DirectGroup Selects Karin Slaughter Novel

Posted on September 5, 2003

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 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.

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."

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 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. Like Harlan, Karin is emerging as a fine writer with broad appeal. We knew she was ready for the world stage."