Cop Town

By: Karin Slaughter

Narrated by: Kathleen Early

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Karin Slaughter, author of the bestselling Will Trent novels, is widely acclaimed as “one of the best crime novelists in America” (The Washington Post). Now she delivers her first stand-alone novel: an epic story of a city in the midst of seismic upheaval, a serial killer targeting cops, and a divided police force tasked with bringing a madman to justice.

Atlanta, 1974. It’s Kate Murphy’s first day on the job, and the Atlanta Police Department is seething after the murder of an officer. Before the day has barely begun, she already suspects she’s not cut out to be a cop. Her male uniform is too big, she can’t handle a gun, and she’s rapidly learning that the APD is hardly a place that welcomes women. Worse still, in the ensuing manhunt, she’ll be partnered with Maggie Lawson, a cop with her own ax to grind (and a brother and uncle already on the force)—a strategy meant to isolate Kate and Maggie from the action. But the move will backfire, putting them right at the heart of it.

Cop Town is an incredibly atmospheric nail-biter from the author the Huffington Post called an “exemplary storyteller” and “one of the great talents of the twenty-first century.”

©2014 Karin Slaughter (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

She does it again!

It's really hard not to like Karin Slaughter, although I'll admit I haven't tried that hard. Her books are just so tight and easy to listen to and Cop Town didn't disappoint.

As an Atlanta resident, it's so interesting to hear the clearly well researched history of the city. The Atlanta I moved back to 8 years ago bears little resemblance to the 1974 Atlanta of this book, but it's a good reminder that a mere 40 years can change so many things. It helps us all remember that fighting the good fight of racism, sexism and homophobia can yield results not in some distant future, but in our own lifetimes.

Like the early story of Amanda Wagner, this book follows the path of a young APD officer as she navigates 1974 Atlanta and the cataclysmic changes that were happening in the city at that time - changes that paved the way for the city I now live in.

If you've never read Karin Slaughter before, this book will send you back to her archive to listen to more. If you've heard all the rest, then you won't be disappointed.

One note on the narrator: While she's perfectly good with characterization albeit a little weak on southern (which I've simply come to expect in media), I'm really surprised that no one has ever bothered to correct her pronunciation of a few of the street names in Atlanta. I've noticed it in every book she's narrated for this author and it always takes me out of the book for a moment. Ponce de Leon has a correct pronunciation (the Spanish way), but only about 10 people out of Atlanta's 6 million use it (and they're either newbies or solely Spanish speakers). In Atlanta, the street is pronounced Ponce (one syllable) de Leon (like the man's name). And Cheshire Bridge Rd. is pronounced Che - sher with no long "i."

GREAT BOOK! ONE OF HER BEST

loved it. I hope she makes a series of these characters I feel like I want to get to know each of them more and see where their stories lead!!

Another great read by Slaughter

Love this book. You get lost in her stories. Kathleen Early is the reader for Karin Slaughter and she is EXCELLENT and she is the the best reader for these books!

Cop Town

Cop Town is a book that causes you to feel a deep connection to its characters and their relationships with one another. Taking place in 1974, the book deals with topics such as sexism, racism, etc. As a southerner, Karin’s depiction of a police department and the power trip that many officers have is very realistic. Even in 2020.

Cop Town

Any additional comments?

Over fourteen hours of listening, narrated by Kathleen Early. This book has primarily good reviews. A few readers (listeners) have panned Cop Town, but, for the most part, it has been well received. Much of this story is extremely disturbing. If an author has an objective to evoke emotion, Slaughter has pulled it off, i.e., the female characters will make teeth grind. Realizing this story is based in the mid-seventies, the reader will get the picture regarding women being subjected to brutality beyond modern-day comprehension. Cop Town was published in 2014, ergo, women triumph in the end, but I’m of the opinion that the 1970s Atlanta police department's viscious chauvinism is over-stated considerably.

Cop Town is a decent police procedural surrounding the serial killing of Atlanta policemen and the resulting mystery. The writing is good, the story good. The characters, however, are grating. All male characters, Atlanta policemen, are bullies, bigots, chauvinists, drunks, and fundamentally nasty, mean, and disgusting. The female characters, most Atlanta policewomen, are often submissive, enabling, whiney, one even swoons. Even in the mid 70s, the Atlanta police department would not put officers on the street with such ridiculously little training, uniforms so ill-fitting they would endanger their lives or the lives of fellow officers … even women or blacks. Frankly, much of the detail is absurd and wouldn’t have happened. I’m ready and willing to buy into a good-old-boy mentality and childish pranks in the police department, but … come on, some of this is just plain garbage annoying to read.

If you can get by some eye-rolling issues, the police procedural, clues, mystery … all is good. Narration by Early is fine, no trouble discerning who says what to who.