Kisscut  - Karin Slaughter This was the second book in Slaughter's Grant County series, and another good ride. Back are all of the characters from book one, Sara, Jeffrey, Lena, Uncle Hank, and Tessa. In addition, there were some new characters that were totally enthralling as far as characters in a thriller go. I think my favorite character in this book was Mark, the seriously twisted and at the same time anguished teenage boy who finds himself in the middle of the story that Slaughter tells. This character brought out a lot of feelings in me, ranging all the way from disgust to pity to protectiveness.

The story which Slaughter tells in this book is a very disturbing one. In fact, the particulars of this story bothered me a lot more than the particulars in the first book of the series. And the fact that adults are preying on children just makes it all the more disturbing. As in the first book of the series, there are a lot of twists and turns in this book, which will keep you interested. Some of them I saw coming, but, once again, even if I could guess who some of the bad guys were, I never got it totally correct. In addition, Slaughter made me second guess my feelings about the characters again and again.

As for the recurring characters, Slaughter continues to develop both them and their interpersonal relationships. In this book, Jeff and Sara are on a more even keel, but I get the impression that they are not going to stay that way. I am interested to see what Slaughter does with their relationship. How she handles it will certainly color my view of the future of this series. I have the feeling that if it is not handled correctly, their relationship may start to get in the way of the stories that Slaughter tells, and that would be too bad.

As for Lena, in this book she is in the midst of trying to get over the events of the first book in the series. Slaughter does a good job of showing how difficult it is to get over the horrifying events that happened to this character. Although I think that Slaughter is doing a good job with this character, for some reason I don't really like her and am having trouble empathizing with her. At the end of the book, though, she is on the brink of a decision that may increase my opinion of her. I am looking forward to seeing where she decides to go with Lena in the future books.