Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Slaughter departs from her Grant County crime series (Faithless, etc.) with a stand-alone thriller notable mainly for a jolting mid-book twist similar to one Ira Levin used with more subtlety in A Kiss Before Dying. The case of a prostitute's brutal murder provides a welcome break for Michael Ormewood, a cynical, world-weary Atlanta cop weighed down by dealing with the city's underclass and the heartbreak of a mentally impaired son. Since the victim's tongue was severed, linking the crime to several other recent outrages, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation intervenes. Suspicions focus on a recently paroled sex offender, John Shelley, who viciously butchered a neighbor more than a decade earlier. Slaughter unexpectedly switches the narrative's perspective, but the shock value garnered by the plot twist isn't matched by the predictable denouement. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Taking a break from her well-regarded series about Grant County Medical Examiner Dr. Sara Linton (Faithless, 2005, etc.), Slaughter turns to a stand-alone in which horrific physical violence grows out of the psychological kind. Nobody would care about Aleesha Monroe, the prostitute slain in an Atlanta housing project, if her killer hadn't bitten off her tongue. But because Aleesha's the fourth such victim in recent months, Det. Michael Ormewood is under intense pressure from his lieutenant to close the case--even though Michael's already got his hands full juggling a mentally challenged son and a seductive next-door neighbor. The pressure is only intensified when Will Trent, of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Special Criminal Apprehension Team, is assigned to the case, and when Will starts to lean on his childhood friend, Vice cop Angie Polaski, for help. Across town, saintlike John Shelley, just released from prison after serving 20 years for rape and murder, has troubles of his own: a dead-end job, a roach-infested apartment, a hard-nosed parole officer and the certainty that everyone who sees him knows he did time for killing a 15-year-old girl. When John, after rescuing a hooker from assault, walks her home and pays her colleague Robin to tell him about her first kiss, the story takes wing, and Slaughter, whose hallmark in her first five novels had been grueling forensics, shows a rare and generous capacity for compassion. Though there are mysteries along the way--how did John manage to compile a stratospheric credit rating while he was in stir, and what's the connection between the violence past and present?--Slaughter has the courage to detonate her biggest bombshells early on, keeping even the wariest readers off-balance and leaving the last act for a settling of accounts. The volcanic heroes and villains, who act both surprisingly and logically, are a welcome sign that Slaughter's trademark franchise only hints at the range of her gifts. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In her first stand-alone thriller since she began writing her best-selling Grant County series (the latest is Faithless, 2005), Slaughter continues to obsess over her favorite theme--the close link between intimacy and violence. In this intricately plotted page-turner of a novel, there's a serial killer at work in Atlanta, and he likes his victims young. His telltale m.o.--biting off his victims' tongues--brings in Will Trent, an agent from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, but the latest vicious murder doesn't fit with the previous cases. For one thing, the victim is a drug-addicted black prostitute in her thirties. Will is assigned to work the case with local detective Michael Ormewood, a hard-to-read veteran who resents Will's presence. Will also calls upon vice-squad undercover agent Angie Polaski, a lifelong friend he first met in an orphanage where they were both placed after suffering severe abuse--their on-again, off-again romantic relationship is a source of comfort and frustration for both of them. Suspicious of authority and severely dyslexic, Will slowly pieces together an investigation that leads to feckless ex-con John Shelley, a man so stunted by his prison stint that he can barely function yet comes roaring back to life when he senses that his newfound freedom is about to be snatched away. Slaughter is keenly interested in the root causes of sexual perversity, and she writes about them so affectingly that her fascinations also become the readers'. --Joanne Wilkinson Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Atlanta detective Michael Ormewood squares off against an ex-con with nothing left to lose. Let the Slaughter begin! (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
