BLINDSIGHTED [GRANT COUNTY BOOK #1] By KARIN SLAUGHTER
MY REVIEW FIVE STARS*****
I was a fan of Karin Slaughter's novels over a decade ago, but became reacquainted with her works rather recently in a somewhat unusual fashion. To be brief, I spotted CRIMINAL (her 6th installment of the WILL TRENT BOOKS) on a list [SERIAL KILLER THRILLERS: TEN OF THE BEST]. courtesy of CrimeFictionLover.Com. Instead of taking a direct route and buying a copy of CRIMINAL, I opted to read all of Slaughter's WILL TRENT BOOKS in chronological order, to include my "target" (CRIMINAL), and three of the novels that followed in the series. I stopped only after reading UNSEEN BOOK 7 (2013). I am "coming back" for A KEPT WOMAN (Book 8 of the WILL TRENT SERIES).
It occurred to me that I had cheated myself by not REALLY going back to the beginning, that is, to before Karin Slaughter was a household name. Her debut novel BLINDSIGHTED awaited me, the book that first introduced pediatrician and coroner Dr. Sara Linton (and the small town setting of Grant County, Georgia).
I finished reading BLINDSIGHTED early last month, but I'm just getting around to leaving a review. It was dubbed an "ME thriller" pretty much out of the gate per some reviews I glanced at or even "Thomas Harris Meets Patricia Cornwell". It was my impression that the editorial reviews were in some cases lackluster or even on the negative side due to the critics having set an extraordinarily high bar given the pre-release praise. This was circa 2001 and I was reading Cornwell during the '90's and gobbling up every new release of this amazing author's work. Thomas Harris was deemed an incomparable author with perhaps the most original villain in crime fiction history with the likes of Dr. Hannibal Lector. I was proudly displaying hardcover editions of The Red Dragon and SOL at this time, and Cornwell's ME novels was a high bar to be sure.
But I digress---the thing is---I just wasn't expecting to be exactly "blown away" by the first Slaughter novel BLINDSIGHTED (2001). Some reviewers were declaring that Sara Linton "is no Kay Scarpetta" and that Slaughter's villain was no more than "a mere shadow of the complex, chilling Hannibal.." The truth is that had I read BLINDSIGHTED in 2001 I might not have found it to be a serial killer thriller with such a smart, intuitive, likeable female protagonist, nail-biting suspense, and with such an intriguing sociopathic sexual predator. Looking at this novel nearly two decades down the pages of times, I am THRILLED that Sara is no Kay Scarpetta, and while I love Hannibal Lector, it is Karin Slaughter who has risen to the challenge of continuing to thrill us with her GRANT COUNTY BOOK series and her intersecting series of BOOKS featuring the indomitable Will Trent with all of the ancillary characters in his universe. She is the author who sets the newest gold standard for excellence. She did not stop writing after half a dozen novels, or continue to write but with diminishing returns. We refer to "Early Cornwell", "Early Patterson". "Early Koontz".. and at least in my case "Early Stephen King" for a reason.
I loved so many aspects of BLINDSIGHTED, but I'll try to describe just a few. It was MY first introduction to the world of Lena Adams, a young woman hand-picked from the academy by Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver, largely because of her relentless desire to serve as well as succeed as a cop, later a detective. Lena wears a proverbial "chip on (her) shoulder" with the same "in your face" fierceness as she wears her badge and gun. The reader learns that Lena's background is one of poverty and painful personal loss that leaves her emotionally guarded and hobbled by serious intimacy issues. She distances herself from everyone in her orbit with the sole exception of her twin sister Sibyl. It is thus a devastating emotional blow to her entire being when Sybil is violated and viciously murdered in the opening pages of the novel. She pushes potential allies away, including her only remaining blood relative (Hank, the uncle who raised her and Sibyl), her boss Jeffrey, and naturally any psychological counseling. Lena's rage is barely contained, and her own self-worth is directly tied to her Detective Shield. It is Lena's story that captivates me the most in the novel.
It is within the context of interchanges between Jeffrey and Lena that the reader learns more about Lena's belief system. Her perception of the targets of sexual predators, the victims of rape is simply shocking --- she places the blame on the female, i.e., that it is only the weak, stupid, or unprepared that are victimized. It is such misogynistic garbage being uttered from the lips of a young woman it made me want to gasp. But then we are given more reasons to dislike Lena than to sympathize with her. Her Uncle Hank (who raised the twin girls) comes to town following Sibyl's murder. He is a recovered drug addict/alcoholic who bears the scars of needle tracks on his arms while the scars inside his psyche will never heal, only be rendered more bearable by the service he can provide to Lena in particular and humanity in general. Lena is hostile and even aggressive toward him, outwardly demonstrating her hatred, shame, and disdain for this man who made horrible mistakes yet paid his dues. Perhaps even more inflammatory and harder to take is Lena's actions toward her murdered sister's lover and life partner. She approached her own sister's lesbianism with anger, denial, and shame when she was alive. Ruefully not much changes when Sybil is gone and lost to Lena, her partner who loved her, and the gay community who welcomed them both with friendship. Lena confronts Nan with anger, a lack of empathy and compassion that is staggering. She is cold, distant, and unsympathetic---her "go-to" emotional coping strategies. We get to know the young Lena as a unforgiving, misogynistic, and homophobic bitch. It becomes easy to grasp why that the mature Dr. Linton had little time for the impulsive, perpetually angry hellcat that was Lena Adams.
Before I forget, Slaughter used her "single-word title" here, and I always enjoy trying to decipher her intent and the undercurrent of her choices. In this case it meshes with the author's intriguing use of BELLADONNA as the drug of choice that our villainous lust killer uses to facilitate his horrendous crimes against his female victims. In fact, the word "blindsighted" strictly speaking refers to the ability of a person without sight to nevertheless be able to sense objects within the environment. BELLADONNA is a drug which creates a perception problem in an otherwise sighted person. The victim may discern properties that are associated with an object but their perception is distorted to the extent that they can't identify the object. This side effect and other properties of belladonna make it an incredibly interesting choice, more mind-bending than LSD. But for the purpose of the novel, at first blush I felt that it translated to point out that our protagonists viewed everything in front of them in full Technicolor, and yet could not tell what they were really seeing. Specifically, they could not put the pieces together.
I am not especially concerned about spoiler alerts, but "just in case" there is an "old" Slaughter fan out there like me that is just now getting around to reading BLINDSIGHTED, I'll just say that Lena lives to rue her earlier assessments of a lot of things, including what it means to be a victim, and how she perceives some of the people in her orbit. The back story of Sara's time in Atlanta and what prompted her to return to GRANT COUNTY, the interplay between Sara and Jeffrey (set two years following their divorce), and the race against time to intercept and stop the trajectory of a remorseless sadistic sexual predator from killing again...this is intense, mesmerizing, and absolutely riveting stuff. I REALLY enjoyed this book and look forward to reading all of the books included in the entire GRANT COUNTY series.
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The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more
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Reviews with images
Very good buy
Bought used, no creases in the pages, there were a couple scuffs on the dust jacket, but that's to be expected and they weren't too noticeable. Very happy overall and can't wait to give this book a read!
Top reviews from other countries
Leigh77
Brilliant, gripping, could not put it down!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 27, 2023
