Broken
Jun 25, 2010

Broken
Author: Karin Slaughter
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press (June 22, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385341970
ISBN-13: 978-0385341974

Part of the Grant County series, this is part of a continuing story of the small town outside of Atlanta. I will say here that while not necessary, I think it helps the story a lot if you have read the earlier books in the series before this one. There are explanations in the story regarding incidents, but the hard hitting hurts, hostilities and anxieties aren't felt as much when discussed in the past tense. The characters definitely all have past issues with each other and to already be "in the know" definitely helps the story.

There is a lot of anger in the book. Behind the main story of a girl who is murdered, who's accused murderer then kills himself while in jail, is the story of the police men and women behind the scenes who all hold past grudges against each other. Blames of sloppy work and caused deaths abound. When the accused murderer manages to kill himself while in custody, blame is quick to be placed by the ex-chief's wife, who feels the same detective who let her husband be killed by sloppy work has now let a suspect kill himself with that same sloppy style.

All of the people in this story are burnt out, angry and or suspicious in nature. I'm not saying this isn't a good story, I'm saying it's angry and tense. Not lighthearted.

A good suspense story with police work detail and an exellent "whodunit" in the mix.

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A note from Karin herself:

When Walker Percy won the National Book Award, he was asked what made southern writers so great. He said it was because we experienced the fall. Of course, he was referring to the south’s loss of the Civil War, which I think still resonates to this day—whether it’s our poor school systems or lack or funding for rural libraries. We’re simply not as flush as our Northern counterparts. I was thinking a lot about this dichotomy when I wrote my latest book.

Broken combines my two series—Grant County, which is about a rural south Georgia town, and the Will Trent series, which takes place in Atlanta. Seeing my small town through Will’s eyes was very eye-opening for me, and it gave me a chance to talk about something you don’t often read about in books: rural poverty. In the book, I introduce two characters who are living on the margins of the world. They’re not homeless, but one bad month could put them out on the street. They’re educated, but that hasn’t helped deliver the promised American dream. They are capable and smart people, but they haven’t found opportunity through that. If anything, they’ve only found grief because they know that there is a better world out there for them, and that even though they are doing all the right things, the risk that they will fail, utterly, is still there.

I live in Atlanta, the capital of the south, and oftentimes I feel that city-dwellers arrogance encroaching, where I just assume everybody else in my state is living the same kind of life I am. This is why it’s important for me to get away when I write. I have a cabin in the north Georgia side of the Blue Ridge mountains, and going that handful of miles outside the city is like going back in time. Libraries are closing down. School budgets are disappearing. All those great American institutions that help give a hand up to rural and poor children are eroding our educational infrastructure. As a group, Americans will send millions of dollars overseas to help needy children, but we’re hesitant to spend the same kind of money on our own poor. I suppose it’s because we think everyone has the same kinds of opportunities and they should be able to pull themselves up. Or maybe it’s more atavistic than that. Evolution wouldn’t work that well if the fittest gave a hand up to their close neighbors. It’s much easier to help folks a world away who are never going to drive a nicer car than you or directly compete for your job.

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