A Review of "Blindsighted" [83]

Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter
William Morrow, ISBN 978-0688174576
September 4, 2001, 320 pages

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In the little Georgia town of Heartsdale, Sara Linton, pediatrician and part time coroner, walks down to the diner to have lunch with her sister...and ends up being part of a truly horrific crime. In the restroom, she finds Sibyl Adams, raped...in a truly horrible way, and assaulted...in a  truly horrible way. The woman dies in her arms and Sara is drawn into the middle of a nightmare that is just beginning and will soon envelop the entire town. There is no way Sara can not be a part of it because not only is she a witness to the college professor's death and the coroner that must process her body, helping to search for clues, but her ex-husband Jeffery Tolliver, is the head of the local police department  and one of his detectives, Lena Adams, was the victim's sister.
And then for Sara there is a very personal tie to her own past as well. It is a past she would like to keep secret, a past she would life to forget. But as the postcard she received that very day reminds her, the twelfth making the anniversary of the event that changed her life forever, that will never happen. Little does she know though how close to home it is going to come once more.

This book, the first book written by Slaughter, is also the first book in her Grant County series and introduces us to a number of characters that will continue to populate her later books. And at that task, I think she totally succeeds. Sara, Jeffery, Lena and a number of minor characters are excellently painted and the reader can not help but want to read the next books in the series to find out more about them. Quite honestly, they are not always totally likable, but  I think that just adds to what makes them interesting.
The plot is fast paced and pretty smart, by which I mean that the characters did a minimum of really stupid things. It really is what you would call a page turner.
But...and you knew a but was coming, didn't you?...there is one big flaw with the book for me. The villain who has committed these unspeakable crimes is pretty darn obvious. As in not only do all the clues point to one person but we are not really offered anyone else in the story that it really could be. I like to guess who we are looking for, but ideally we are mislead enough by the author to turn out wrong. This time I was sadly, all too easily, right.

I must also warn potential readers that this is a pretty graphic book. The descriptions of the crimes are not for the weak stomached or overly sensitive. No, for all it setting in a quiet little southern college town, this is book contains some pretty gruesome descriptions. OK, for me that is not a negative thing, but I know not everyone shares my taste in what might be considered very uncozy mystery/thrillers.

This is not a perfect book, but I think that the negatives, mainly the obvious evildoer, are far outweighed by the positives. Great characters, a good, fast paced, engaging plot and a good setting are all factors that should recommend this book to readers looking for a great, entertaining series. 

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