Criminal

hands of a novice. In researching this novel, I came to understand that no one sees the past in the same way. For Atlanta, there is the white perspective, there is the black perspective, and then, there are the (at times, polar opposite) perspectives of the men and women within these categories. Extrapolate this to the melting pot of our current population and you can begin to understand why, as a writer, I chose to settle on one point of view.
    That being said, I’m a novelist, not a historian. I don’t claim to be an expert on Atlanta in the 1970s—or present day, for that matter. I have certainly taken liberties with some details. (There were no five-story buildings at Techwood Homes. Monica Kaufman, like Spike, Snoopy’s brother, did not show up in Atlanta until August of 1975. You will probably get arrested if you hang out in front of the Four Seasons too long looking for that marble fountain.) My main focus in writing this book was to tell a good story. I understood from the beginning that there were several traps inherent in being a southern woman writing about race and gender issues. Please know I worked very hard to make sure everyone—no matter race, religion, creed, gender, or national origin—was equally maligned.
    Karin Slaughter
Atlanta, Georgia
www.karinslaughter.com

ALSO BY KARIN SLAUGHTER
Blindsighted
Kisscut
A Faint Cold Fear
Indelible
Like a Charm
(Editor)
Faithless
Triptych
Beyond Reach
Fractured
Undone
Broken
Fallen

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    K ARIN S LAUGHTER is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of Fallen , Broken , Undone , Beyond Reach , Triptych , Faithless , Indelible , A Faint Cold Fear , Kisscut , and Blindsighted; she contributed to and edited Like a Charm . To date, her books have been translated into over thirty languages. She is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, where she currently lives and is working on her next novel.
www.karinslaughter.com