Undone by Karin Slaughter

This was a book I selected to review through Jaime of Pump Up Your Book Promotions. Before I started blogging, nearly 80% of my TBR list and reading history was mystery/thriller. Because of the wide variety of recommendations from my blogging friends, though, I am now a little more diversified than in my earlier days, but I still love to occasionally burrow down with a good serial murderer. I grabbed this opportunity with both hands! I mean, check out the cover! Isn't that the most incredible cover??

My first duty on this blog tour was to highlight a few interesting things about the author, Karin Slaughter. If you missed it, click back to yesterday's post and check it out! I'd like to have a beer with this lady. I like her style!

What I didn't realize when I first accepted this book was that it is a continuation of two series that have been dovetailed together; a merging of Karin's two fictitious worlds. Argh! I am a disciplinarian for reading books in order, so I was initially distressed. I reminded myself that if the author is worth her salt, I should be able to jump on board mid-trip and fall into step with her easily. Which was the case.

An elderly couple is driving down a dark road and accidentally hits a woman, who is naked, bleeding, bruised and hysterical. We get sickening little glimpses of what happened to this woman...captivity in a cave-like hole in the ground, torture beyond what the average person could even conceive, starvation, dehydration, and abuses on the mind. She did not suffer alone either. Another woman was held captive with her, but she chose to take her own life than to live with the effects. Soon two more women are abducted, presumably to suffer the same fate. The clock is ticking.

During the investigation of this case, we are introduced to Sara Linton, a young woman who has buried herself in her job as an ER doctor. We also meet the Criminal Investigation team of Special Agent Will Trent and Faith Mitchell. Will battles demons from his youth spent in orphanages and a severe case of dyslexia. Faith is pregnant by a man no longer in her life, and has just discovered she is diabetic. These three protagonists' lives are soon intertwined, all fighting to save the lives of a group of women who are not necessarily likable creatures, and at the same time, fighting to keep their own personal secrets hidden far below the surface. There is all kinds of "undone" going on here.

Often with mystery/thrillers, I get the sense that they are all to outdo each other. Who can come up with the most loathsome serial murderer and the most shocking acts of violence? To a certain extent, I got that sense here. I don't really have an aversion to this tact - I like to be shocked - as long as it makes sense to the overall story. In this novel, the methods of torture are beyond description, not something you want to read after eating a full meal. But beyond the blood and guts of the thing, they are intensely anti-female in nature. Hard core, even for someone who has seen it all.

The plot is very well constructed, complex but not difficult to follow, and a fast read. Perhaps because of the thousands of mystery/thrillers I have read, I picked up on literary clue early in the book that gave me just a sniff of an idea of who would be revealed as the evildoer. Even if you do happen to figure it out, the ride between point A and point B is a wild one, in all its heart-racing madness.

I believe what sets this book apart from the average mystery/thriller is the development of the characters. Even without knowing the history of Sara, Will and Faith (which would no doubt even heighten the experience of this read), we know we are dealing with very damaged people here. Real people. I was very quickly endeared to them, and want them to succeed and heal and smash a few heads. I wanted to give them a hug! *Sigh* Now I'm going to have to go back and read all the books that have come before this one, and of course will need to know what happens next. I'm invested, despite about a thousand books I want to read before next week.

My thanks again to Jaime, for sending me this book, and making my literary life just a bit more thrilling!

4 out of 5 stars