Faint Cold Fear - Karin Slaughter

Sara Linton is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus. The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues -- and the college authorities are eager to avoid a scandal -- but for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don't add up.

Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked. For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home. And as Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer, he discovers that ex-police detective Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial information. But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next victim.

Another book in Karin Slaughter's series about Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver. Like the previous books it starts with someone dying. This time it's an apparent suicide but while Sara and Jeffrey are processing the scene, someone else is savagely attacked by an unknown person.

I did enjoy the book but I think it was one of the weakest so far. After the first suicide another one occurs and Jeffrey and Sara start suspecting that these are in fact murders. While that should be the main mystery and investigation the story also spends a lot of time with Lena Adams. Lena, a former deputy on Jeffrey's team is now working as security for the University where the murders take place. She has a very conflicted and damaged personality, at this point I think it's almost disturbed, and not only does she start a separate investigation as she gets involved with a really shady young man who hurts her. Unfortunately I did not feel that following Lena's journey was a good thing, she doesn't seem to know where she's heading, in fact in the end we are faced with a serious doubt about her actions, and it's highly doubtful that she will be able to get out of trouble soon. Tessa's situation was weird, I thought it might be a way of bringing Sara and Jeffrey together in adversity but that doesn't happen. Besides if the book is mainly about Lena why do we have a solution to the mystery that is totally new and seemingly separate from all that has been happening before?

Although I have the above mentioned criticisms about the story I did like reading it and I do want to keep following Sara and Jeffrey, I just hope in future books Lena does not overshadow them.

Grade: B-