With her earlier Grant County novels, BLINDSIGHTED and KISSCUT,
Karin Slaughter has developed a reputation for imagining --- and
describing in excruciating detail --- particularly grisly crimes.
Her latest venture, A FAINT COLD FEAR, is not for the faint of
heart either. Fans of novels by Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs,
as well as devotees of the CSI television series, will recognize
the familiar territory of the crime scene and autopsy table in
Slaughter's work. It's too easy, though, to dismiss Slaughter's
suspense novels as mere vehicles for gratuitous violence; instead,
these novels use violent crime as vehicles for exploring the
psychological scars crime leaves not only on its victims but also
on the professionals who deal with it every day.

A FAINT COLD FEAR starts off with a bang, with the discovery of the
body of Andy Rosen, a young man who apparently committed suicide by
jumping off a bridge. When medical examiner Sara Linton's extremely
pregnant sister is stabbed at the scene, though, Sara and her
ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, refuse to believe the
two crimes are unrelated. Soon Sara and Jeffrey are caught up in
unraveling family secrets and campus politics, as their
investigation leads them into the classrooms and labs at the large
university that dominates life in their small Georgia town.

Because of the personal nature of the crime, Sara spends her time
not only tracking down a killer but also worrying about the health
of her seriously wounded sister. In addition, she finds herself
questioning not only her growing involvement with Jeffrey but also
her professional choices. At the psychological heart of the story,
however, is Lena Adams, the former cop who has turned to working
for campus security following her inability to recover
psychologically from her sister's murder and her own rape in an
earlier novel. Lena inexplicably becomes romantically involved with
a menacing young man with a violent past, who also is one of the
key suspects in the current rash of violent crimes around campus.
This self-destructive relationship is one venue in which the author
explores the legacy and scars of domestic abuse, a theme that runs
throughout the book.

Although Slaughter spends a lot of pages exploring the ways in
which Lena's status as victim continues to affect her life and
work, gone is the navel-gazing that disrupted the flow and pacing
of Slaughter's previous novel, KISSCUT. Instead, A FAINT COLD FEAR
sustains a suspenseful trajectory, with just enough red herrings to
keep readers guessing. Although some loose ends are tied up almost
as afterthoughts, one key plot twist, cleverly dangled out to
careful readers in the book's closing paragraphs, will surprise
many and keep everyone on the edge of their seats awaiting the next
installment in Slaughter's series.