes quite evident.
All over the place story that is very confusing with too many characters. Did not enjoy at all
Another great read to the Will Trent series and an added suprise ending. Slaughter keeps you on your toes and guessing what's next.
Love this author, and love these stories! The characters are great and very quick to draw you in. I couldn't put these books down!
