Triptych [Mass Market Paperback]

Karin Slaughter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2007

In the city of Atlanta, young women are dying—at the hands of a killer who signs his work with a single, chilling act of mutilation. Leaving behind enough evidence to fuel a frenzied police hunt, this cunning madman is bringing together dozens of lives, crossing the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries too. Among them is Michael Ormewood, a veteran detective whose marriage is hanging by a thread—and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career. And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael’s lover before she became his enemy.

But another player has entered the game: a loser ex-con who has stumbled upon the killer’s trail in the most coincidental of ways—someone who may be the key to breaking the case wide open….

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

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 © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Dell (July 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440242924
• ISBN-13: 978-0440242925
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #288,778 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

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of 2006's most remarkable achievements, September 9, 2006

By 

David Montgomery "Book Critic" (davidjmontgomery.com) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Triptych (Hardcover)

After writing five books in her well-received "Grant County" series, author Karin Slaughter takes a new direction with her novel "Triptych," and it's a remarkable achievement.

An Atlanta police detective is investigating the murder of a prostitute when he discovers that several other women were also killed in a similar fashion. When the detective is joined on the case by an agent from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the reader gradually begins to learn what's really going on, and the truth is a shocker.

It can be difficult to read a book like this, so bare does it lay the pain of its characters. At the same time, the people in "Triptych" are so real and so well-developed that the reader can't help but feel empathy for them, and thus we are drawn even deeper into the ingenious plot.

This is the best thing Slaughter has written, both shocking and painful, but also gripping and resonant. "Triptych" launches a major new phase in her career, and it's a delight to behold.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mutilation, March 12, 2007

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Triptych (Hardcover)

Atlanta police detective Michael Ormewood is called to a murder scene at a housing estate to find the body of a drug addict and prostitute, Aleesha Monroe lying in a pool of blood with her tongue bitten out. He is joined in the investigation by Special Agent Will Trent of the Special Apprehension Team, a man with major problems of his own, being severely dyslexic and with an unhealthy attachment to one of the local police force's undercover detectives who operates as a street prostitute to attract and arrest gutter crawlers. This follows a series of mutilations of young girls who are stalked and attacked by a predatory killer. The killer is identified early in the book and what follows is the story of how he is at pains to implicate a relative of his who had been falsely accused of murder as a teenager and who has recently been released after serving a 20 year jail sentence. It's not a pleasant read and I was rather glad to finish it as I felt that I'd been immersed in corruption and the life of psychos and low lifes and was becoming depressed with all of the squalor.

44 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This is one weird book, September 8, 2006

By 

Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Triptych (Hardcover)

I won't rehash the story line, as you can get that from the publishing reviews.

I became a Slaughter fan with her first novel "Kiss/Cut", and have followed all of her Grant County novels. They're very enjoyable. So I bought this book on the strength of her previous performance. Also, I know a lot of authors write books other than their trademark series, many successfully: Connelly, Burke, Sanford, et al.

I had a hard time getting through this book. I get her point, and the significance of the title, but it didn't make it any easier. Her characters are beyond complex, especially in the first half of the book; they're obtuse. Further, they're not really likeable, and that's hugely problematical, at least for me. For me to find a novel engaging, there has to be at least one truly sympathetic character on which to hook your anchor. I'm afraid there were none home here.

That problem also made it harder for me to keep track of what was going on as far as plot development. This book took much longer to get through than is typical for me, because I'd lose interest and have to almost force myself to continue. Not really a good sign, that.

Oh, well, I guess it's an interesting experiment for Slaughter, one that unfortunately went awry.

Two stars.