I have these two books for review, The Last Widow and The Silent Wife. Since these are books 8 and 9 in the series, I decided to read all the prior books in the series.
This series begins with Triptych, and there is a lot of significance as to how this series began. For readers of the Grant Countyseries, we have become more than familiar with Sara Linton. Sara is a remarkably strong pediatrician who married and then divorced Jeffrey Tolliver, chief of police in their town. Jeffrey was the primary protagonist in that series. Another huge player in the Grant County series is detective Lena Adams, and she played a strong role in many of the successive books. This series follows Sara's and Will's tumultuous relationship and comes to a close with book #6, Beyond Reach. However, Undoneis often billed both as book seven of the first series, as well as book three of the second series, Will Trent.
Grant County Series
Readers who followed the first series from the beginning were likely devastated as to how the series ended. However, Karin Slaughter had a lot more to write, thus, the related series, Will Trent, began to take shape.
In the Will Trent series, Sara Linton has found love once again with Will, who works for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. While Will is the primary protagonist, Sara has a very strong role in each and every book. Two other characters in the series are Angie Polaski and Faith Mitchell. There are nine books in the series, two novellas and one book that is part of an anthology with Lee Child.
As this series develops we get to see how Will and Sara met, and we also learn a lot about Will's traumatic past and how he met and became involved with Angie Polaski. Their relationship was rocky from the very beginning and stayed that way for years. Will is a rather interesting character because he is dyslexic, but has gone far in his career. His ability to memorize and the systems he uses to manage his cases is rather remarkable. He uses a digital recorder and voice recognition software which allows him to take notes as well as to file his reports.
I loved the gradual recognition that took place for Sara to realize that Will is dyslexic. Although Sara was Jeffrey Toliver's partner in the first series, and is now Will's partner in the second, she is not the primary protagonist. Will is.The second series follows Will Trent and his partner Faith Mitchell. But because I am a lover of continuity, I thoroughly enjoy the role that Sara plays in the both series.
For the remainder of this blog post I will provide book reviews for The Last Widowand The Silent Wife.
Title:The Last Widow
Author: Karin Slaughter
Series: Will Trent #9
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Mystery/Thrillers
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of pages: 446
Date of Publication: August 20, 2019
Rating: 5 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter brings back Will Trent and Sara Linton in this superb and timely thriller full of devious twists, disturbing secrets, and shocking surprises you won’t see coming
A mysterious kidnapping
On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. Vanished into thin air, the authorities are desperate to save the doctor.
A devastating explosion
One month later, the serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast—followed by another seconds later. One of Atlanta’s busiest and most important neighborhood’s has been bombed—the location of Emory University, two major hospitals, the FBI headquarters, and the CDC.
A diabolical enemy
Medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, rush to the scene—and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to destroy thousands of innocent lives. When the assailants abduct Sara, Will goes undercover to save her and prevent a massacre—putting his own life on the line for the woman and the country he loves.
There is something terrible happening in Georgia. A scientist from the CDC has been kidnapped and there is pretty much no trail to be found. A month later there is a series of explosions over several locations. Sara, former pediatrician and now medical examiner works feverishly hard with her partner Will Trent, who is an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, to get to the matter of things and do their best to save as many lives as possible before another explosion occurs. During the course of the investigation, Sara is kidnapped, forcing Will to go undercover to save her and countless others.
For most readers of this series, they had to wait a few years to see more of Will and Sara. However, I just found these books this year, so I was able to read them in immediate succession. Just as every other book in this series, as well as in the previous series, Grant County, the story is fast-paced, not letting up for one second. The book is tense, sharp and often brutal. I had gotten used to Karin Slaughter's writing so by now I was easily able to handle some of the graphic scenes in this story.
The way Slaughter presented this story was by three points of views. We have the POVs of Sara, Will and his partner Faith. There is nothing that could be missed and, in fact, this raised the intensity of the story. I was definitely kept engaged from beginning to end. Blessedly, when I went to finally read this book, I had the next book in the series ready to read, The Silent Wife.
I really love this incredible series and would love to see this in television or movie format. Whether it is the character development, the plot, the drama or the danger, The Last Widowis a remarkable story and a great way to bring Will and Sara back to Slaughter's fans.
Many thanks to William Morrow and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
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Title:The Silent Wife
Author: Karin Slaughter
Series: Will Trent #
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Mystery/Thrillers
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of pages: 496
Date of Publication: August 4, 2020
Rating: 5 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
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 recognizes 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:
Karin Slaughter pulls out all of the stops in her next book in the Will Trentseries. This fast-paced book focuses on tracking down a serial killer targeting women. The MO is the same as a rapist locked up years ago, so Will Trent must work harder than ever to find the connection and the killer before any more women are attacked.
As Will gets deeper into the investigation, the man in prison points to Jeffrey Tolliver. Will Trent is Sara Linton's boyfriend. Sara was married to Jeffrey Tolliver, and as turbulent as their marriage was, Sara would still be with him now had he not been murdered. However, it is five years later and Will and Sara are going strong. For the man in prison to try and finger Jeffrey for the previous rapes is nothing less that disturbing for both Sara and Will.
This no doubt shakes whatever balance Sara and Will have right to the core. Long-held secrets come to play and the book then shifts to the past from years previously when Jeffrey and Sara found one another. Back in the present, the story deals with Will, Sara and Will's partner Faith facing a race against time to stop the current murders, all while striving to protect Jeffrey's memory.
This book is certainly not an easy read, although it is thoroughly compelling. In the last book of the Grant Countyseries, Jeffrey died a hero. So with his name being tied to previous rapes brings in an incredible amount of angst. Meanwhile, the story also has another pivotal character, and that is Lena Adams. She was in the first series as a cop who worked for Jeffrey, but who had taken quite a turn.
Let me suggest that you read ALL of these books in order, from the very first book in the Grant County series, Blindsighted, all the way through Undone, and then beginning this series with Tryptich, through this book, The Silent Wife. It is an excellent investment in time, as the back stories in this series are critical to truly appreciating this most current book.
I do not know if or when there will be another book in this series, but I certainly hope so. The series are spectacular and I believe every reader of this genre needs to put every single one of these books on their radar.
Many thanks to William Morrow and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Published in 37 languages, with more than 35 million copies sold across the globe, her nineteen novels include the Grant County and Will Trent books, as well as the Edgar-nominated Cop Town and the instant New York Times bestselling novels Pretty Girls and The Good Daughter. Her most recent novel, The Last Widow, features Sara Linton and Will Trent. A native of Georgia, Karin currently lives in Atlanta. Her novels Cop Town, The Good Daughter, and Pieces of Her are all in development for film and television.
