Book 172: Cop Town by Karin Slaughter
Book 172: Cop Town .
Author: Karin Slaughter, 2014.
Genre: Period Fiction. Police Procedural. Racial Issues. GLBT
Other Details: Hardback. 416 pages.
Atlanta, 1974: As a brutal killing 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 sidelined in 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. - synopsis from author's website.
I can always count on Karin Slaughter to deliver a page-turning crime thriller. In her 2012 novel Criminal she used flashbacks to events in 1975 and I felt that she had captured the period well with all its rough edges. In this stand-alone novel she has again returned to the mid-1970s. As might be expected there is a strong presence of sexism, racism and homophobia with attendant strong language, Slaughter again captures the period detail well and yet also questions why these attitudes were so rife.
I discovered that the book was reserved by another borrower so only had a couple of days to read and yet this proved very easy as once started it was very hard to put down. The reveal came as a complete surprise and provided an edge-of-the-seat ending.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.