Grant County Mysteries

A small Georgia town erupts in panic when a young college professor is found brutally mutilated in the local diner. But it’s only when town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton does the autopsy that the full extent of the killer’s twisted work becomes clear.

Sara’s ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, leads the investigation—a trail of terror that grows increasingly macabre when another local woman is found crucified a few days later. But he’s got more than a sadistic serial killer on his hands, because the county’s only female detective, Lena Adams—the first victim’s sister—wants to serve her own justice.

But it is Sara who holds the key to finding the killer. A secret from her past could unmask the brilliantly malevolent psychopath… or mean her death. 

“Karin Slaughter is a fearless writer. She takes us to the deep, dark places other novelists don’t dare to go. Kisscut will cement her reputation as one of the boldest thriller writers working today.”

—Tess Gerritsen, author of The Apprentice

In this chilling follow-up to Blindsighted, Sara Linton, her ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, and detective Lena Adams are caught in an evil web involving a young girl who commits suicide by forcing a cop to shoot her. Shouldering the political aftermath, Jeffrey struggles to understand the victim’s desperation. So does Sara, the girl’s pediatrician and now her coroner, who soon discovers that the suicide was linked to a brutal crime—one far more terrifying than anyone could have imagined. Yet neither Jeffrey nor Sara know that their colleague, Lena, may unwittingly harbor the truth as she finds herself drawn to a young man who might hold the answers—and Lena’s future—in his hands.

“[A] page-turner . . . Slaughter’s plot has more twists than a Slinky factory and the characters’ relationships are sharply drawn.”
—People, starred review

“Scary, shocking and perfectly suspenseful.”
—BookPage

Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, GA, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus. The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues—and the college authorities are eager to avoid a scandal—but for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don’t add up.

Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked. For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home. And as Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer, he discovers that ex-police detective Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial information. But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next victim.

“[A] page-turner . . . Slaughter’s plot has more twists than a Slinky factory and the characters’ relationships are sharply drawn.”—People, starred review

“Scary, shocking and perfectly suspenseful.”—BookPage

Two armed men enter the police station in tiny Heartsdale, Georgia, and open fire. When the shooting stops, an officer is dead, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver is seriously wounded, and the survivors—including a class of grade-school children and medical examiner Sara Linton—are held hostage. In a tense standoff that could erupt at any moment into more bloodletting—with her ex-husband on the threshold of death—Sara must search for answers and an escape in the memories of a time at the start of their relationship when another brutal, shocking crime shattered their small-town world. Because the sins of the past have caught up with Sara and Jeffrey... with a vengeance.