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Criminal A Novel

by Karin Slaughter
Criminal A Novel

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  • Synopses & Reviews
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ISBN13: 9780345528506
ISBN10: 0345528506
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Karin Slaughter’s new novel is an epic tale of love, loyalty, and murder that encompasses forty years, two chillingly similar murder cases, and a good man’s deepest secrets.

 

Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda’s motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before—when Will’s father was imprisoned for murder—this was his home. . . .

 

Flash back nearly forty years. In the summer Will Trent was born, Amanda Wagner is going to college, making Sunday dinners for her father, taking her first steps in the boys’ club that is the Atlanta Police Department. One of her first cases is to investigate a brutal crime in one of the city’s worst neighborhoods. Amanda and her partner, Evelyn, are the only ones who seem to care if an arrest is ever made.

 

Now the case that launched Amanda’s career has suddenly come back to life, intertwined with the long-held mystery of Will’s birth and parentage. And these two dauntless investigators will each need to face down demons from the past if they are to prevent an even greater terror from being unleashed.

 

A masterpiece of character, atmosphere, and riveting suspense, Criminal is the most powerful and moving novel yet from one of our most gifted storytellers at work today.

Advance praise for Criminal

 

“Karin Slaughter’s best yet by far: All her signature strengths are amplified a hundredfold by the past explaining the present. Reading this book was like watching a great athlete having a career year.”—Lee Child

 

“Fascinating . . . Slaughter delivers another riveting, pulse-pounding crime novel.”—Booklist (starred review)

Review

"Fascinating....Slaughter delivers another riveting, pulse-pounding crime novel." Booklist (starred review)

Review

"Karin Slaughter is one of the best crime novelists in America." The Washington Post

Review

"Slaughter will have you on the edge of your seat." Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Review

"Move over, Catherine Coulter — Slaughter may be today's top female suspense writer." Library Journal (starred review)

Synopsis

Karin Slaughter's new novel is an epic tale of love, loyalty, and murder that encompasses forty years, two chillingly similar murder cases, and a good man's deepest secrets.

Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda's motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before — when Will's father was imprisoned for murder — this was his home. . .

Flash back nearly forty years. In the summer Will Trent was born, Amanda Wagner is going to college, making Sunday dinners for her father, taking her first steps in the boys' club that is the Atlanta Police Department. One of her first cases is to investigate a brutal crime in one of the city's worst neighborhoods. Amanda and her partner, Evelyn, are the only ones who seem to care if an arrest is ever made.

Now the case that launched Amanda's career has suddenly come back to life, intertwined with the long-held mystery of Will's birth and parentage. And these two dauntless investigators will each need to face down demons from the past if they are to prevent an even greater terror from being unleashed.

A masterpiece of character, atmosphere, and riveting suspense, Criminal is the most powerful and moving novel yet from one of our most gifted storytellers at work today.


About the Author

Karin Slaughter is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of twelve thrillers, including Fallen, Broken, Undone, Fractured, Beyond Reach, Triptych, and Faithless. She is a native of Georgia.

Reading Group Guide

1. This novel shifts its perspective, moving the action from the present day to the mid-70s.  Did you ever find yourself wishing you could stay in one era?

 

2.    Do you believe that modern women still have to deal with the misogynist attitudes that Amanda and Evelyn faced?  Did the female detectives face worse abuse because they were in a traditionally “macho” profession, i.e. the police?

 

3.    In the end, Amanda and Evelyn are only able to find the killer because they have the help of other women working in both the police department and in other city agencies.  Have you ever felt like you were in a situation in which you needed to have a group of friends watching out for your interests? 

 

4.    Another theme that runs through this novel is the theme of parenthood.  Several of the major characters have a parent continuing to have an extremely large impact on their lives:  the young Amanda lives under the shadow of her famous cop father, whereas Will Trent in the present has to deal with his abandonment as a child.  Did you feel that the contrast between these two experiences was an effective one?

 

5.    Was Amanda right to hide the truth from Will about his past?  Should she have tried harder to be a direct presence for him throughout his life, even if she had been unable to legally adopt him?

 

6.    Another theme of this book is race.  We see in the scenes set in the past that African Americans were very much marginalized in the police department, and that efforts to change this were just beginning.  Do you believe that this change has been completed now, or that black people still suffer the same kinds of discrimination today that they had to face forty years ago?

 

7.    Why do you think Angie did what she did at the end of the novel?  How do you think this is going to affect Will’s feelings about her?

 

8.    During Lucy’s captivity, she thinks about the fact that kidnap victims sometimes come to identify with their captors.  Do you think that Kitty’s marriage to Hank was related to her own captivity?

9.We’ve seen two sides of Amanda, as a young and insecure girl and as an older, self-assured woman.  What do you think of her as a person?  What do you think about Will in the end, as opposed to the beginning?  How do you think the events of the present have affected his relationship with Sara?


4.5 2

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.5 (2 comments)

`
Ronald B Gould , January 01, 2013 (view all comments by Ronald B Gould)
Karin Slaughter comes through again. Starting with Undone, through Broken and Fallen, she ends with Criminal. These people are tough and they started from the bottom to rise to every occasion. This is a character developed cops and robbers, with many twists and turns. Enjoy the read(s).

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rlawrence110 , August 19, 2012 (view all comments by rlawrence110)
Enjoyed this book - I loved the way she tied the past to the present

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780345528506
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
07/01/2012
Publisher:
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Pages:
448
Height:
9.54 in.
Width:
6.41 in.
Thickness:
1.48 in.
Author:
Karin Slaughter
Subject:
Mystery-A to Z
Subject:
Thrillers

Ships free on qualified orders.
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List Price:0.00
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