Broken (2010) (Will Trent #4) by Karin Slaughter. If you haven’t read the Grant County series of crime novels by this author, don’t worry. I haven’t read them either but I found myself comfortable in this book which melds that world with the one starring Will Trent. Will has met Sara Linton in a previous book, but now she is home in Grant Co. for her first Thanksgiving since her husband, the former Chief of Police Tolliver, was murdered a few years before. The first distraction from her homecoming is the murder of a young woman from the local college The a killer confesses and promptly kills himself while in police custody. And there are many other complications. The GBI, represented by Will Trent, is called to take over the investigation.
We meet Lena Adams, a detective on the force who Sara blames for the death of her late husband. As the setting is so far from Atlanta, most of the usual cast isn’t present except by phone so this is a Will and Sara novel and the romance stirs. Will gets to meet Sara’s parents which is a real treat.
There are more murders and Will does his savant thing and he and Sara, who is acting in the roll of County Coroner for the moment, work through the puzzle together. This book is more complicated than I have portrayed it, but why deprive you of the taut paced journey and the joy of the discoveries. ( )

Nel complesso è un thriller apprezzabile, anche se ogni tanto ci sono momenti di stanca..
Will Trent stavolta acquista più spessore rispetto a romanzi precedenti, ma spesso è sovrastato da altri personaggi.
Finale un po' sbrigativo.
La Slaughter è un'onesta "artigiana" dei gialli, ma certo non arriva alle vette della George, della Vargas o della Rowling/Galbraith. ( )

Broken
4 Stars

Sara Linton returns to Grant County for the Thanksgiving holiday. When the body of a young girl is pulled from the lake and another young man dies in police custody, she requests GBI assistance and Will Trent is sent to investigate.

The character development is the main focus of the story. Will's skills as an investigator are at the fore, yet it is his deepening friendship with and growing attraction to Sara that is the real highlight. Sara, herself, finally makes the bittersweet decision to put her love for Jeffrey in the past and move forward with her life. There are also updates on Lena Adams, who is as irritating as ever, and the twist that she is now involved with Jeffrey's son, Jared has a very icky feel to it.

The mystery is interesting enough although underdeveloped. In hindsight, there are several clues interspersed throughout, but not enough to actually figure out the who-dun-it. The climax and resolution also feel very rushed.

In sum, another great installment in the series and I'm looking forward to the next one. ( )

Cuando aparece el cuerpo de una joven bajo las aguas congeladas del lago Grant, una nota que se encuentra bajo una piedra en las proximidades apunta a que se trata de un suicidio. Pero en muy poco tiempo, esta hipótesis da paso a otra mucho más posible: un brutal asesinato a sangre fría.
La doctora del condado de Grant, Sara Linton, se ve envuelta en el caso casi sin quererlo. El principal sospechoso pide con desesperación reunirse con ella, pero cuando Sara llega a la comisaría de policía se encuentra con que el sospechoso está muerto en su celda y las palabras "no he sido yo" están escritas por las paredes.
Poco después, el agente Will Trent regresa apresuradamente de sus vacaciones para investigar, tras la llamada de Sara, pero no contaba con topar con una pared de silencio. Y la única persona que podría ayudar a aclarar lo que realmente sucedió está muerta... ( )

BROKEN is a book in a series I've been reading out of order, and I enjoyed it so much. I've read all of Karin Slaughter's series books out of order, and I've always enjoyed them. No one book depends on another; each can be read as a standalone. That’s the best kind of series, each book well written and complete.

This book combines Slaughter’s Will Trent series with her Grant County series when Sara, a doctor at an Atlanta hospital in the Will Trent series, is visiting family in Grant County, where she formerly practiced medicine. She becomes concerned about the apparent suicide of a former patient in the Grant County jail.

Trent, as special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, is assigned to investigate the suicide. He normally lives and works in Atlanta and is already acquainted with Sara. Together and separately they encounter resistance from the Grant County police, not only in their investigation of the suicide but, also, in the department's own dealings with other cases. The corruption in that department is quite different from how it was run when Chief Jeffrey Tolliver, Sara's husband in the Grant County series, was alive.

In the meantime, although Trent and Sara are not romantically involved, the beginnings of something are hinted at. This is probably mostly because Trent is married. Because I've already read books later in the Will Trent series, I know how awful she, Angie, is and how lucky I was that she did not appear in this book.

If you think you are familiar with Angie because you watch the Will Trent television series, you're not. The Angie on TV and the Angie in the books do not look alike, sound alike, or act alike. ( )