Fractured by Karin Slaughter

Why do I keep reading Karin Slaughter? So many of her books revolve around violence towards women or children and in the case of this book the first chapter was like living one of my worst nightmares yet I kept reading. I will tell you why I keep reading Karin Slaughter, even though the situations in a lot of her books make me sick to my stomach, she knows how to write a really interesting story that pulls the reader in. The reader is grabbed and the story never lets go no matter how horrible the situations. 

This book opens with a mother coming home to an open front door. She walks into her home which is supposed to be a safe haven to find her teenage daughter raped and murdered with a man standing over her covered in blood holding a knife. Reading this I could actually feel my stomach tighten and the tears sting my eyes as the fear of anything happening to my daughter over came me. I thought about not reading this book just because of that. Then the mother runs as this man attacks her, but the tables turn and she is the one killing her attacker to save her life and avenge her daughter. All of this and it is just the prologue. This is what I mean by no matter how terrible the situation Karin Slaughter has this way of writing such and emotional and intense story that you just can’t turn away from it.

So I have always been interested in Will’s history and the first book in the series really didn’t give much. I had hoped that this book would really explain why he is scared all over with burns and cuts. If he knew why his mother left him in a trash can, and more on his Dyslexia. We get more on his Dyslexia but only bits of what makes Will Trent, Will. I was ok with this because the story over all, as gut wrenching and stomach turning as it was, was really pretty good. It took awhile to get going but the end was interesting and just kept building. Even when we know who the villain is the chase of trying to prove it was great. In this book we get to meet Will’s partner Faith who is a pretty good back story also teased at throughout the book. This book seems to build a an ongoing story for both characters.

This is a good book but you need to have a strong will to continue through the horrors that Karin Slaughter puts in this book. As a parent this played  to my worst fears of not being able to protect my family and made me terrified at some of these situations. So to the rating, I give this 3.5 stars but will round up to 4. I enjoyed this book but I had some issues with the technical things about this book. There were some sections that felt like they didn’t flow with the way the story was headed. It kind of threw me off at times and I had to go back and re-read some spots.