The third book in Karin Slaughter's acclaimed Grant County Series.
"[A] page-turner . . . Slaughter's plot has more twists than a Slinky factory and the characters' relationships are sharply drawn."
--People, starred review
"Scary, shocking and perfectly suspenseful."
--BookPage
Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, GA, 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.
Gillian Flynn says, "Karin Slaughter is simply one of the best thriller writers working today."
An apparent student suicide has brought medical examiner Sara Linton to the local college campus, along with her ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver. But a horribly mutilated corpse yields up few answers. And a suspicious rash of subsequent "suicides" suggests that a different kind of terror is stalking the youth of Heartsdale, Georgia--a nightmare that is coming to prey on Sara Linton's loved ones.
A small town is being transformed into a killing ground. And the key to a sadistic murderer's motive and identity may be held in the unsteady hands of a campus security guard--a former police detective driven from the force by the hellish memories that will never leave her. Lena Adams survived the unthinkable and has paid a devastating price. Now the survival of future victims may depend upon her ... when she can barely protect herself.
