Blindsighted

Pediatrician Sara Linton is on her way to lunch with her sister when she discovers the mutilated body of a blind college professor in the restaurant bathroom. It's a particularly sadistic killing and the small community is in shock. Chief of Police Jeffrey Tolliver, who is Sara's ex-husband, has to inform one of his detectives, Lena Adams, that the victim is her twin sister. Before long the investigation leads to a missing co-ed, and suspicion falls on her boyfriend, a drug dealer. But he's being held in jail when she is found on the hood of Sara's car, raped and heavily drugged.

The title refers to a number of plots in the story. A toxicology report reveals that the killer dosed his victims with belladonna, a drug that renders users show more blindsighted, where they are conscious but unable to process what they see or what is happening to them. Sara and Jeffrey have been divorced for two years but continue to work together because Sara is also the town coroner. They realize they must also face the secrets of their pasts which they had turned a blind eye to over the years.

I've read the entire series featuring characters from this first book written in 2001 and am currently listening to all the audios. This is an extremely mature first novel, with well-developed characters and a finely tuned plot. It has a lot of sadistic details too. Because I listened to the audio version, I often wish I could skip some of the details of the victims. However, it's a gripping story that blasts its way through to the shocking and suspenseful final page. show less

I side-eye men who use the word 'c*nt' in any context, especially the particular jocularity with which British and Australian men use it. I follow a general rule of thumb: if a man has screamed a particularly gendered word in a woman's face while he raped or murdered her, then it's really not something I want to hear from a man's mouth ever, in jest or otherwise. This book does a really good job of showing precisely why.

There's three alternating perspectives in the book: the local pediatrician/county medical examiner Sara Linton, county police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, and angry cop with a chip on her shoulder Lena Adams.

Right off the bat Lena's identical twin sister is drugged, raped, tortured, and murdered in Grant County's most show more popular diner and Sara finds her body. And off we go. The crimes are very Patrick Bateman in execution and I guess the gruesomeness was the point.

There was a ridiculous scene where Sara, after doing an autopsy on the murdered woman, guesses she's a lesbian because she'd had an intact hymen at age 33 and had lived with a woman for six years. Which is just so ridiculous I can barely find the words to quantify why. I can only assume it's based on the heterosexual myth that lesbians only engage in non-penetrative oral sex or something? Anyway, it's extremely mega unlikely that a sexually active 33 year year old lesbian would have an intact hymen and I've been thinking about it for days because it was so out of place.

Sara was my favourite because Jeffrey and Lena felt a bit too trope-y to me. Lena is very much the well-trodden archtype of the woman who thinks she'd act differently than the rape victim she has in front of her. Guess what happens to her in the last quarter of the book? If you guessed a prolonged period of being drugged, tortured and raped where she changes her mind, which is graphically described then you are right.

Jeffrey's supposed to be the quintessential "good" man and "good" cop. He's not really either. He used to be married to Sara but cheated on her for the usual Dumb Man™ reasons (ie he did the standard thing where he refused to see Sara as a fully-formed human person but instead as an adjunct of himself and her refusal to give him every part of herself rankled his desire for submission rather than invoking self-reflection). He continued to do Dumb Man™ things throughout the book which was actually quite good characterization but super annoying when his narrative doesn't really add much. I guess we were supposed to feel bad that he's just a Dumb Man™ and thus is only learning how to be sensitive to 50% of the population but I fundamentally do not care about the feelingw of men discovering women are human beings.

It was compellingly written enough that I made it to the end (and not out of spite), but I don't know whether I'd categorize it as 'good' or as something I genuinely liked. There was just something missing for me. I probably would have liked it more if Jeffrey's perspectives had been cut but I suspect Karin Slaughter knew that a straight white male perspective would be needed to market the book in the genre. It also ends abruptly and doesn't do a decent wrap up with such serious material.

Really bad form to go from a rape victim wishing she was dead in the penultimate chapter to Jeffrey forcing his way back into Sara's life, not growing at all from his "stupid mistake" (his words) and telling her he would find her no matter where she goes because he loves her. This was immediately after telling her that the man who raped her twelve years before still kept tabs on her (which she already knew). I think we're supposed to find it a romantic declaration but it comes across as Jeffrey learning literally nothing.

This book was in the building's laundry room, and thus free and that's apparently all it takes sometimes for me to read something. I'll probably return it there because I don't really want to keep it. show less

Everyone in Slaughter's debut "Grant County" novel seems to have a chip on their shoulder: the women are perpetually angry, the men are clueless louts, and feelings seem to get in the way of every damn thing. It's little wonder then that when a macabre murder takes place at the local diner it causes each person to go into damage control when personal skeletons start flying out of closets...especially for pathologist Sarah Linton and her police detective ex-husband Jeffrey. But despite some tedious navel-gazing and soap opera dialogue of the "I still love you!" variety it's an easy read with an acceptably theatrical climax. I'll probably end up reading the other five books.

Blindsighted
4 Stars

Warning: this book is not for the squeamish or faint of heart as the crimes are described in gruesome and horrific detail.

While the characters are very compelling it is difficult to say that they are likable. They are all seriously flawed from Sara, the local pediatrician/coroner, with a devastating secret to Jeffrey, the local police chief and Sara's unfaithful ex-husband, to Lena, the hard-ass female detective with a huge chip on her shoulder. Nevertheless, the plot is well-written and fast paced although the villain is a little too obvious- the fact that he uses Belladonna makes him the only viable suspect, and the ending is somewhat anti-climactic.

This is my second Karin Slaughter book and I enjoy her dark and show more gritty writing style. Moreover, the characters are sufficiently interesting to continue with the series. show less

BLINDSIGHTED, Karin Slaughter’s first novel in her Grant County series, leaves me surprisingly pleased. I’m surprised because, although her two standalones that I read (COP TOWN and PRETTY GIRLS) are excellent, I was dissatisfied with the two books I read in her Will Trent series. But this series is just different enough to make me want more. So I’m happy that I started this Grant County series at the beginning, i.e., with "Grant County, #1." Now I intend to read the rest of the series in order.

Told from the perspectives of three people in Grant County (Sara, the coroner and a pediatrician; Jeffrey, the police chief and Sara’s ex-husband; and Lena, a detective), BLINDSIGHTED’s plot involves their hunting down and interaction show more with a serial rapist. But there is more to this novel than that. As with all Slaughter’s novels, BLINDSIGHTED is not only plot driven. The three main characters also have personal stories, including their thoughts and feelings throughout. It is these personal stories that, in the end, leave the reader hanging just enough to make her anxious to read Grant County, #2, KISSCUT. show less

A small Georgia town erupts on panic when a young college professor is found brutally mutilated in the local diner. It’s only when the town pediatrician and coroner does the autopsy that 5he full extent of the killer’s twisted work becomes clear.
Sara’s ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, leads the nvestigation-a trail of terror that grows increasingly macabre when another local woman is found crucified a few days later.
Moves very quickly, holds one’s interest, but I often wonder at the sickness of an author’s mind to write about these things. Always a woman brutally victimized

This didn't get off to a good start with me. The prose was rather flat, the characters didn't have much in the way of real depth, and the opening crime was gratuitously gruesome. But I thought I'd stick with it, give it a chance, see what I felt when I got up to page 50 at least. Only I didn't even make it to page 50; I stopped at page 32.

Murder can be tricky to write about, because it's disturbing making such a violent crime entertainment. And murder with a sexual aspect is trading a fine line between Too Disturbing and Genuine Thrilling Entertainment. And then, of course, one can always drive a Humvee over the demarcation and make your readers feel ill.

I'm not usually overly worried by graphic violence; although I do acknowledge that show more sexual violence is a whole 'nother kettle of fish for me. Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo definitely trod a fine line, but with Lisbeth being such a strong character, a survivor and more, I hoovered up the books. And I was a fan of Dr Kay Scarpetta back in the day, I did love reading about the maggoty goodness of forensic medicine.

But. The murder in Blindsighted was violent, sexual, degrading, and just plain ICK. A combo I did not appreciate.

I only stopped myself from throwing the book across the room because it's a library book and I didn't want to have to explain any damage to the librarians. But I'm the only person on LT to give it a 1/2 star rating. So obviously other people differ from me.

I can't believe anyone can read something this disturbing as entertainment. Anyone who wants to claim I've misunderstood this book, that's fine, you're entitled to your opinion. And I'm entitled to be slightly worried about you. show less