Review of CRIMINAL by Karin Slaughter

I just finished reading CRIMINAL by Karin Slaughter and I was blown away! This is the 3rd or 4th novel I have read by Karin Slaughter and I have to say, she is one of the best thriller writers of all time, and that is saying a lot coming from me, because I have been reading this type of fiction for over 40 years. I think she's so good because she's been there, done that. Karin Slaughter grew up hard-scrabble in Georgia redneck country, and you can tell from her writing that she doesn't pull any punches. In CRIMINAL the main character, Will Trent, is a mentally bruised and psychologically damaged cop who grew up in an orphanage after his serial killer father murdered his mother, who I won't tell you about because that's one of the biggest twist. He is married to Angie, his friend from the orphanage days, but she leaves like the wind on a regular basis and Will falls in love with a doctor named Sara. She's a peach. But what's going on in their town is far more important than Will's love life or his past, though it is very connected. Someone is killing prostitutes, but unlike many novels that use this as a theme, the torture they go through at the hands of the killer, Will's father who's been locked up for 20 years but has now made parole, is like none you have read about before. If you love edge of your seat suspense and some good gore, you gotta read Criminal by Karin Slaughter.