Cop Town - Karin Slaughter

Another Karin Slaughter offering, Cop Town is a total turnaround from her usual writing, even more so than Pretty Girls, set in 1974, it follows Kate Murphy, a new officer on the beat after the death of her husband and Maggie Lawson, whose blood runs blue, an officer for five years following her brother and uncle into the force. 1974 is not an easy time for women in racially charged Atlanta, expected to either be office workers or homemakers the presence of woman on the force is unwelcome to the males who run the show. Maggie and Kate face a constant stream of sexism, are given cases not considered worthy of anybody else’s time and Maggie has to face her uncle, a much higher presence on the force who controls Maggie with his temper and his fists.

A shooter is stalking Atlanta taking out male officers on the force and when Maggie’s brother Jimmy is drawn into the crossfire, Maggie and Kate team up with Gail, a brassy undercover prostitute, to get to the truth, despite the constant obstacles they face. Meanwhile “Fox”, a racist, violent unknown is stalking Kate, desperate to have and then kill her.

I preferred Cop Town to Pretty Girls, as far as Karin’s journey outside of Linton and Trent goes, this novel was absolutely excellent, the time shift was fascinating and whilst the attitudes of the males in the novel were frustrating they were insightful and the strength of Maggie and Kate as characters slightly levelled the playing field, though only very slightly and Maggie’s uncle Terry needed a kick in the balls from start to end.

As always, 5 stars for Slaughter! 

Pretty Girls - Karin Slaughter

I seriously need to step out of my crime comfort zone but I can’t resist anything written by Karin Slaughter, Pretty Girls is her latest novel and the first where she steps out of her usual style of following the investigators and instead follows the victims. The story is a dark as her other offerings, “snuff porn” and strong violence are prominent throughout, Slaughter likes to tackle gritty crimes and this is absolutely no exception. She also likes to tackle strong women and whilst I’m sad to not have Sara Linton around, characters Claire and Lydia, sisters, are both flawed and tough.  

The story follows Claire, after her husband Paul is murdered in front of her Claire starts to discover that she may not have known him at all and after reuniting with sister Lydia, a former addict who was never supportive of Paul, they become to unravel a web of lies that lead them directly into danger.

Karin’s main change here, apart from following her victims, is that the law enforcement leave a lot to be desired, creepy, rude and completely untrustworthy there’s not a single person that either woman can turn to.

This book is no exception to Karin’s others, it is fantastic and absolutely unputdownable, though it’s not quite as brilliant as her Linton/Trent series, its exactly what you expect from Slaughter, who is always worth 5 stars.