Cop Town by Karin Slaughter

This book is set in Atlanta during a tumultuous time in the 1970s. A female working within the Atlanta police department is not welcome. There is a divide between the whites and blacks working in the department and no one seems to get along. While all the tension is happening within the department, there is also someone out there killing cops. All the officers are on high alert and searching for the suspect, but they are still struggling to work together. Maggie’s brother has just lost his partner and she wants answers to what happened. She gets paired up with a new officer, Kate, who is very naïve and is struggling with being a new officer. The two start to get along and find themselves in the middle of the investigation of the cop killer. The case is going to lead them to the answers to questions that they may not want to hear.

I was surprised by this book by Karin Slaughter. It is not like her usual work but I’m glad she took the chance to branch out. It was well worth the gamble. I consider this book a hit. I will be honest that I was a little nervous when I first started reading the book. I was concerned that it would be uncomfortable to read about the turmoil between races and sex during Atlanta in the 1970s. I was proven wrong. Slaughter did a fantastic job of depicting the times for women, blacks, homosexuals, and even white men within the police force. I felt that this book expressed the challenges that each group faced at that time. Each group had a challenge to face and Slaughter expressed them in a respectful and accurate way.

I enjoyed the story line and the characters. This story has suspense, humor, and an ending that will throw you off. I really enjoyed the characters. Slaughter did a wonderful job of giving life to each one and making you have compassion and frustration at each of them. I found myself so invested in the book and characters that I wanted to confront one of the characters myself. For me that is the gauge of well written characters. Once I got past the first couple of chapters, I couldn’t put the book down. It was interesting to me that this book had me tense to know what happened to the characters next more than it did learning who the shooter was in the story. I’m usually anxious to know who the suspect is but this book had me wanting to know more about the characters. It was different but well worth the read. I will definitely recommend this book to my friends and family.

Advance Reader Copy received via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

Read May 16^th-May 31^st