The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter | @SlaughterKarin @HarperCollinsUK | #recommended #20BooksofSummer

Author : Karin Slaughter
Title : The Silent Wife
Series : Will Trent #10
Pages : 478
Publisher : Harper Collins
Publication date : June 25, 2020

| ABOUT THE BOOK |

Atlanta, Georgia. Present day. A young woman is brutally attacked and left for dead. The police investigate but the trail goes cold. Until a chance assignment takes GBI investigator Will Trent to the state penitentiary, and to a prisoner who says he recognises the MO. The attack looks identical to the one he was accused of eight years earlier. The prisoner’s always insisted that he was innocent, and now he’s sure he has proof. The killer is still out there.

As Will digs into both crimes it becomes clear that he must solve the original case in order to reach the truth. Yet nearly a decade has passed—time for memories to fade, witnesses to vanish, evidence to disappear. And now he needs medical examiner Sara Linton to help him hunt down a ruthless murderer. But when the past and present collide, everything Will values is at stake…

| MY THOUGHTS |

Fangirl status activated!

Let me repeat for those who have been living under a rock the last few years : I love Karin Slaughter. LOVE! I have no idea where this review will end up going but apologies in advance if things start to become a tad embarrassing.

The Silent Wife is book ten (10!!!) in the Will Trent series. Even more mind-blowing, it’s Karin Slaughter’s 20th book in twenty years. Twenty years since Blindsighted, the first book in the Grant County series, was published. I was there for that and I’m not entirely sure I needed to be reminded of how old I am but there you go. The urge to go sit in a corner somewhere and wonder where the last twenty years went is strong, people! Anyway!

Obviously, this twenty year anniversary marks the perfect time to revisit Grant County. And so we shall. In present day Atlanta, Georgia, a young woman is brutally attacked and left for dead. Unfortunately for the investigators, the trail quickly goes cold. During a visit to the state penitentiary, a prisoner informs detectives that he recognises the MO, as the attack looks identical to one he himself was accused of years earlier. He’s been claiming his innocence ever since. But if he didn’t do it, who did?

So, not only do we get a current investigation but a cold case as well! Cue me being awfully excited because cold cases are right up there on the list of “things what Eva really likes”. And this particular cold case has bags of potential because, as I already mentioned, Karin Slaughter takes us back to where it all started. Kind of. Back to Grant County. Back to Jeffrey Tolliver, who was such a huge part of Sara Linton’s life, and Lena Adams.

On the one hand, it was an absolute delight to travel back in time to Grant County. After all, it is where my love affair with Karin Slaughter started. I was instantly reminded of how much I liked Jeffrey and Sara, even though we aren’t meeting them at the best of times. But also of how much I utterly despited Lena Adams and that didn’t change over the years because as soon as her name appeared on the page, I was filled with an extreme ragey-rage.

Karin Slaughter tackled this flashback of sorts brilliantly, by taking the readers who were already familiar with the Grant County series to a time that hadn’t been explored before and I loved every minute of it. But on the other hand, it also showed me that I’m in that place where I love Will and Sara a whole lot more. And I while I don’t normally enjoy romantic elements in my crime fiction, their relationship has just completely captured my heart and I will forever be rooting for them all the way.

As for the crimes that are being investigated … sheesh … the word “brutal” seems like a horrible understatement. Devastatingly sickening, stomach-churning and shocking … in case you didn’t know, this is an author who doesn’t hold back. Nor should she because unfortunately, these things happen. And it’s not just about these horrific attacks on women. It’s also about survival. How victims deal with the consequences of being attacked, how some live in denial, or lean on whichever crutch just to make it through the day. How something like this doesn’t just impact them, but the people around them. It’s all incredibly devastating.

I couldn’t at all figure out what we were dealing with here. Did Jeffrey and his team screw up the initial investigation? Is the right person behind bars or not? Are we dealing with a copycat? Karin Slaughter had me guessing until the end. The ultimate reveal left me feeling like I’d been punched in the gut, winded, incredulous and also quite sad.

In short, this is Karin Slaughter at her very, VERY best! The Silent Wife is a dark and disturbing serial killer tale and an absolutely fabulous addition to the Will Trent series. I’m eager for more because this series just keeps getting better and better, as does Slaughter’s writing. I wouldn’t mind going back to Grant County again some time in the future, but for now I’m happy to return to the old books and wait for more from Will Trent.

I highly recommend this series, the Grant County series and every other book Slaughter has written in the last twenty years. Because if you’re not reading her books, I’m sorry but I really don’t think we can be friends anymore. 😉

The Silent Wife is available to buy!

Affiliate link : Bookdepository
Other retailers : Amazon US | Amazon UK | Hive UK | Kobo | Waterstones

20 Books of Summer : 8/20