Mixed reaction

Karin Slaughter is one of my very favorite authors, and few writers can weave a tale as well as she can. That said, I'm a little disappointed in Criminal. It's well written for sure -- BUT I didn't care for the jumping back and forth from present to past to present again, and that with little clarity for the reason behind it until much later in the story. I admit I almost lost interest and nearly quit a quarter of the way through the book. I told myself it had to get better because it's a Karin Slaughter book, for goodness sake! So I kept reading, and it did indeed pick up considerably half way through. However, even then there were a few annoying things that I largely ignored, one of them being the silly notion that one of "the girls" was a virgin because detectives found a box of tampons among their meager possessions. Really, Karin Slaughter? Twelve, thirteen, and fourteen year old virgin girls have been using tampons since they were first put on the market ages ago. Note to author and others who may not know: tampons aren't what causes a girl (or woman) to lose her virginity. I know the book is fiction, and the writer can dream up whatever, but that virgin-tampon thing was ridiculously absurd. However, once the story (finally) started to unfold, it turned into an interesting, exciting read. I was actually eager to finish it. So despite what I thought was a somewhat muddled beginning with a few quirks along the way, I enjoyed it and recommend it to others. There's also a bonus short story at the end of Criminal called Snatched. It was better than the book itself, and it's classic Karin Slaughter cleverness. Bravo! Well done! Of course I will continue to read Karin Slaughter books, and I do like poor ole Will Trent. I look forward to reading a more of his cases.

###

