Faint Cold Fear [Hardcover]

Karin Slaughter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 2003

THE STUNNING NEW THRILLER FROM INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER KARIN SLAUGHTER Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus. The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues - and the college authorities are keen to avoid a scandal - but for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don't add up. Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked. For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home. And as Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer, he discovers that ex-police detective Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial information. But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next victim...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the coldly captivating tradition of Cornwell and Reichs, Slaughter (Blindsighted; Kisscut) returns to Grant County, Ga., to offer a third installment in the adventures of smalltown pediatrician and part-time medical examiner Sara Linton. Called in to investigate the apparent suicide of a male Grant Tech student, Sara brings along her pregnant sister, Tessa, who wanders away from the scene and is brutally attacked. The distraught Sara must work side by side with her ex-husband, Det. Jeffrey Tolliver, whom she loves despite his past infidelity, but it's Lena Adams, formerly a cop and now a campus security guard, whose story the novel follows most closely. Still mourning the murder of her sister and recovering from her own torture and rape by the same man, Lena is looked on with suspicion by her ex-boss, Jeffrey. With reason: she's hiding a few key facts. The dead boy's mother is her therapist and Lena is involved with an abusive young man with a shady past. Campus gossip Richard Carter further confuses investigators; meanwhile, police discover the bodies of two more students, their deaths potentially suicides but more likely murder. Slaughter provides grisly variations on the themes of sibling rivalry, sexual abuse and campus politics in a story not for the faint of heart. Readers who can stomach gruesome details and like fitting together multiple stories of physical and psychological abuse will savor the way Slaughter can evoke sympathy for perverse, even criminal, behavior by tracing its origins, and those who make it through the complexities and the gore will be rewarded with a satisfyingly chilling ending.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Slaughter returns with the third riveting entry in her Grant County series, in which her lead characters seem to suffer as much as the victims of the horrific crimes they investigate. County coroner Sara Linton arrives at a crime scene with her sister in tow. She consults with her ex-husband, Detective Jeffrey Tolliver, and Lena Adams, a former policewoman who jumped ship rather than undergo psychological counseling and is now employed as part of the security force for the local college. Within minutes, they determine that the victim jumped off a bridge and had recently slashed his wrists and undergone genital piercing. But their investigation is interrupted by a devastating discovery--Sara's heavily pregnant sister has been stabbed. Jeffrey, Sara, and Lena join forces to determine whether the events are related, but their work is fraught with interpersonal difficulties, and their small town, once a safe haven, starts to seem like a claustrophobic and terrifying place. Slaughter knows how to ratchet up the psychological tension in a compelling plot with an unexpected twist. And Lena is a fascinating character, in thrall to a dark compulsion to play out her fears in unnerving sex games. Chilling and addictive reading. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Century Hutchinson (September 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0712629076
• ISBN-13: 978-0712629072
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,487,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Karin Slaughter is a New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author. She is a native of Georgia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intricate Web Of Deceit........., May 4, 2005

By 

jeanne-scott (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Faint Cold Fear

When a story begins with two sisters, Sara and Tessa, going for ice cream to the Dairy Queen, don't be misled that this book will be different from Karin Slaughter's previous tales!!
A Faint Cold Fear is another story centering on Sara Linton, a practicing pediatrician and also the town's Medical Examiner, as well as the ex-wife of Jeffrey Tolliver, the Chief of Police.
When questions are raised over a death that looked like an obvious suicide and when someone close to Sara is attacked, you know that the mystery is only beginning. A second suicide/murder (?!?) leads into an intricate web of deceit.
Along with the investigation, Sara's relationship with Jeffrey becomes more defined, even as an old boyfriend of Sara's pops back into the picture.
Lena Adams is now working security for the local college, no longer an investigator for the Police Dept. Lena's dysfunctional life places her squarely in the center of a major murder investigation.....and only a few people will see the whole picture.
New unsettling characters are introduced into this series!!
Murder is not a pretty picture. Karin Slaughter writes with a vivid pen revealing the gravity and despair that surround the victims and their families and the graphic details that bring a horrifying reality to the crimes. Don't expect her to pull her punches!!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING FOLLOW-UP, September 25, 2003

By 

avidbookreader "Keishon" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Faint Cold Fear

This is the third installment in Slaughter's Grant County series featuring Sara Linton. The story moves at a fast pace, never letting you go. A page-turner. If characterization and realistic dialogue are key to what you enjoy most out of your fiction, Slaughter is the author for you to try. I found her first book engrossing and her second book was a page-turner. The third is no different. She is an author to watch. I find her style unique and original. She is one of the few authors that I anticipate a new novel from and buy & read without reading reviews.

She is not overrated as some reviewers have stated. I find her voice refreshing and yes, the violence level was extremely high in this book but overall, it did not shadow my enjoyment whatsoever. Lena's still struggling to find peace within herself and might have stepped over the line in this installment. She meets her match in Ethan, who seems to identify with her on some level that only the two of them understand. The friendship and respect between Jeffrey Tolliver and Lena Adams is stretched thin here stemming from events from the previous installment and in this book as well. At times it was exhausting to see Lena's struggle to find herself, to come to grips with her past. Sara Linton and her ex-husband, Jeff Toliver are still together and might even be thinking of marriage again. Their romance is nice.

If this is your first time hearing of Karin Slaughter, this is not the book to start with and I recommend that you read them in order to get a better feel for the atmosphere, the characters. I am amazed that a few reviewers who posted seemed to think that the characters are unlikable. I don't agree. Slaughter is only one of the few writers who puts out thrillers with the emphasis on her characters. She gets great endorsements from authors I've enjoyed and respected like Michael Connelly who I just discovered this year and love.

My grade was an A. Outstanding follow-up to last year's KISSCUT and I look forward to INDELIBLE. If I had any problems with this installment---it was the violence. It was excessive and often I wondered if the author was trying to see how much she could gross us out as there were quite a few gross out moments. Overall, great book Ms. Slaughter. The series is very well written thus far. I only hope that the violence level is toned down in future books. Thank You.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars graphic violence, well-plotted, October 23, 2003

By 

A. Christie "bibliofiend508" (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Faint Cold Fear

The setting is a small college campus in the small town of Heartsdale, Georgia. The story opens with a student's apparent suicide and the stabbing of the protagonist's sister. More suspicious suicides follow and violence permeates Grant College.

This is the third in the series featuring medical examiner Sara Linton, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver, and ex-police detective Lena Adams. Sara and Jeffrey were once married, but are still involved romantically with other. Lena was victim of a horrific crime in KISSCUT, and is still emotionally broken in A FAINT COLD FEAR. It really helps if you read the previous novels to understand all these characters are going through. The characters are fully drawn and three-dimensional with both good and bad traits just like most people. I wish the violence was less graphic, but the story was very involving and quite suspenseful. It's a fast-paced book that is hard to put down until the very end.