A review by veraasim
Criminal by Karin Slaughter

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

I really liked this book because we finally dive into Will’s and Amanda’s backstory. I wasn’t expecting KS to flashback to when Amanda first started out, but it was a real treat! The Amanda in the past was a 180-flip from present-day Amanda, so it was intriguing. Lots of sexist and racist themes going on, painting an awful picture of what things were like in the past. On the bright side, it was cute to see the developing relationships among Amanda, Emily and Vanessa, since we know they grow to be a tight circle in present-day. 

 

Will is intensely vulnerable here, and we gradually find out why exactly. The plot was honestly a slow burn – I’m not sure if I liked it very much. Lots of anticipation and foreshadowing in this one. He and Sara also grow abit more. Angie shows up here and there too, and it’s so frustrating to see how toxic their relationship is. The ending though… I’m not sure what to expect next! 

 

One thing I disliked was the flashback formatting because it was so hard to keep track of things. I’m generally okay with POV switches and time-skips, but it got annoying trying to follow where each character was in space and time amidst the disparate chapters. I kept going back to previous chapters to find the last timestamp of the character’s appearance. It would have helped if the chapters were titled with the characters’ names, rather than serially.