Cop Town steps away from the ongoing series and characters from Slaughter's other books and takes us back to Atlanta in 1974. The police force was forced to allow women to join, though they were certainly not welcomed with open arms. The story is gritty and at times, takes you to some very uncomfortable places - just what a thriller should do.
Maggie Lawson comes from a cop family - her brother and her uncle are both cops. That doesn't mean that they accept her into the family business; she's still a girl after all. Kate Murphy looks like a supermodel and comes from Buckhead, neither of which endears her to her fellow police officers.
Someone is targeting police officers, shooting them execution style. A suspect was nabbed before, but thanks to an investigation worthy of Mark Fuhrman, he is set free. The hunt is on to get him before he's able to take out more of Atlanta's finest.
At first, I wasn't sure about this book; it wasn't what I was expecting. The storyline drew me in, though, and made it worth my while. I think I've had to face discrimination due to being female maybe twice in my life. I am not sure if it's the times I've grown up in or that I just never entertained the thought that I was less-than because of my sex. (Sometimes I do think we do manifest things/behavior into being and create our own issues.) It's actually an odd coincidence for me that I read this book and then the story of the OSU band director being fired came out - they both include issues of discrimination due to gender and orientation. It saddens me that there are still pockets of our culture in the US that allow this behavior. And, that there are places in the world where women have no rights whatsoever. To me, that's always been about fear - fear of what women can do.
I can't imagine going into work and having to put up with being manhandled. It's easy for me to say that I would never put up with that, but if that's the norm, how do you fight it? Obviously, it made me appreciate the women who went before me in this world much more.
Easy to read? No. Keeps you riveted? Absolutely!
Highly recommend.
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