Crime nov­el­ist, Karin Slaugh­ter, has five books avail­able in her Grant County series, a fic­tional town set out­side  Atlanta, Geor­gia. The series fea­tures Dr. Sara Lin­ton who is the town’s pedi­a­tri­cian and part-time med­ical exam­iner. Her ex-husband, Jef­frey Tol­liver is the county’s police chief. Jef­frey is an ex-jock and the main attrac­tion to the series for this reader. Slaughter’s sto­ries are not for the faint of heart as there is plenty of graphic vio­lence and dis­turb­ing sto­ries that are real­is­tic in their por­trayal and conclusions.

Slaugh­ter has explored many dif­fer­ent sub­jects includ­ing pedophilia (Kiss­cut) and vic­tim recov­ery of a major char­ac­ter. The author’s sto­ries are char­ac­ter dri­ven. Why do I love read­ing her? I love her autho­r­ial voice. She explores sub­jects that are indeed scary and real­is­tic. I love the con­tentious rela­tion­ship between Jef­fery and Sara Lin­ton. Hon­estly, that is the biggest draw out­side the mys­tery. Just to be clear: these books are not romances nor are they romantic.

Like a Charm: A Novel in Voices The books can stand alone quite well. That’s a rar­ity with con­nected books these days. This series is still going strong. If I had to pick a favorite of the series, it would be Kiss­cut because it was a page-turner for me. I still have Faith­less on my shelf wait­ing to be read. I have a reader’s quirk of hoard­ing books by my favorite authors. I knew Slaugh­ter wouldn’t be writ­ing a Grant County novel any­time soon so I am hoard­ing it.  I hope many of you who enjoy mys­ter­ies will give her a try if your not averse to vio­lence or put off by Ama​zon​.com reviews.  Karin Slaugh­ter recently released her first stand alone, Tryp­tych, which I have yet to read. Slaugh­ter edited and con­tributed to an anthol­ogy, Like a Charm, that I have on my shelf. Any­way, here are the books in the Grant County series in order of pub­li­ca­tion below. I’ve cor­re­sponded a few times with Ms. Slaugh­ter. She is gra­cious and responds back to her fans in a timely man­ner. As far as I know her web­site is almost always updated. She runs the most inter­est­ing con­tests.  One day,  I’d love to meet her so that she can sign all my first edi­tion copies of her nov­els. Check her out.

  1. Blind­sighted (2001)

  2. Kiss­cut (2002)

  3. A Faint Cold Fear (2003)

  4. Indeli­ble (2004)

  5. Faith­less (2005)