Book Review: Triptych by Karin Slaughter

Michael Ormewood is a homicide detective and good husband/father except for the occasional romp with the next door neighbor. When we’re first introduced to the neighbor, Cynthia, we know she’s alone a lot because Jeff is out of town a lot. We assume Jeff is her husband – in fact, Jeff is actually her father. Cynthia is 15. When we find this out, late in the chapter, we start to realize that maybe ordinary good-guy cop Michael Ormewood is not exactly who he seems. He is investigating a series of murders of mostly young girls and one prostitute – all of whom have been raped and had their tongues cut off. 

All throughout the first part of the book are mysterious news clippings from 1985, 21 years before the book takes place, about 15 year old Mary Finney who was brutally raped, murdered, and mutilated. Finally, we meet the man who supposedly killed her – John Shelley – just released from prison after all these years. We flash back and forth from present to 1985. John was an insecure kid, easily influenced by his older cousin Woody who was into all sorts of trouble, including drugs – and John ended up in the hospital after an overdose on cocaine. John had always hated Mary Finney, but ran into her one night, found himself falling for her, and invited her to his cousin Woody’s party. At the party, Woody hit on her and tried to get her drunk, so John dragged her away, and on the way out, Woody tossed him a bag of what seemed like cocaine. John and Mary went back to Mary’s house, and Mary begged John to try some of the white powder. John went first, and passed out immediately. When he woke up, Mary was dead and bloodied beside him, and he rushed out in fear.

John, out of prison, finds out that someone has been using his identity. He knows that if someone is using the identity of a convicted sex offender/murder, they must be up to no good at all. In fact, it is his old cousin Woody – who has grown up to be the man we know as Michael Ormewood. This is the first and biggest twist in the story. John goes to Michael’s house to investigate, and Cynthia is there. She runs from him, gets her foot caught in the fence, falls on a rock and dies. John, mimicking the death of Mary Finney, cuts off her tongue – as though to send a message to Michael. Thus, Cynthia’s death is now connected to all of the other murders in Michael’s case file.

Slowly by slowly, with the help of John and also the other investigator on the case, Will Trent, we figure out that Michael is not only investigating these murders, he committed them. And he was the person who killed Mary Finney all those years ago. John Shelley, who we expected to hate, has actually been innocent his whole life. Worse still, Michael (by using his identity all those years) is trying to frame him again…and who is going to listen to a sex offender who served a life term for murder over a homicide detective with no criminal record?

Filled with twists and turns, the story is utterly compelling and suspenseful. Fantastic ending – things all come to a suspenseful climax and the resolution is good, but not cheesy. Great characters, especially John – who we are told is a pedophile and murderer, but who we quickly discover is completely innocent and wronged by the system and his own family who he trusted. Though the rape, pedophilia, and mutilation may be too dark, it is all necessary in Slaughter’s exploration of sexual perversions and victims of abuse. Each character has been abused, and each has found their own way of coping - presenting a tough face to the world despite their heightened vulnerability.