Cover image of "A Faint Cold Fear," a novel set in Karin Slaughter's Grant County

Ever since the publication of her first novel in the Grant County series, Blindsighted, Karin Slaughter has been selling thrillers by the millions. A Faint Cold Fear, the third of six books in the series, continues the saga of pediatrician and pathologist Dr. Sara Linton; her off-again, on-again husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver; and the chief’s erratic young detective, Lena Adams. The small rural Georgia town where they live is afflicted by an extraordinary degree of violent crime, which keeps all three of them busy and challenged and affords a generous dose of suspense for readers.

Grant County, where violence abounds

In this installment of the running story, a student at the technical college in town has been found at the base of a bridge on the edge of the campus, dead from an apparent suicide. When Sara arrives to examine the body with her very pregnant younger sister Tessa along for the ride, the story quickly grows more complicated when Tessa is brutally attacked in the adjoining woods, where she has gone to pee.


A Faint Cold Fear (Grant County #3) by Karin Slaughter ★★★★☆


Is there some connection between the attack and what may or may not be a suicide? We suspect as much, of course. And the complications pile up as Lena arrives on the scene along with the head of campus security, for whom she is now working. It develops that the dead boy is the son of the campus shrink, whom Lena has been secretly seeing. The story grows still more complicated as violent incidents multiply, pushing Sara and Jeffrey to the limit and highlighting Lena’s complex and troubled personality.

The events in A Faint Cold Fear take place over six days. The book is divided into six corresponding sections.

About the author

Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s best-selling thriller writers. In addition to the six-book Grant County series, she has written ten books about Georgia Bureau of Investigation officer Will Trent as well as six other novels. I was particularly taken with Pretty Girls, published in 2015.

For more great reading

For the full list of the books in this series, go to Karin Slaughter’s well-crafted series of Grant County thrillers.

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