Triptych
Written by Karin Slaughter
Narrated by Michael Kramer
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
In this gritty, gripping firecracker of a novel, the author of the bestselling Grant County, Georgia, series breaks thrilling new ground, weaving together the threads of a complex, multilayered story with the skill of a master craftsman. Packed with body-bending switchbacks, searing psychological suspense and human emotions, Triptych ratchets up the tension one revelation at a time as it races to a shattering and unforgettable climax.
Karin Slaughter
Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular storytellers. She is the author of more than twenty instant New York Times bestselling novels, including the Edgar-nominated Cop Town and standalone novels The Good Daughter and Pretty Girls. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her is a #1 Netflix original series, Will Trent is a television series starring Ramón Rodríguez on ABC, and further projects are in development for television. Karin Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.
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Reviews for Triptych
739 ratings48 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Triptych is the second book by Karin Slaughter that I have read. I started it immediately after finishing Undone, one of her more recent novels, which I enjoyed so much that I couldn't wait to read another. Triptych is the first book in her second series and features Will Trent as a primary investigator. Undone is technically the third book in the Atlanta sequence. Another intense and gruesome crime novel, I was not disappointed by Triptych. And seeing as the book was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award in 2007, I'm guessing that others weren't too disappointed either.Early in February, Atlanta Detective Michael Ormewood is called to investigate the death of Aleesha Monroe. She is found the staircase to her apartment, an anonymous tip called in, brutally beaten and raped, her tongue bitten off by the attacker. The investigation is soon joined by Will Trent from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations; more cases have been identified across the state over the last year that may be connected. Only, no definite pattern has emerged except that each of the victims' tongues were mutilated. Nearly two decades earlier, Jonathan Shelley was incarcerated for the murder of Mary Alice Finney under similar circumstances. Tried as an adult, he has served more time in prison than he has lived outside of it. Recently paroled, he discovers by chance that someone has stolen his identity and that it won't it won't take much to send him back to jail--a connection with the current serial murders is undeniable. Three men, all with very good reasons to track down the murderer before someone else can.A very important part of Triptych is the timeline; the story isn't told strictly chronologically. It is crucial to pay special attention to the dates given at the beginning of chapters to avoid any confusion--sometimes it even seems like the flashbacks have flashbacks. But despite this, it actually works pretty well, showing both past and recent events until it all crashes together to form the current situation. Nothing really surprised me much plot-wise; I saw most of the connections and reveals coming, but I still found Triptych to be an addicting read. Some things are never explained fully, but this may have been deliberate. The reasons behind the serial murders and attacks are never given, making the killer all the more ominous and terrifying, if of a somewhat incongruous personality.I think that I probably liked Triptych even more than I liked Undone. Part of the reason is that it focuses a bit more on Will and his background, who I still find to be a fantastic character, but I actually feel that it is a better book all around (which is not to say Undone was at all bad). However, if I had to name one person as the main character, it would be John Shelley, who makes a compelling yet ambiguous protagonist. This ambiguity spreads to the rest of the book and is what impressed me so much about Triptych. Slaughter's skill in handling her plot and characters is impressive--she doesn't really hide anything from her readers but at the same time leaves them wondering if what is going on is actually true. I think I'm officially addicted to Slaughter and will definitely be picking up the second Will Trent book, Fractured, very soon.Experiments in Reading
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was the first book I've read in the Will Trent Series, having read and loved the Grant County Series. On this opening book in the series, it is definitely another series to enjoy - what's not to like with an idiosyncratic character like Will Trent (kern to learn more about him), as well as Angle, and an intriguing and surprising plot line. I particularly enjoyed the intriguing relationship between Will and Angie. I do hope she appears in future books.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Atlanta police detective is investigating the murder of a prostitute when he discovers that several other women were also killed in a similar fashion. When the detective is joined on the case by an agent from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the reader gradually begins to learn what's really going on, and the truth is a shocker.
I found this book an engrossing read. There is always something going on in it, that makes you want to read on. The characters in it have depth, and personality, which makes you care about them, when they are in perilous situations. There is a bit of jumping backwards and forwards at the beginning of the novel, but it all starts to make sense fairly quickly, as all is not as what the reader may have originally thought at the start of the book. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This book is based on foul play from the author, something I noticed in another novel of her as well. The narrator of the first chapter isn't merely unreliable, which is acceptable of course, he also doesnt have THOUGHTS about his earlier deeds, even when being confronted with the results. He reacts exactly to these results as every other noninvolved person would. This is extremely unlikely and only introduced by the author to save her story. A shame.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Totally addictive
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5it took a little while to finish but still a good book overall. This book had a great leading character.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Karin Slaughter is the absolute best crime/mystery writer I have come across in this day and age. Her novels will simply astound you with their heart-racing moments and intrigue. Every time I pick one of her novels up I cannot stop reading until I'm done and I still find myself begging for more. She's a writer with no fear! She wields her instruments like a knife ready to dig in deep and take you by surprise at every turn!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5no está mal, engancha, la autora sabe escribir, es tan precisa en sus descripciones que parece que estés presente aunque es un poco previsible y sobretodo las tintas demasiado cargadas, hasta el punto que los personajes dejan de ser creíbles. el tono general es muy oscuro, por mi parte, no es algo que me atraiga, pero esto ya es un gusto personal.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So I read this after watching the TV show so I knew this book would deal with some hard stuff. That being said they did change some stuff for the show. And I'm guessing they pulled in other books for it.
The book was good - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I am thoroughly impressed with the first installment of the Will Trent series. Slaughter knows exactly how to write a suspenseful thriller. Considering how she started the story, I never expected it to take those turns. I was immersed in the lives of the characters and on the edge of my seat.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Might be a good story, but after reading 1/3 of the book, I’ve found nothing to redeem the coarseness, cruelty, and violence. Life is too short to read a novel that repels rather than entertains me.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Going back to the start to fill in details. Interesting that Slaughter reveals the Who so early in this book compared to some of her other novels.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I listened to the audio book version of this. A sensational noir-ish thriller/mystery set in Atlanta, with lots of gross out descriptions of serial killers and "whores," all with a Southern accent. All of the characters are vile, including the hero police detectives. Writing was pretty mediocre, mostly meant to titillate, although there are a few interesting characters. Not my cup of tea.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5TriptychWill Trent Series #1by Karin Slaughter20063.5/5.0#teamslaughter #scarathon #buddyreadA good thriller of suspense and emotion.Alesha Moore, a prostitute slain in an Atlanta housing project, also had her tongue bitten off. She was the 4th victim slain with their tongue bitten or cut off, and Detective Ormewood is being pressured to close the case. This case will have some surprising turns that have some looking at their past and some on their future.The scene building is exceptional and I like Will and Angie.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Karin Slaughter is the absolute best crime/mystery writer I have come across in this day and age. Her novels will simply astound you with their heart-racing moments and intrigue. Every time I pick one of her novels up I cannot stop reading until I'm done and I still find myself begging for more. She's a writer with no fear! She wields her instruments like a knife ready to dig in deep and take you by surprise at every turn!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was getting bored and disillusioned with Karin Slaughter's "Grant County" series and almost didn't want to try another book by her. Too graphic and too many horrible things happening to the same group of people (some therapist in Atlanta will be getting rich off this group). I was pleasantly surprised to read this book. I liked the main character very much - refreshing to see a law enforcement official with a learning disability! I don't think I've seen that before. There were also some really smart twists to the story and although I predicted by about the fourth chapter what was going to happen, the storytelling kept me enthralled. Well done! Still a little too graphic but if you skip over those parts, the story will keep you reading.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the first book I've read by Ms. slaughter and I don't know what took me so long to find out about her. I was just scanning the shelves in the library and thought her books sounded interesting. What an understatement! This woman is good! Why hasn't she received more attention? I love crime and suspense novels and I know that there are a lot of writers in this genre. But not many of them are good. Ms. Slaughter finds a way to get you caught up in the story and you're thinking one thing is gonna happen when, in reality, she takes you in a totally different direction! And you had no idea how you got there only that it was a wild ride!
The basics of Triptych...there is someone evil raping, killing and ripping out the tongues of young women. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason or no apparent connection. At least, that's how it SEEMED. Ms. Slaughter has a way of writing that makes one feel a tad sorry for the convicted criminal and she allows us to understand what happened from his point of view. Three detectives and one criminal all seem to have some kind of connection, but do they? To explain it more would spoil it. So I will just say this...READ THIS BOOK PLEASE! It was SOOO good that I stayed up to finished it. I was exhausted but it was oh so worth it! I plan to read all of her books now and I hope others will discover her and appreciate her like I do. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I like Karin Slaughter and wanted to read the first in her Will Trent series, about an investigator for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The story ebbs and flows, and I found the focus more on a character who plays a major role in the story than on Will Trent. Also found Trent and his off-again/on-again lover so fractured from abuse in their childhoods that it got to be almost overkill in moving the story along. Will read more of her work, but didn't totally love this one.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I found this better than the last book I read by her but I am beginning to see a formula to her writing. Anyway, taking place in rural Georgia, an agent from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation comes to a small town to investigate a rash of missing girls. Despite the writing pattern, it did hold my interest. I would read this again. The main character is dyslexic and she does a good job of incorporating his behavior into how he has to do his job.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An action packed mystery thriller involving an accused 15 year old boy, John Shelley of raping and murdering a 14 year old girl, Mary Alice Finney. John gets convicted and sentenced to serve 20 years in prison, but when he's released questions arise whether he was falsely accused. It begins when John realizes that someone has stolen his identity and is trying to put him back behind bars, the new murders take on a whole new mystery of responsibility by using similar modes of operations.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Triptych
4.5 Stars
Well-written and engrossing story with captivating characters. The descriptions of abuse, rape and murder are particularly graphic and gruesome, so be forewarned that this may be a difficult read if this type of writing bothers you.
The shifting narrative perspective makes it easy to identify with each of the characters from the veteran police detective with a troubled marriage and a disabled child to the GBI agent who suffered both mental and physical torture in his past and his childhood friend turned vice cop.
The plot is skillfully woven with numerous twists and turns that keep catching the reader unaware and the message highlighted within the mystery is that nothing is as it seems and appearances can be deceiving.
All in all, a fast-paced and intense thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat as you turn the pages. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I've been reading the Will Trent series by Karin Slaughter since she came out with the first one in 2006 so when I was looking for a book set in Georgia I thought I would go back and meet Will again in his introductory outing. I forgot what a great mystery novel it was, especially in giving us Will and Angie's sad back story.
A prostitute is murdered on the steps of her apartment, in a run down area of Atlanta, and Detective Michael Ormewood is sent to the scene. There have been a number of recent, similar attacks involving younger victims. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation sends in one of their agents, Will Trent, who has been investigating some related crimes. Will Trent is a man with major problems of his own, being severely dyslexic and with an unhealthy attachment to one of the local police force's undercover detectives who operates as a street prostitute. John Shelley is an ex-con who has spent most of his life in prison for a murder that is identical to the current ones. Their lives will entwine in unexpected ways weaving a complicated story.
Triptych is a quick and enjoyable read with some pretty graphic violence. I was really drawn into the story so now I'm going to have to pick up the next book in the series now because I just can't remember what happens next! - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent, excellent storytelling!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In the city of Atlanta, young women are dying—at the hands of a killer who signs his work with a single, chilling act of mutilation. Leaving behind enough evidence to fuel a frenzied police hunt, this cunning madman is bringing together dozens of lives, crossing the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries too. Among them is Michael Ormewood, a veteran detective whose marriage is hanging by a thread—and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career. And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael’s lover before she became his enemy. But another player has entered the game: a loser ex-con who has stumbled upon the killer’s trail in the most coincidental of ways—someone who may be the key to breaking the case wide open…. (Amazon.com)I wanted to read the beginning of the Will Trent series. The pacing was slow with too much backstory and description, but the plot was well-developed and suspenseful.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wow, hard to figure out just what rating to give this book. Parts of it were excellent and other parts had you wondering what the heck the author was doing.The story follows a number of people and I was somewhat surprised that Will Trent wasn’t the main focus for a good chunk of the book considering his name as listed as the series. That threw me as a good chunk of the story was based on John, an ex-con’s past and present. I have to say by the end, when everything pulls together, I liked the story a great deal more than when only partway through it. So at different points I would have come up with different ratings.There are two others characters that we follow; Angie, a hard-nosed female detective in Vice who has a long history with Will, and Michael, a disturbing homicide detective who likes everyone to believe he’s hard-nosed.The crimes themselves are gruesome involving rape, beatings and mutilations of teen girls. John’s history and current situation are also gritty and don’t make for a comfortable “cozy.”But by the end of the book I’m left with the feel of a well planned and executed story. You won’t necessarily like most of the characters, and I don’t believe we’re not meant.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5very will said"The many reviews that praise the thriller TRIPTYCH by Karin Slaughter must be based, I think, on the second half of the book. (You may disagree. More on that later.) If so, then the praise is justified. But a book review should be based on a book’s entirety, and Slaughter paints a picture of characters and background for almost 200 pages before she gets to the suspense. She risks losing readers after page 50. But if you stick with it, it not only gets better; it gets great.TRIPTYCH is the first book in a series about Will Trent, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. But the book doesn't begin with him. It begins with a newspaper clipping from 1985 about the murder of a 15-year-old girl in Georgia. This is why you may disagree with my opinion. Because the book begins with a murder, you might say, it begins with suspense. Maybe. But that little clipping wasn't enough for me.Next, TRIPTYCH fast forwards to 2006, when a detective, Michael, begins an investigation of a murder similar to the 1985 murder, although no one yet links the two. Then the book takes us back to 1985 when a teenager, John, is accused of the murder; then it goes forward again to 2005 and 2006, when we meet Trent; then we're back to 1985, then forward, and so on until we have what appears to be the complete picture of crimes occurring in 2006 that are similar to that first one in 1985.Probably the first 180 pages are Slaughter's effort to give depth to the characters so that this novel is not simply plot driven and to show that the 1985 murder and characters are connected to the 2005 and 2006 murders and characters. But, especially in the case of the 1985 murder, the details are hard to read because they are so infuriating and frustrating. What needs to be said is never said, what needs to happen never happens. But after a surprise about one of the character's identity is revealed, TRIPTYCH does get really good. Now it's a thriller.One reader review of this book complains that the murderer is apparent halfway through the book. That person doesn't get it. True, we can figure out the mystery 200 or so pages in, but the suspense is just beginning. After we know who the murderer is, the book gets un-put-downable. Believe it, this book WILL grab you."
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Triptych trots out the tired and worn sub-genre of the serial killer. Based on their treatment in thriller fictions, one would think serial killers represent about a third of the country’s population. In this case the subject is a serial killer from Atlanta, who bites off the tongues of his victims. On the case is Will Trent from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations who is working with local detective Michael Ormewood. Also involved in the case is Trent’s love interest undercover vice agent Angie Polaski. Their investigation leads them to an ex-con recently released from prison.Although this isn’t one of my favorite sub-genres, Karin Slaughter does a nice job with this novel. It helps that she is quality professional writer, who showcases her talent in this novel. The book also doesn’t suffer from a ridiculously unbelievable villain that normally plagues thrillers. The novel has a good bit of tension and page-turning ability and generally moves along quite nicely. It’s not a great novel, but it is satisfyingly entertaining.Carl Alves – author of Blood Street
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Atlanta - Michael Ormewood is searching for the killer of Mary Alice Finney, 15 years old. Her father is Paul Finney, assistant district attorney for DeKalb County. This is a gritty, psychological thriller and Karin Slaughter at her best. Lots of twists and turns make for a story that is hard to put down. Brilliant plotting with lots of suspense. Recommended to those who love mystery thrillers.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book has all you could want in a whodunit: complex characters, twist-filled plot and an unexpected ending. It's a terrific stand-alone mystery.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book is written in three parts and the first two were great. I was really enjoying this book.
Then the third part came along and it went down hill from there. The third part dragged and didn't flow in a captivating manner. It featured two aspects of writing that I dislike. Trying to represent the happenings of a dream and trying to write the words of the stroke affected. It is so easy to get these wrong, as in this book. Plus the story just didn't gel, there appeared to parts missing to make it coherent.
Disappointing in the end.