Martin Misunderstood

by Karin Slaughter

Crime fiction obsessive Martin Reed is the proverbial butt of everyone's jokes. Working as a glorified accountant at Southern Toilet Supply and still living with his cantankerous mother, he has become resigned to the world in which he lives - the school bullies now pick on him in the workplace, women still spurn him and his arch enemy is now his supervisor.

But then he arrives at work one morning to find the police on site. A co-worker has been brutally murdered and her body abandoned in a ditch. And the overwhelming evidence points to Martin - especially when he can't or won't admit that he has an alibi.

When a second victim is found in the company bathroom, things really conspire against Martin. The one bright star on his otherwise bleak horizon is the beautiful and sympathetic Detective Anther Albada, but even she's beginning to have her doubts about his innocence. Could Martin be guilty? Or is he just misunderstood?


Cover Photograph Tony Hutchings

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Audiobook, Short Stories, Humor

147 pages, Paperback

First published May 27, 2008

About the author

Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular storytellers. She is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty- five novels, including the Edgar nominated COP TOWN and standalone novels PRETTY GIRLS and FALSE WITNESS. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. PIECES OF HER, based on her novel, debuted at #1 worldwide on Netflix as an original series in 2022. Her bestselling thriller series, Will Trent, is now a television and streaming sensation in its 4th season. THE GOOD DAUGHTER will soon be a limited series starring Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy, and further projects are currently in development for film/TV. Karin Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.

Facebook: Facebook.com/AuthorKarinSlaughter

Website: http://www.karinslaughter.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karinslaugh...

Reviews

[Karin Slaughter · Rating 5 out of 5]

come on, people--it's funny!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Martin Misunderstood is a short-story written by Karin Slaughter. It's both dark comedy and murder mystery, and it works! One of the many things I love about Ms. Slaughter's writing is her talent for character development and she excels with all the characters in this novella. It's so thorough that I had a hard time finding it funny at times because I just felt so, so sad for poor Martin. His character is simple, innocent, put upon, always gives others the benefit of the doubt...he's the ultimate underdog that can't seem to win. To be clear, the comedy is there - I laughed a few times for sure but I just had a hard time getting past my own heart I guess. I did enjoy how this story ended and thought it was humorously fitting for most all characters involved. Unfortunately, I can see this being a love it or hate it experience for readers. I liked it - and may re-read it on a day I'm feeling a little less sensitive. If you have enjoyed some of Ms. Slaughter's other humor-based plots, then consider Martin Misunderstood!

Note: If you're going to read Martin Misunderstood, go the audio route! Wayne Knight narrates and that was an experience all on it's own!

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very quick read. Was fine, nothing to write home about.

Two stars.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story 3.75 stars**
Audio 4.5 stars**
Narrator Wayne Knight

[Graham “Smell the Ink” · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny light hearted quick read.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Martin Reed is one of lifes losers, abused at home and work, who discovers that his car has been seriously damaged in an accident. Worse, the accident was the murder of one of his colleagues. Into the fray comes plain, eczema-ridden Dutch policewoman Anther Albada, a character so charmless and out of place that her make-believe lesbian relationship has taken over her life. I’ve never read a Karin Slaughter book before and, I’m assuming, this wasn’t the best place to start - originally a talking-book, this is written in a patronising, folksy kind of way that kept shattering my suspension of disbelief every few pages. I’m sure there are people like Martin out there in the world (like Milton, in “Office Space”), but putting him and Anther together just seemed to be saying “look at these idiots, let’s laugh at them” and adding in the foul-mouthed mother (who has her own secret) didn’t help. In fact, with the random swearing and name-dropping of Slaughter’s peers, this felt a bit like kids writing something naughty just to shock the adults. The story was mudane and silly, the characters were so deliberately awful it was difficult to find one to sympathise with and the denouement was simply ridiculous. And at 28,000, this isn’t a novel though the £5.99 price tag would have you believe that. Difficult to fathom who this would appeal to, more difficult to recommend.

[Beth Morvant · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an odd little book.

[CoffeeBook Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, Martin.

Martin is so sorely misunderstood, the poor guy. For cryin' out loud, he's been picked on by everyone since he was a kid, and even his mother (yep, still lives with her), is a manipulative mess who never misses out on a low blow insult.

And for whatever reason, Martin as an adult, has never moved from his hometown. In fact, he works as an accountant at Southern Toilet Supply, and every co-worker is either a former classmate, or someone who just picked up the bullying because Martin is just a simpletons' idea of a perfect target. Insults normally directed to women are even keyed onto his car. There is no end to it.

So when Martin, a fan of crime fiction novels, becomes a suspect in a murder, the out-of-control spiraling of his life takes an even darker turn. Ann, the delightfully ordinary detective with her own secrets becomes the lead on his case, and it becomes even more demented and confusing. And I mean that in an extremely good way. The compelling twists that come about for Martin are preposterously simple, but satisfying, and the characters surrounding him are unintentionally, but stupidly evil. I enjoyed every second of it and the final reveal was a bit of a shock, I must admit.

At only two and a half hours, this audiobook is simultaneously hilarious and also terribly gloomy. The characters were perfectly constructed and the plot was a tightly woven maze of one bad coincidence and mistake after another. I can't imagine anyone listening to this in an afternoon and not enjoying it. It really was, in an odd way, the perfect way to spend a day. There are some sex scenes in which I would advise that you turn the volume down if you have the windows open...it is an absolute riot.

I picked this audio copy up from BEA in New York City this year when I attended the APA Audiobook and Author Tea event. Karin Slaughter, Brad Meltzer, and Tony Horwitz were the featured speakers. I've never read a Karin Slaughter book before (I know, where have I been?), but she piqued my interest when she informed the audience that when she first started writing her crime fiction novels, the general response from the reading public regarding a female detective using the F-word was extremely negative. As she stated, "People didn't seem to have a problem with the rape and murder of women, but to have a female cop drop the F-bomb? That got a response." Can you believe it? I'm certainly going to read her other books. I'm a happy camper for picking up Martin Misunderstood - the writing was unique, unexpected, and absolutely demented with its humor. I mean, I can't believe I laughed at some of the things that happened.

[Sharon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yep...one star. That was being pretty generous.

This book is not badly written, however the story itself leaves a lot to be desired. There were some funny parts...actually, the funny parts had more to do with the use of language than anything that actually happened in the story...but funny is funny.

I would recommend if you listen to this at work that you rethink that, listen to it in your car, or at home...not however within hearing range of children...or aging parents...or anyone you may want to make a good first impression on.

I found myself slumped in my office chair, cringing with the volume as low as possible, hoping to God no one can hear what I'm hearing because it is so embarrassing. That was with earphones.

Imagine a small novel, born of a badly written soft porn novel that eloped with a mediocre Harlequin novel and was raised in a true crime magazine...that I'm sure, are the genetics of this book.

It probably didn't help that the Newman guy from Seinfeld was the narrator.

[Sherwell Anil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Promising start, but a terrible ending.
Disappointing!

[Charlotte (Buried in Books) · Rating 1 out of 5]

To say I'm disappointed with this book would be a huge understatement. I'm a big fan of this author (the Grant County books are fantastic), but this story just didn't grab me.

You have a man who has been bullied his entire life, who finds that his role in life is to confess to murders - just so he can keep seeing the nice lady detective of the story.

The nice lady detective lives in a world of her own (one where she invents lesbian lovers - one of whom dies of breast cancer), just so her fellow colleagues will stop calling her frigid.

The most baffling thing to me though, is that Martin ends up on death row, for two murders that his mother committed (a mother who does the circuits of the talk shows and is writing a book about her deranged son). He even gets her to confess during a prison visit and does nothing with that information because he's happy where he is.

The only good thing about this book is that it only took a few hours to read.

[Nadine Rose Larter · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this little bit of odd brought to us by the queen of crime was...well...odd. I swear Ms Slaughter decided to just have a bit of fun with this one, I must admit that it made me kind of giggle a few times. She kind of disses Patricia Cornwell at some point which I thought was a bit "ok then". Weird. Just weird. But nice and short. My newly lazy reading ways have started to appreciate nice and short. So at least there's that.

[Lori]

Audio Book BEA11

Listened 5/29/11 - 5/31/11
Unrated
Time: 2.5 hours

"Once upon a time there was a man named Martin...."

Standing in line at the Book Blogger Convention's "Build Your Own Swag Bag" stations, I was handed an audio copy of Karin Slaughter's novel Martin Misunderstood. I quickly passed on it - not particularly caring for audio books OR murder mysteries - until I heard that Wayne Knight was narrating it. You know Wayne Knight, guys... Newman... from Seinfeld?

I mean, I'm no fan of the show (yes, it's been said that only people with no sense of humor dis like Seinfeld, I'm a freak, I've come to terms with it...) but I'm thinking, How bad can it be if NEWMAN is narrating? It's gotta be kinda funny, right? It's gonna at least have my attention, right? So I went against my gut - which was saying "it doesn't matter who narrates it Lori, you don't like murder mysteries" - and threw it into my swag bag. I mean, it's not like I BOUGHT it or anything.... and it was incredibly short clocking in at 2 1/2 hours. That's not a whole lot of time to commit myself to. That's two trips back and forth to work. I can handle it. Even if it's bad. Where's the harm in taking it for a spin?

Oh boy. Ooohhhh. Boy. I can't decide if my issues with the audio book lie with the writing - which is your typical, cookie cutter who-dun-it - or with Wayne Knight's interpretation of the writing.

For starters, though he has a reasonably good natural reading voice, his character voices cracked my shit up! And not in the "oh, that Wayne Knight, what a comedian..." kind of way. More like in a "Oooh my Gawd! Is he really going to make Martin and his mother sound like that? For the entire book?..." kind of way.

I gotta give him some credit though, there were a lot of characters in this book, and he managed to create unique (if not ear-grating) voices for each one.

The most painful part of the audio book - for me, and I have to imagine, for Wayne as well - were the sex scenes. Oh.My.Fucking.God. I will never look at Wayne Knight the same ever, ever, again. The grunting and the spasms and the shooting of the loads... dear lord. They were awful. Like "worse than walking in on your parents getting it on" awful. My poor ears. My poor, poor ears. I mean, I found myself (god forgive me for saying this) wondering if that is really how Wayne Knight sounds when he is getting his freak on. I can't get those sounds out of my head.

Thankfully, those scenes did not last long, mainly due to the inexperience of our pathetic protagonist, Martin.

And since I'm mentioning Martin, I may as well give you some back story on him, yes?

Ok, so Martin is this middle aged corporate loser who still lives at home with his overbearing and annoying mother. He currently works with all the cool kids who endlessly picked on him in school, and things are no different now that they are adults. Teased day in and day out, friendless and lonely, Martin loses himself inside hundreds of murder mystery and thriller novels. Until the day he finds himself the prime suspect of one when a co-worker turns up dead.

Not the best story in the world, and most definitely an embarrassing and awkward narration. But I really have nothing to judge it by. I don't normally read murder mysteries and I have never listened to an audio book in it's entirety before - so I can't be sure if it's ME or the BOOK.

Have any of you listened to it? Have you read other Karin Slaughter novels? Is this typical of it's genre? Is the narration typical of audio books?

Though I am extremely skeptical, I won an audio copy of Among the Mad at the Picador Blogger Cocktail, and though it is a heck of a lot longer (a total of 8 hours, I believe), I think I am going to give it a shot. Just so I have something to judge Martin Misunderstood against. Just to give it audio books another fighting chance.

Though I doubt I will ever be able to shake the "uuhhh... uhhhh... uuuuaaaahhh's" from my brain for as long as I live. *shivers*

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I read a lot of Patterson,Preston-Child,Michael Koryta, but I am also a big fan of James Thurber. I like to think that if Thurber wrote a Slaughter book it would have come off like Martin Misunderstood. Slaughter has a good sense of humor and it comes out in her other books which makes her style deeply satisfying. Where other crime writers have a smarmy sense of humor that usually comes out in characters that are psychopaths, her books have natural sounding dialogue between all the characters.

When interviewed, Slaughter mentioned this book as not finding the acclaim that her other books have enjoyed. But that is probably because her audience wanted another Will Trent or Grant County story.

The story is a little dark and very funny you should read it.

[Susan Gorman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hilarious short story. I listened to the audio version and Wayne Knight absolutely knocked it out of the park. As usual, Ms. Slaughter treats us to her trademark sense of humor as well as creating a family so dysfunctional that it is a true work of genius. My big regret is that I don’t live near Ms. Slaughter. I would stalk her and make her my best friend! 😜

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to get to see this author at a local signing in Georgia. So as I prepped for my flight, I spotted this audio and decided to give it a try.

As many others have said, this is a huge departure from this author's other books. Main character Martin is a pretty sad character. He lives a pretty miserable life - many of his high school tormentors are now his adult world co-workers and they are still making his life awful.

When there is suddenly a murder in his office, it's easy to see how Martin is quickly the suspect. From there, this one spirals. I loved the twists and even appreciated many of the coincidences that cornered Martin and got him into the mess he was in. It was quirky and I appreciated it for the silly story the author intended it to be.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

When your favorite dark thriller/crime/mystery author writes a romantic comedy it's 1. a must read and 2. probably going to be really messed up. Yes to both! Martin is an accountant at a toilet supply company who finds himself wrongly accused or murder. Anther is one of the detectives investigating his case and has some huge secrets of her own. This is a complete WTF but I kind of liked it? Sort of. I think it's more accurate to say that I appreciated the effort and didn't take it too seriously. It wouldn't be a Karin Slaughter I'd recommend, but I thoroughly enjoyed it in that messed up way.

[Katherine "Kj" Joslin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not Karin Slaughter's normal genre, it was very funny which I was not prepared for and quirky. I liked it.

[Irene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Martin voelt zich onbegrepen, zijn moeder geloof ik ook en ik ook.
Het is ergens wel een goed spannend boekenweekgeschenk, al vind ik het vooral een saai geschenk.
Martin wordt neergezet als een loser, aan de lezer zelf om daar verder iets wel/niet van te vinden. Überhaupt interessante personages.

Vage en saaie stukken, voor de helft al bedenken wie de dader is (bleek goed te zijn) en een wat absurd einde, wat dan toch weer wel passend lijkt? Over lijken gesproken, die waren er 'gelukkig' wel.
Twee sterren voor Slaughter en mezelf. Onbegrijpelijk.

[Jillian Ferry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The low self esteem of a lowly man creates a new man remembered for the murder crimes he pleas guilty to.

[Brooklyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.00 stars.
This is certainly not Karin Slaughter’s best, but to be fair, it was written 13 years ago. Though the premise of Martin being a down on his luck man, who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, was intriguing and much more lighthearted than the typical Slaughter read, I found the story spiralled into an unsatisfying story with the twist too obvious and the plot points frustrating. Wouldn’t recommend to Slaughter fans, but I suppose fine to read if trying to complete Slaughter’s entire body of work.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strange book about a man with an incredibly unfulfilled life who is the target of ridicule by everyone everyone that he works with and the mother that he still lives with. His usual, below average life becomes a little less mundane when damage to his car makes him the prime suspect in a murder investigation. But with no easy way to prove his innocence, and all of the circumstantial evidence pointing towards him, what will happen?

The story is quite dark in places, hinting at the disturbing themes common in otherKarin Slaughter novels, but with a much lighter touch. It felt more superficial than the other KS novella that I read, Last Breath, and not a book that I'll be urging friends to read, but at only 147 pages it was fine for a quick read.

There are various references to other works of crime fiction, and I particularly appreciated the reference to the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich.

[Kellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this listen. The characters were awful people (they were supposed to be) but I liked that they were awful, as it made them fun to read about. I laughed every time Unique was mentioned. I didn't like the ending, however; I was unhappy with Martin's way of thinking and wanted him to stop confessing to things he hadn't done, narc on his mom, and then have a real life with Anther.

[Jennifer D · Rating 5 out of 5]

So W E I R D, quirky and funny - I laughed out loud several times. Wayne Knight also did an excellent job with the narration. 🤣

[Riesenzumsel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Es ist witzig. Gerade am Anfang war ich begeistert über die Schreibweise und den lustigen, etwas abartigen Inhalt. War sehr gespannt was noch kommt - wurde dann leider enttäuscht. Während am Anfang vieles ausgeschmückt und etwas langsamer erzählt wurde hat sich am Ende immer mehr überschlagen (vielleicht kam es mir auch nur so vor?), trotzdem aber auch immer mehr immer weiter komische Figuren dazukamen. Aufgrund der Länge würd ich sagen kann man ruhig mal einen Blick reinwerfen, wenn man mal einen witzigen thriller ausprobieren will. Aber der Anfang lässt mehr hoffen, als man am Ende kriegt und so ganz zufrieden stellt mich persönlich das Ende auch nicht.

.. Weiß An, wie es wirklich geschah?
.. Gut, dass Martin am Ende endlich "verstand"..... Aber ich würde auch gerne verstehen 😂 Vermutungen hab ich, aber.. Manchmal ist das ja ganz reizvoll, aber bei einem sonst so direkt geschriebenen Buch war es für mich fehl am Platz.

[Veritas666 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gerade habe ich das Buch quälend ausgelesen. Bei 175 Seiten was nicht gerade viel ist, ist es schon sehr erstaunlich wie arg sich das Buch in die Länge gezogen hat :(

Leider war es auch so ganz und gar nicht mein Fall. Es war schlecht geschrieben meiner Meinung nach, hatte weder Überraschungen noch Action. Rundum kann man sagen das es ein richtig schlechtes Buch war. Selbst in so wenig Seiten hätte ich mir von diesem Genre einfach mehr erhofft, Grausamer und weitaus mehr Spannung vielleicht, dann hätte es etwas werden können, Die Idee dahinter war nicht neu aber zumindest hätte sie potenzial gehabt.

Ich persönlich kann sie keinem empfehlen der dieses Genre gerne liest.

Cover: Das ist das einzige an dem Buch was super aussieht.

[Soondis Mansur · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably the worst book I have ever read, and definitely the worst first book to pick by Karin Slaughter.

The entire time I just kept thinking “what the actual fuck?!”

The entire book felt so disjointed and rushed. There was zero character development, so literally every character was not likable and definitely not relatable. Many of them fell into stereotypes that were just awkward and uncomfortable to read.

I wish I could get the 2.5 hours of my life back and now I don’t know if I ever want to read another book by this author.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

I liked reading 'Martin Misunderstood'. It was surprisingly funny. The story itself was very compelling and the writing, as usual, was great. Karin Slaughter can truly weave some twisted magic in such a short amount of pages. Martin was definitely an interesting character. I would either feel bad for him or curse him for being so stupid. My only complaint is that the ending was abrupt, it needed to be stronger.

This was definitely a good read.

[Caty Hespel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dit 2de kortverhaal dat ik van haar lees is terug compleet anders dan wat we van Karin Slaughter uit bv. de Grand County reeks kennen, en opnieuw stel in vast dat er toch wel hele vreemde en sadistische hersenspinsels aan haar brein ontspruiten. Geen slecht boek, maar ook niet helemaal mijn ding, ik krijg er kippenvel van of beter, zoals in het Engels, "it makes my skin crawl".

[Lit Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

spetterende dialogen en een verassend plot.