Review of "Unseen"[45]

Unseen: A Novel by Kari Slaughter
Delacorte Press, ISBN 978-0345539472
July 2, 2013, 400 pages

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Special Agent Will Trent has something to hide. Something he doesn't want Dr Sara Linton – the woman he loves – to find out.
He's gone undercover in Macon, Georgia and put his life at risk. And he knows Sara will never forgive him if she discovers the truth.

But when a young Macon patrolman is shot and left for dead Sara is forced to confront the past and a woman she hoped never to see again. And without even knowing it, she becomes involved in the same case Will is working on. Soon both of their lives are in danger.

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The reason Sara must head to Macon is that the patrolman shot, Jared, is the son of her husband, Sheriff Jeffrey Tolliver, who was killed because of a case he was involved in. The woman Sara hoped never to see again is Jared's wife and the woman Sara blames for Jeffrey's death, Lena. But she feels she owes it to her dead husband to be there, see if she can assist, so she goes. Because that is the sort of woman Sara is. One reason I do not like Sara. And I do not.

She is just so perfect. Well, except for blaming Lena for things she has no control over and holding on to one heck of a totally unreasonable hatred of Lena for years.
I like Lena. Oh sure, she is a screw up. But she knows it and she tries to do better. And she has failed..and tried again. She tries to do what is right, but with her history, so many triggers, so many it is not easy. She is actually doing better, her marriage to Jared going well. At least until it recently hit a big bump. And she is very respected at her job as a police officer. Well, until that mysterious gone bad drug raid that may be the reason their home was invaded and Jared hangs barely on to his life. And how does it all tie into the investigation Will is undercover on..and it does in a very unexpected way.

Another reason I do not like Sara is her relationship with Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Will Trent. I like Will, and he is too good for her. Talk about a history...Will's body, full of scars and cigarette burns gives a hint of what his childhood was like. But he has overcome it all ...and more...to become a fine man. Too good for Sara in my estimation.

To really appreciate Slaughter's books they should be read in order. These characters have a long and complex and intertwined history that you should know to appreciate the present story. And most of the books in the series are excellent, so once you start, you will want to read them all. True, not all the books are excellent. Some are just very good, and for me, Unseen was in that second category. Why is it not her best?

Personally, I am tired of the whole Lena/Sara fight. Let's move on. Hopefully, it is pretty much over by the end of this book. I guess it is too much to hope Slaughter might kill Sara off. She has killed major characters before! But still, I think too much of this book was taken up with the rivalry and distracting from the main story. Also, I thought, for Slaughters books, this one was a lot less..what? Less shocking, less violent, less surprising?

The biggest problem was that this book lacked , for me, Slaughter's Wow Factor.
Let me explain what I mean by that.
With the best of this series, several times in the book I will reach the end of a chapter and Slaughter will throw in some fact, some event, some revelation that has me literally saying out loud "Wow!!" She is able, time after time, to totally surprise me. That is rare and I love it. You look back and say "Of course!", but you never saw it coming. This time, there was only one "Wow". For any other author that would be very good, but I just expect so much from Slaughter that I was a little let down. Maybe I just expect too much because she often delivers so much. By normal standards this is a very good book, just not her best.

If you are a fan of the series, you will want to grab this one up and see what happens to all these great characters you have come to love..or hate. The rest of you, go back to the beginning and have a great time catching up.

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My thanks to Amazon Vine and the publisher for providing a review copy. 

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