How Much Can One Couple Take? (Indelible - Karin Slaughter)

Member Name: wendybull

Product:	Indelible - Karin Slaughter
Date:	03/05/08 (88 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Still an enjoyable read

Disadvantages: Maybe a bit too much now...

Indelible is my fourth Karin Slaughter book and although was one I read quickly as I enjoyed it, it didn't quite live up to the last three in my opinion.

Jeffrey Tolliver Chief of Police and his ex-wife (divorced but seeing each other again) Sara Linton are in Jeffrey's office heatedly discussing the point of not getting re-married when Jeffrey is summoned to the front desk by the secretary as there is a young man waiting to see him. Sara gives up the argument and follows Jeffrey through intending to leave the station and carry on with her days work as local paediatrician and county coroner.

That is until the young man at the front desk, blasts his way through most of the squad in the room and detectives entering the station. Jeffrey is seriously wounded in the shoulder and a group of children on a school visit are wounded and scared. Sara goes to Jeffrey and it soon becomes clear what the deranged gun man wants.

There are two stories working side by side here and they are separated by the fact that one is the present day gun siege at the station and the other is going back in time to when Jeffrey and Sara first met. These chapters seem to dominate the book to be honest as there were more crimes to be solved in Jeffrey's home town when he first took Sara there at the beginning of their relationship.

I enjoyed both sides to the story, although did find the story set back in time was a little over the top. Being the fourth book in a series featuring the same people, you do get to the point where you think how much more can a couple take? The double whammy of current day and past events only seemed to exacerbate this feeling and left me finding it a bit unrealistic. I am not fussy when it comes to crime thrillers as I don't expect it to mirror true life and am happy to fill in any blanks myself to an extent and even accept major coincidences in order to wrap things up, but this was just a little too much in my opinion.

A lot of the tension in the past tense story also hinged on Jeffrey and Sara's relationship and how they would react to each other. Mainly Sara's reactions were scrutinised as Jeffry had taken her to his hometown and she was finding out a lot of things about him that she had not known before. Things were coming into the open that Jeffrey had not expected and Sara was having to deal with some pretty awful things. I found this hard to sympathise with though as I had read the three previous books and knew what would happen with their relationship - good and bad - so although the details of their past were interesting it didn't create the tension and build up that I think was hoped for.

The thing I enjoyed about the book though was the fact that I got to know a little bit more about some of the smaller characters in the book that had been speckled through the previous stories and this was nice as page fillers although I would not refer to it as padding. The chapters were a little long for me and I do prefer shorter chapters so I can pick it up and read a couple at bedtime or while I have a spare ten minutes and it was harder to do that with this book, however it was nice when I had a while to read as you could really get into the story.

I have made this book sound quite negative but I really did enjoy it. I like Karin Slaughter as an author and really get pleasure from her books, and this novel was nearly as enjoyable and I certainly didn't get bored reading it but at the same time I didn't get that excitable edge as I had with the others. Still recommended though, especially if you have enjoyed the previous Grant County instalments.

Summary: Still Recommended