Faithless, not the crime fiction I was looking for (Faithless - Karin Slaughter)

Member Name: wolfey59

Product:	Faithless - Karin Slaughter
Date:	28/07/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some gruesome parts near the end

Disadvantages: Not really faced paced and lots of description

I love a good crime fiction novel so when I was presented with a buy one get one free voucher on crime fiction novels, this was one of the ones I chose. I had previously bought one of Karin Slaughter's novels on audio CD and really enjoyed it, so I thought I would read one of her books.

This book is part of a series featuring Detective Jeffrey Tolliver and a part time medical examiner Sarah Linton. It is number 5 of her series featuring these characters.

Although I started half way through the series it wasn't too daunting as the story started with lots of history about what had happened in other novels and effectively filled the reader in on the details.

The story starts with Sarah and Jeffrey taking a walk when they stumble over a boy that has been buried in the ground in a box. They fall over an air tube which was sticking out of the ground. This indicates that the girl was buried alive and died in the box. After carrying out the autopsy Sarah reveals some terrifying truths about what happened to the girl which leads them to an isolated, god fearing community in the next county. The story then carries on going back and forth to the community in order to find out what happened to the girl.

I was quite disappointed by this book. I like my crime novels fast paced, making me not want to put it down, but this novel had the opposite effect. The chapters were very long and often, if I put the book down in the middle of a chapter I would start reading again and forget what had happened. There were several boring bits where the same information would be repeated, or it would involve too much description. Sometimes it would even take too long to do things as well and I got bored.

After the initial body is found there are not many other interesting murders. The best one is near the end when one of the characters dies because he is poisoned. The description of how he died and the sudden, unexpected nature of the death causes excitement.

I have found that Karin Slaughter often concentrates a lot on family life as well as the murder in hand and there are no exceptions in this book. Sarah and Jeffrey have had a difficult relationship throughout the series and this story brings them together a bit more. I think the home life part of the story helps set up the characters but often can be over done and slightly off putting from the rest of the story.

I probably wouldn't read this book again but I would like to read the rest of the books in the series to find out what happens between Sarah and Jeffrey and to see if all of the books are as slow as this or more of them are as gripping as they are made out to be.

Summary: Wouldn't read this one again