What is the World Reading Now? 'A Faint Cold Fear' by Karin Slaughter

    NEW YORK, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- If you miss the next International Book
 of the Month Selection, you could be the only one on the planet.  In
 continuation of its new program, the DirectGroup division of Bertelsmann, AG,
 co-owners of Bookspan's Book-of-the-Month Club, has selected "A Faint Cold
 Fear" by New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter as the next
 International Book of the Month.
     "A Faint Cold Fear," to be published in October by William Morrow (an
 imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) is the intense third novel in Karin
 Slaughter's Grant County series.  Her previous books are "Blindsighted" and
 "Kisscut."
     DirectGroup Bertelsmann owns and operates book and music clubs worldwide.
 Several times annually, many of the book clubs in the DirectGroup division
 agree on the selection of a single title to be offered as a Main or Featured
 Selection to club members.
     "A Faint Cold Fear" will be used in France, the United Kingdom, the United
 States, Canada, Holland, Italy, Germany, and Poland, among others.  "A Faint
 Cold Fear" will be published in the native language of each country.
     The Washington Post said Karin Slaughter, "has been compared to Thomas
 Harris and Patricia Cornwell, and for once the hype is justified ...
 Slaughter's plotting is brilliant, her suspense relentless."  Detroit Free
 Press calls Karin Slaughter "a new synonym for terror" and Publishers Weekly
 said Karin Slaughter is "squarely in the ranks of Patricia Cornwell and Kathy
 Reichs."
     In "A Faint Cold Fear" Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of
 Heartsdale, Ga. is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college
 campus.  The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues -- and the
 college authorities are eager to avoid a scandal -- but for Sara and police
 chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don't add up.
     Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally
 attacked.  For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home.  And as
 Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer, he discovers that ex-police detective
 Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial
 information.  But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena
 seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next
 victim.
     The International Book of the Month is the first-ever global program of
 the DirectGroup to provide club members with one pre-selected title that has
 been chosen by the editors of clubs in the United States, Europe, Asia and
 Australia.  Bookspan, a partnership of Bertelsmann AG and AOL Time Warner Inc,
 initiated the program.
     Markus Wilhelm, Bookspan Chief Executive Officer, said, "This terrific,
 suspenseful book will be enjoyed by those who like books by Thomas Harris and
 Patricia Cornwell.
     "We had to follow-up our first International selection, 'No Second Chance'
 by Harlan Coben, with a book just as strong, just as satisfying -- if not more
 so -- in order to meet readers' expectations and establish an international
 reputation that we can be proud of," Wilhelm said.  "Like Harlan, Karin is
 emerging as a fine writer with broad appeal.  We knew she was ready for the
 world stage."
     Ewald Walgenbach, DirectGroup Chief Executive Officer and member of the
 executive board of Bertelsmann, said, "DirectGroup Bertelsmann continues
 working with the publishing industry to discover new trends and promote new
 and talented authors.  The International Book of the Month program is
 strategically sound since it utilizes the greatest strength of the book clubs
 -- editorial pre-selection."
     Mel Parker, Senior Vice President and Editorial Director of Bookspan,
 said, "It's already been a rewarding challenge to choose worthy books for the
 International Book of the Month.  I, and my colleagues on the international
 staff, delight in establishing a demanding standard and then finding that gem
 of a novel -- such as 'A Faint Cold Fear' -- that surpasses our standards."
     When told of her novel's selection for International Book of the Month,
 Karin said, "This is the kind of exposure all writers dream of.  I am very
 lucky and very grateful."
 
 

SOURCE  Bookspan