Broken - Softcover

Karin Slaughter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846056721 ISBN 13: 9781846056727

Publisher: Century, 2010

Synopsis

When the body of a young woman is discovered deep beneath the icy waters of Lake Grant, a note left under a rock by the shore points to suicide. But within minutes, it becomes clear that this is no suicide. It's a brutal, cold-blooded murder.All too soon, former Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton - home for Thanksgiving after a long absence - finds herself unwittingly drawn into the case. The chief suspect is desperate to see her, but when she arrives at the local police station she is met with a horrifying sight - he lies dead in his cell, the words 'Not me' scrawled across the walls.Something about his confession doesn't add up and, deeply suspicious of Lena Adams, the detective in charge, Sara immediately calls in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Shortly afterwards, Special Agent Will Trent is brought in from his vacation to investigate. But he is immediately confronted with a wall of silence. Grant County is a close-knit community with loyalties and ties that run deep. And the only person who can tell the truth about what really happened is dead...

About this title

Review

Karin Slaughter on Broken

For me, every novel begins with character rather than plot. I know something bad is going to happen, but the central question to every story I write is "how will my characters respond?" Over the years, I’ve certainly thrown some hard times at my Grant County characters. Jeffrey, Sara and Lena have changed a lot since Blindsighted, my first novel. They’ve seen hardship and adversity, grown together and grown apart. They have helped me explore the way crime can change not just people, but entire communities.

When I started writing about Will Trent in my Atlanta series, I wanted to take that exploration a step farther. As a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Will is generally called in when the local police either can’t handle or don’t want to deal with a case. Not only does he have to find the bad guy, he has to juggle the various egos already involved. This is certainly the situation in Broken, when Will is called into Grant County to investigate a possible suicide in police custody. He butts heads with Lena Adams and Frank Wallace, and uncovers a truth that most in the town do not want to see.

Bringing Will Trent into Sara Linton’s world was a fun challenge for me. With Undone, it was in many ways easy to put Sara in Atlanta. I live in the city, and the landscape is already painted for me. As a writer, I need only draw in the fine lines. Dropping Will into Grant County was a different challenge altogether. To work with an existing world that has developed over the course of eight books, to find new and interesting details for long-time readers, was a thrilling challenge to me. Finding a case that was as gripping as it was challenging was also an exciting rollercoaster ride. I hope my readers enjoy solving the crime--and watching the characters change along with it--as much as I did.

(Photo © Alison Rosa)

About the Author

Karin Slaughter grew up in a small south Georgia town and has been writing since she was a child. She is the author of the international bestsellers Blindsighted, Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless, Skin Privilege, Triptych, Fractured and Genesis. She is also the author of the darkly comic novella Martin Misunderstood. and the editor of and contributor to Like a Charm, a collaboration of British and American crime fiction writers. She lives in Atlanta. To find out more about Karin Slaughter visit her website at www.karinslaughter.com

Edition details

• Publisher: Century
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846056721
• ISBN 13: 9781846056727
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416