Faithless, Karin Slaughter

Well, the Lena break was short lived.

And the Sara/Jeffery peace was short lived, too.

They've decided to move in together, so that's a step forward. But just as all seems right in the world, something else comes down on them. What was it I said in the Indelible review? They keep getting things thrown at them, testing them, but they keep making it work. Well, this time it's hepatitis. (Read the review for Indelible, and others, on my blog.)

Yeah, you read that right, hepatitis, as in the STD. Remember that little...*ahem* indiscretion, that ended his marriage with Sara the first time around? Yeah, the other woman called to tell him she had Hepatitis and he needs to get tested. Jeffery waits almost a week before telling Sara, making any excuse he can to stay away from her, and out of her bed. Her assumption, of course is that he's having another affair.

While chasing after a pissed off Sara, they stumble, literally, over a pipe jutting out of the ground. A pipe that leads to a coffin with the body of a young girl in it.

And the games begin.

They trace the body back to a farm and church out in the boonies. It gives off the cult vibe like no body's business. A big family, where the women folk do women things, and the men folk are in control. They take in at risk people: addicts, homeless, runways. The kind of people cults love.

Now, one of the family is found in a box.

Can you say "suspicious"?

Lena immediately thinks it's a religious crime. Not that surprising, given the circumstances of her rape, but you can't be a good cop if you can't see the forest despite the trees . (Yes, I know that's not exactly how the saying goes.) You can't let your personal prejudices overwhelm the evidence.

And it's not about religion. Actually, most of the family are legitimately good people, trying to help others. It's just a couple bad apples.

Lena is still with Ethan. And while investigating the girls death, she meets another abused woman, Terri. This woman is actually another child of the farm. When she was young, she tried to tell the adults what was going on. They wouldn't listen. They said she was a liar. She ran away. Now she lives with her abusive husband (who's great friends with the killer, of course - well, as far as those kinds of people can have friends), and their kids.

Lena meets Terri, and well...she kind of just fucks it all up. She tries to "help" Terri, but that's obviously a joke, since she can't help herself. Although, back in A Faint Cold Fear, the mother of the first victim was abused by her husband. She was also Lena's counselor. So you could say the same thing there. She ends up handling it differently - or that's the implication.

Anyway, what's really fucked up is that while Lena is trying to "help" she actually abuses Terri herself. Here's my interpretation of what's going on with Lena and Terri: Lena's projecting onto Terri. If she can help Terri, if Terri can get out, get free, then Lena can. The fact that Terri can't, makes Lena see what she considers all her weaknesses. Brings her face to face with what Lena sees as her cowardice.

Jeffery makes a pointed comment to Lena about helping Terri, saying that his mother never left his father because on some level, she was waiting to die. On some level, she wanted to die.

I don't think that's far off for Lena, and it's definitely not for Terri. She does finally get away. Unfortunately it comes through her death.

Lena seems to see this as a wake up call, and she plants a gun in his backpack and then reports him to Jeffery for a parole violation. I'm still skeptical, but it gives me hope we won't see her dead any time soon. While I'm glad she's free, but I wonder how free she really is.

The issues she had that lead her into that kind of destructive behavior aren't going to just disappear.

Faithless, Karin Slaughter