Cop Town by Karin Slaughter

Posted on October 3, 2017 by J-LBRBSBLOGS

Sunday Times No. 1 Bestseller

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Description

Karin Slaughter, author of the bestselling Will Trent novels, is widely acclaimed as “one of the best crime novelists in America” (The Washington Post). Now she delivers her first stand-alone novel: an epic story of a city in the midst of seismic upheaval, a serial killer targeting cops, and a divided police force tasked with bringing a madman to justice.

Atlanta, 1974: As a brutal murder and a furious manhunt rock the city’s police department, Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the job will also be her last. She’s determined to defy her privileged background by making her own way—wearing a badge and carrying a gun. But for a beautiful young woman, life will be anything but easy in the macho world of the Atlanta PD, where even the female cops have little mercy for rookies. It’s also the worst day possible to start given that a beloved cop has been gunned down, his brothers in blue are out for blood, and the city is on the edge of war.

Kate isn’t the only woman on the force who’s feeling the heat. Maggie Lawson followed her uncle and brother into the ranks to prove her worth in their cynical eyes. When she and Kate, her new partner, are pushed out of the citywide search for a cop killer, their fury, pain, and pride finally reach the boiling point. With a killer poised to strike again, they will pursue their own line of investigation, risking everything as they venture into the city’s darkest heart.

Relentlessly paced, acutely observed, wickedly funny, and often heartbreaking, an instant New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award nominee, Cop Town is Karin Slaughter’s most powerful novel yet—a tour de force of storytelling from our foremost master of character, atmosphere, and suspense.

Review

A terrific, well written book just as you would expect from Karin Slaughter. This is a cracking story well plotted, with great characters that draws you in with its pace, wonderful, keenly observed story-telling – of the investigation, of the role of women in the ’70’s at home and at work and of what life in the police force was like then especially, but not solely, for women and how change was just very, very slowly beginning. Karin Slaughter brings to life the characters, time and place weaving an absorbing and gripping story of 1974 Atlanta in the midst of hunting down a cop killer. It has humour but it is quite brutally honest in it’s description of the workings of 1970s Atlanta PD both for those that served and for those, supposedly, being served. Insightful and fascinating it is also a sad reflection that no matter how far we have come we still have a mighty long way to go with regards to treating everyone equally – no matter their gender, orientation, race, creed or colour.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book.

Rating: 4.5 *

Note: I read all ten of my 10 Books of Summer 2017 and was able to read a couple more from the extended list of which Cop Town was one.

Information

Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Arrow (18 Jun. 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0099571374
ISBN-13: 978-0099571377

http://www.karinslaughter.com/