New Release from Karin Slaughter

Best-selling crime fiction writer Karin Slaughter's new book has just come across my desk. Hot on the heels of her Cover to Cover appearance in Hawkinsville this past May, the Atlanta author now has to prepare for a national tour.

The new book is Beyond Reach (Delacorte Press, July 31, 2007) in which Slaughter returns to her ficitional Grant County. Once again the story features pediatrician/medical examiner Sara Linton and her husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, and his sometimes reckless partner Detective Lena Adams.

Karin Slaughter's fiction has always tackled society's real-life issues (violence against women in Triptych, for example), and Beyond Reach is no exception; the novel examines the devastating ripple effects of drug abuse on families and communities.

Beyond Reach is the sixth in Slaughter's Grant County, Ga., series that includes the #1 internationally bestselling A Faint Cold Fear, Blindsighted, Kisscut, Indelible and Faithless.

Although Karin has been my guest on Cover to Cover on three occasions in the last five years, and I'm well aware of the quality of her writing, I was blown away last December when, on vacation in Britain, I saw copies of Karin's books on sale in almost every bookstore I went into. I realized then that the Karin Slaughter phenomenon was not confined just to the U.S.. And I impressed several friends when I mentioned that Karin was a friend back in Atlanta!

I hope to interview Karin Slaughter in the fairly near future and to talk about Beyond Reach, so look for the interview on a Georgia Gazette or during Morning Edition sometime soon.