Fallen: A Novel [Hardcover]

Karin Slaughter has been entertaining her fans with exciting thrillers with ten novels to her name. One of the reasons that she is so well thought of is that she describes her characters in a way that makes the reader want to know more.

Faith Mitchell shows that she's got the same problems as many parents. She has an infant being watched by her mother and must get home to pick up the child.

Her mother, Evelyn, a retired police commander, is watching Faith's four-month-old dauther, Emma. Faith has been through countless training exercises but when she sees a bloody handprint on her mother's door, she goes into another gear.

After Faith calls for backup, she senses that her mother is in danger and decides not to wait. She enters the home and finds one man deceased, then she confronts two others. There is a deadly encounter at this point that is most visual, as if the reader were watching the action taking place before them.

Will Trent is Faith's partner. Amanda Wagner is his boss and Evelyn's best friend. They lead the investigation and we learn that Evelyn was the commander of a narcotics division prior to her retirement. There was a situation within her unit and due to the legal implications, Evelyn took an early retirment.

The story deals with the loyalty Will and Amanda have for their friend Evelyn. The evidence seems to show that there may be a problem with Evelyn's background but her friends remain strong in their belief of her.

There is also an interesting subplot as Will and Dr. Sara Linton spend time together and form a romantic relationship. We also see Faith wanting to do everything that she can to save her mother and so she begins her own investigation.

The story moves along swiftly and with an inventive plot, knock out characters and a fascinating conclusion, this makes for an engrossing read.

Disclaimer: Reviewer received a free copy of this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

Fallen, by Karin Slaughter, is the latest book in her series following Dr. Sara Linton and GBI Investigator, Will Trent. In this book, GBI Investigator Faith Mitchell arrives at her mother's house after work to pick up her baby daughter, only to find her daughter locked in the tool shed, her mother missing, and several gang members occupying her mother's house, which soon turns into a bloody battlefield. The action continues as Faith's formidable boss, Amanda Wagner, arrives and butts head with the Atlanta Police Department over jurisdiction. Amanda and Will pursue their investigation, as do the Atlanta Police Department, and Faith tries to pursue her own investigation and find her mother while keeping her son and daughter safe.

The mystery plot is confusing, often hard to follow, and reaches back to Will Trent's early years when he investigated Faith's mother for corruption and arrested many of the men in her squad. The book is peppered with an array of former police officers who have been or still are imprisoned, and a conglomeration of gang members. As always, Amanda knows more than she's telling but Will chafes more than usual under her manipulation of him and the people around him.

The mystery, really didn't hold my attention much-- there were just too many characters and too many subplots, and I wasn't able to keep track of all of them. What really made this book for me was the byplay between Will and Amanda, Will and Faith, Will and Angie, and Will and Sara. In this book we finally see Will start to take a step forward out of the well of misery, humiliation and sadness that has been his life, and his inner core of pure goodness comes through. What kept me turning the pages was seeing how far Amanda could push him and wondering if he would ever push back.

If you have never read a book in this series before, I would advise you to read some of the other books before you read this one so you can get familiar with the characters. If you are really interested in a plot involving a bunch of former cops and shady gang members and an old investigation about police corruption, this book may not be the one for you. But if you have become as involved in these characters as I have and want to read about a turning point in the development of Will's character, you have to read this book.

(And just as a note, I am racking my brain trying to figure out what the obscene name is that Will wants to call Amanda that rhymes with her own name, but I'm just not getting it!)

Karin Slaughter has surprised me in the past with her ability to write thrillers that are not standard, write-by-numbers, predictable stories. She usually has really interesting and nuanced characters who are incredibly unique and likeable, and plots that are anything but run-of-the-mill. Unfortunately, this latest offering seemed to me to fall short of her usual writing prowess.

This book features cop and single mother Faith Mitchell, who comes home from work to find her mother missing and a dead body. As expected this ignites an investigation that quickly derails with way too many characters, subplots, and complications. This would be okay if there was a reward at the end of the story, but there's not. The motivation for most of the criminals in this case is never made clear, and the book has too many half-baked red herrings involving years-old cases.

Overall, I'd probably give this one a pass. I am sure Ms. Slaughter has many excellent stories left in her; this just did not happen to be one of them.