“Unseen” by Karen Slaughter – The Ever-Present Evils

The word about Karen Slaughter’s writing has only recently begun to spread, and it is in great part thanks to masterpieces such as Unseen. The story in this book follows detective William Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, as he infiltrates a dangerous, violent and depraved gang of bikers. 

Finding himself cut off from the world (none of his friends, loved ones or relatives know about his assignment), Trent begins to look deeper and deeper into his own mind, digging up many demons for him to struggle with while trying to bring the gang to justice. 

Meanwhile, the love of his life, Sara Linton, is following an investigation of her own into the shooting of her stepson, and as fate would have it, the two cases become intertwined, with none of them being the wiser.

Unseen is one of those rare books where the author manages to masterfully combine an entertaining story with profound examination of the human mind. To start with the former, Slaughter has a mastery of the language very few can claim to possess, knowing how to evoke emotions with her descriptions. She knows how to make you teary-eyed through the description of a relationship, just like she knows how to keep you interested in the story at all times. 

Parts of the story are told through flashbacks, and they are used in quite an ingenious way to break up the pace and create numerous small cliffhangers, making this book one of the best definitions of what a page-turner really is. The relationships between the different characters are quite complex, not to mention that the whole conspiracy has been put together in a very believable way.

As was mentioned before, there is another, more introspective aspect to this book, most of it revolves around William’s time with himself as well as the many evils Sara Linton unexpectedly comes to face with. 

Without spoiling too much, I just want to say that the title is quite accurate, with the story partially serving as a psychological experiment, or an exploration if you will, of how people react when they are forced to confront with the evils they want to shut out and ignore forever.

All in all, Unseen is a fantastic book on all levels, from the characters and the story all the way to the descriptions and the questions it raises. If you are a fan of thrillers that also ask you to use your head at least a bit, I think you will definitely enjoy this read.

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Karin Slaughter Personal site Karin Slaughter is an American crime fiction writer, the kind whose first novel, Blindsighted, became an international bestseller and propelled her into stardom. As a matter of fact, it made the Crime Writers' Association Dagger Award shortlist for Best Thriller Debut. Needless to say, her subsequent books, Fractured and Faithless, have also garnered her a fair amount of praise.