Indelible by Karin Slaughter reunites me with Sara, Jeffrey, and Lena, characters I first "met" in Blindsighted, the author's debut novel.  At that time, I remarked how well the female characters were defined, but Jeffrey was still a bit of a mystery.  Furthermore, I remarked how the demise of Sara and Jeffrey's marriage was sketched a bit too quickly, and left me wondering what happened between them.

Well, Indelible addresses all of those issues.  Because now it's a few years later, and we're about to witness an attack in a small-town police station.  Sadly, all three main characters happen to be in the station when the attack occurs.  So, we have Jeffrey, badly injured in the attack and Sara, trying to help him.  Then there's Lena, doing all she can, to try to distract the bad guys long enough to take them down.

All of that occurs over the span of just a few hours.  But this book has two components.  All of the action during the attack is interspersed with a story that's 15 years old.  Back when Sara and Jeffrey were first dating.  And a very tangled web of events occurred.  Events that shaped Sara and Jeffrey's entire future.  And - naturally - events that explain exactly what that bad guys in today's police station attack are really after.

I love the way the book is really two halves of a single story.  We get the end of the story - the attack in the police station.  And the beginning of the story - the events that unfolded 15 years ago which set the whole thing in motion.  With very little fanfare, the book jumps back and forth between the time periods.  Chapter beginnings are occasionally a bit confusing, but the context quickly makes it apparent exactly which part of the story is being told.

The author did a great job, utilizing this back-and-forth method, and keeping me on my toes.  I loved how a few individual sentences in the current-day story made little sense when I read them.  But their meanings become apparent as you read, further, the story from the past.  I think this book made a much better impression for being told in this fashion, than if it had been a straight, linear story.

The story, itself, started out slow, and I was really wondering where it was all going to lead.  But by the end - Wow - that's a long, tangled, web that definitely made me think.  It was amazing how decisions made years ago could have such a huge consequence all these years later. 

The only negative in this book is a small subplot involving Lena's family and boyfriend.  It added nothing to the main story and felt "tacked on".  I'm not sure why the author felt compelled to include it.  There was so much else going on, that it really was an unnecessary distraction.

Finally, as opposed to Blindsighted, I don't feel the need to caution anyone away from this book based upon the extreme level of graphic violence.  I'm glad the author toned it down a bit!

Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, and recommend it. 


Blindsighted

Recommended: Yes