Genesis [Paperback]

It was an unexpected surprise to discover that Karin Slaughter has merged two of her different series of books/characters for this venture and very well it worked too, I thought. Here we're treated to the merging of both the Grant County Series and the Atlanta Series which combine to become the Georgia Series, so it looks as if we'll be in for more of these marriages.

Starts off when an elderly couple's car hits a naked, beaten woman when she seems to appear from nowhere out of some woods. There just so happened to be two men in another car who were able to help the poor woman as one of them was a paramedic, the other was.....well you'll find out when you read the book, but neither of these men are as they first appear.

When the badly beaten young woman is taken to the ER at Grady Hospital, it's Sara Linton, (our old buddy from the Grant County series), who's the doctor waiting for her.

Sara is still doing her best to move on with her life since being widowed when 3 and a half years before, her husband, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver, was murdered and she decided she had to move away and at just as she was looking for somewhere to go, she received the ad for this position from an old friend who trained with her. It was sent as a bit of a joke because Grady was where Sara cut her teeth in her medical career but she saw it as a way out of her situation whilst also being back in familiar surroundings minus the bad memories. No longer the elected Coroner as she had been back in Grant County where she was in practice as the local paediatrician but now an ER doc, aka Jack of All Trades.

Then Faith Mitchell a GBI agent is brought into the ER having collapsed in a car park and her GBI partner, (Will Trent the extremely tall, lanky, dyslexic and psychologically scarred agent we know and love from the Atlanta Series along with Faith), and Faith takes an immediate dislike to Sara whereas Will's feelings are very different......

Will is currently estranged from his very odd ex-police officer wife, Angie Polaski, with whom he's always had a turbulant on again, off again relationship even before they married.

While Faith and Will take over the investigation into this beaten woman's case as part of what appears to be a serial killer's rampage, Faith has to deal with some life changing events and Will has to deal with yet another brief return from Angie who once again leaves him reeling as she storms back out of his life once more.

Sara seizes the opportunity to latch onto the investigations offering help as an experienced Coroner and as the initial doctor to treat the naked, beaten woman but while Faith is suspicious of her insistance to try and muscle in, Will tries to make Faith more understanding because he suspects that Sara just needs to feel part of something she would have previously been involved in as both the Coroner and wife of a Police Chief. Meanwhile, Faith's natural curiosity, finds her unable to stop herself googling for information on Sara and when she realizes that she has access to the Jeffrey Tolliver murder case, she regrets ever prying as it makes her look at Sara in a whole new light and the two do gradually form a strange sort of bond. almost verging on friendship.

This book focuses mainly on the Faith and Will characters with Sara playing a fairly low key, but integral, part and while I kept hoping for some sort of romantic involvement between two of the characters this time, I was to be disappointed but hey, who knows what could happen in future...........

Dear Will ends up at the rough end of yet more violence which he always seems to do and has done eversince childhood in the children's home and he totally loses the plot at one point, being seriously at risk of being suspended or even fired but nobody other than the victim of his rage, is willing to acknowledge what took place. And mysteriously/conveniently the CCT footage seems to have gone missing so Will gets an unexpected reprieve even though he hates what he had momentarily become, he did have mitigating circumstances.

I have to say that as per usual with KS, she always manages to throw you some red herrings and just when you think you know what's coming next....bam! This book is dark, disturbing and downright vicious but absolutely unputdownable which you'd expect nothing less from KS.

This book is definiitely in my CPID, (could not put it down), category and I cannot wait for the next offering called Broken and which you can get a taster of in the back of this book where it would appear that another Grant County character returns..........

Well done Karin Slaughter for giving me yet more hours of enjoyment totally immersing myself in your fantastic tales.

GENESIS by Karin Slaughter is a cross-over of her two series - the first being her most known Grant County series starring Sara Linton, the other being the more recent series featuring Will Trent and Faith Mitchell. The story is based in Atlanta where Sara has moved to since the death of her husband three and a half years ago. Women have been kidnapped and brutally tortured before being found either in critical condition or dead. Will and Faith are on the case with the help of Sara to find one of the most vicious and sadistic serial killers that they have ever came across. Two women have been found so far but two more that they know of are now missing so it is a race against time to find them.

If you're a fan of either or both of Slaughter's series (like myself) then there is no doubt at all that you are going to love this book. It is more focussed on Will and Faith than Sara (she isn't in it as much as in the Grant County books) so if you are familiar with TRIPTYCH and FRACTURED it helps but is not essential. The relationship between Will and Faith feels very natural and realistic with regards to how they speak and act around one another, however their relationship with Sara does feel a little forced at times. The case is very graphic and can be quite dark and disturbing for the most part (think in the style of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS). There's quite a few suspects that could be the killer so it will keep you guessing and changing your mind the whole way through. It also gives us small chapters now and again from the perspective of the victims which tells us their fears and emotional trauma that they are going through, which just adds to the disturbing content. As well as the shocking case that the characters are all dealing with, it also touches on a lot of other matters such as Sara's grief for Jeffery (which is quite heartbreaking at times), Will's dyslexia and Faith's pregnancy and newly discovered diabetes.

Overall this is a very enjoyable novel - one of Slaughter's best I may add - and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an exciting and thought-provoking thriller. It's not essential to have read Slaughter's previous books (in both series) but does help and definitely makes you feel more for the main characters if you are familiar with them. I look forward to where she goes with her series now!

A woman runs out of the woods and is knocked down by a passing car. When the cars occupants get out of the vehicle to help the woman, they discover that she has a lot more injuries, than from being hit by the car. Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, Will Trent arrives at the scene, and he uncovers a man made chamber in the woods, were the woman hed been held captive. It appears, she is not the only person to have been kept in the chamber.

I thought this novel got off to a great start, and was riveting for the first 100 pages or so, as the scene is set. However, like it's predecessor, Fractured, I thought the pace of the story slowed down considerably in the middle part of the book, as Will and his partner Faith piece together their case, with the help of Dr. Sara Linton, (who readers may be familiar with from the 'Grant County' series of novels by this author).

The story does pick up though, towards the end and I thought it was a fairly good book, but very gruesome in places.