Fallen
On an ordinary spring day, Special Agent Faith Mitchell of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation returns home to a nightmare. Expecting to find her mother minding Faith’s new baby daughter Emma, she is horrified to discover Emma locked in the shed, her mother’s safe open, her gun missing and a trail of blood to the front door.
Without waiting for back-up, Faith enters the house to a scene of carnage. It has been torn apart and a man lies dead in a pool of blood. She stumbles across two more intruders, and within minutes they too are shot dead. And when the Atlanta police force turns up, Faith has some difficult questions to answer. But she has some desperate questions of her own. What were the killers searching for? Ex-Atlanta police chief Evelyn Mitchell was once under investigation by Faith’s partner Will Trent. Is her mother directly involved this time, and where is she now?
This book’s pace is relentlessly fast and needs to be consumed in as few sittings as possible to keep up with the story development and numerous characters that are mentioned. Expect some disturbing scenes, that Karin describes so well as it could make even the hardened reader at least wince in empathy.
The main storyline focuses on Faith and her family. We finally get the truth over whether Evelyn, Faith’s mother, really was as dirty as the rest of her narcotics squad that Will investigated. This delivers a twist I certainly wasn’t expecting and which, to be honest, left me deflated as it was a little far fetched for my liking.
Sara Linton, the protagonist of the series, takes more of a backseat role from the main action but still remains a magnet for danger. Her feelings for Will are much stronger and they are more open in this book.
Sarah finally meets Angie, Wills mostly absent, abusive and volatile wife. It’s no spoiler to say that they’re not likely to be the best of friends anytime soon. In fact you just know that in one of the future instalments, Angie will have a much more prominent role showing us just how dark and twisted she can get in her bid to keep Will firmly under her control.
Verdict: A great read for those that can tolerate the macabre, enjoy strong yet flawed female characters and delivers an ending that may induce just a few tears!
Reviewed by Karen
