You can’t really beat a surname like Slaughter for a thriller writer, can you? This was my first read of Slaughter, and it’s a good one. Two daughters and their mum are brutally attacked by two men – the mum is killed and the truth of what happened to the daughters slowly emerges over the course of the book. Their father, Rusty, is a defence attorney and the most poisonous of the attackers is a client of his. You’d think this horrific attack on his family would be enough to make Rusty change careers or move town. But no – 28 years later he’s still at it. One of his daughters is also practicing law in their home town while the others has forged a seperate existence in New York. A school shooting and an assault on their father brings them back together. Rusty is a maddening character and the lack of open communication between all three characters may make you want to scream, but the plot is gripping. Only two major holes in it as far as I can see. The first one – SPOILER ALERT- when Charlie was so horribly raped, how was it kept a secret when she was so clearly in need of extensive medical attention? Secondly, the motivation for Huck taking the weapon from the school shooter and disposing of it was never explained, and defies logical explanation. Those qualms aside, it’s a really good, disturbing read.
