A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter

Title: A Faint Cold Fear

Series: Grant County #3

Author: Karin Slaughter 

Publisher: HarperCollins

Release Day: July 27, 2004

The third pulse-pounding novel in the Grant County series from New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter.

Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, Georgia, 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...

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I enjoyed the suspense present in A Faint Cold Fear much more than I did in Kisscut. 

Sara is enjoying an outing eating ice cream with her sister Tessa when she's called to a crime scene. Jeffrey is already there. A black college kid is found dead and the evidence points to a probable suicide although, Sara is not too sure about it. While Sara is talking to Jeffrey, the unthinkable happens, a young woman is attacked and stabbed close to the crime scene. 

What follows is the investigation into multiple presumed suicides and the attack of the young woman which shook Sara and her family to the core. Sara and Jeffrey will try to piece together the connection between the deaths since neither believes in coincidences. 

Lena Adams also makes a big appearance throughout the story. Lena is working on the college campus as part of its security team. She hates her new boss, Chuck but she needs a paycheck. At some point before the story begins, she has gone to a few counseling sessions but soon she has abandoned it. She is also hitting the bottle hard. Worse, she meets Ethan Green, a college guy with a terrible past and who's an abuser. Just what she needs after everything she has gone through!!!

Even though I liked this story much better, my issues with Jeffrey and Lena persists. I still think Sara can do much better than Jeffrey. 

Now, Lena, she is a lost cause. She has tons of prejudices which she has mostly not changed since Blindsighted.  She didn't stick with therapy which as we all know she needs desperately. She has become an alcoholic and is now in an abusive relationship. Yet, she thinks about Nan or Hank in a derogative way. She needs to look at herself first before criticising anyone else. To me, she acts conceited, disrespectful and mean most of the time.  Not sure why she's still part of the story. She had multiple chances to contribute to the police's investigation but instead, she becomes a hindrance. I'm getting tired of reading about all her bad decisions.

As with the prior books, A Faint Cold Fear has a good twist. We shall see if this plays a part in the next book.

Cliffhanger: No

3.5/5 Fangs