Indelible by Karin Slaughter

The internationally bestselling author "squarely in the ranks of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs" (Publishers Weekly) shows off her superb talent with this brilliantly conceived, skillfully executed tale of suspense.In Karin Slaughter's exciting new thriller, an officer is shot point-blank in the Grant County police station and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver is wounded, setting off a terrifying hostage situation with medical examiner Sara Linton at the center. Working outside the station, Lena Adams, newly reinstated to the force, and Frank Wallace, Jeffrey's second in command, must try to piece together who the shooter is and how to rescue their friends before Jeffrey dies. For the sins of the past have caught up with Sara and Jeffrey -- with a vengeance ...Deftly interweaving present and past, Slaughter -- dubbed "the new face of crime" by Book magazine -- offers another brilliant knife-edge tale of suspense that cements her place among the most outstanding practitioners of crime fiction today.

Indelible book #4 in the Grant County series has been my least favorite. In Karen Slaughter's style, the book opens up, and almost immediately, we are thrust into the action when armed bandits invade the police station of Grant County. She takes us on a journey to the past, explaining how Jefferey and Sara's love story began. I didn't find it much of a love story. Jefferey is the town playboy and a reformed bad boy. It is almost annoying because it is a trope of the good girl falling in love with the bad boy.

I love all of Slaughter's books so far but this one lacked the pace of the previous ones. I still enjoyed it and liked finding out some of the back story to Jeffrey but due to the switching between the two time lines, I felt like the suspense wasn't as consistent as all of the other books. Still a good read though! :)

// Indelible: making marks that cannot easily be removed.

This entry was just okay.

The book begins with a hostage situation at the police station. Jeff is hurt and needs medical attention in a hurry. To make matters worse, a group of children were touring the station and got caught up in the fray. Sara is on the scene as well and must do her best to take care of Jeff while negotiators try to figure out what to do. This is timeline one.

Timeline two flashes back to the past, when Sara and Jeff first became an item. Jeff is quick to take her on a road trip to see how the relationship will progress. They make a quick detour to his hometown and are caught up in a murder investigation. Sara has the opportunity to tour the town, learn about Jeff's questionable past, and offer her medical (and emotional) services to help identify the killer.

The dueling timelines did not work for me. I like how we essentially get two murder mysteries wrapped up in one, but I thought the pacing suffered a bit in the process. Karin Slaughter has pulled this same process off in many other books; it just did not have the same impact on me.

I'll say one thing about Sara: She sure is an understanding partner. It's kind of endearing how in love she is with Jeff, especially after the red flags start to mount into a heap. Most other characters would have probably left Jeff in the dust the moment they met his friends, learned about his reputation, or met his charming mother.

In typical fashion, the ending shines, and the conversations are thrilling. I just wish the in-between sections would have been a bit better. I'm curious to see how the next one shapes up.

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