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.
I'm delighted to be hosting the blog tour for The Silent Wife today, many thanks to Karin Slaughter, Harper Collins and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my advance digital copy of the novel.
I'm a relative newcomer to Karin Slaughter's books having only reading her previous Will Trent book, The Last Widow. I'm now very firmly among her fans, of course and though I realised reading The Silent Wife that there were moments which would hold particular resonance for long-term readers, those of us who are just beginning to acquaint ourselves with Will, Sara Linton and the other recurring characters are given plenty to help bring us up to speed.
This is a dark book - it details horrific, brutally violent crimes in shocking detail. A prison riot leads to a convicted paedophile offering Will Trent a deal; eight years ago he was suspected of carrying out terrible attacks on a series of young women but now he has learned of another case which looks identical. He wants Will to examine the earlier investigation and in return he will pass on information as to how phones are being smuggled into jail.
Will soon realises that the earlier case was handled by Sara's former husband, Jeffery Tolliver. Fans of Karin Slaughter's Grant County series will immediately sit up at the mention of his name and be even more thrilled to learn he has a significant role to play in this dual narrative thriller. As Will and Sara compare similarities between the latest murder and the attacks eight years ago, the storyline switches between past and present. Sara isn't having an easy time in either period - in the earlier scenes she and Jeffery are divorced following his infidelity and in the current day chapters her relationship with Will is at a crucial moment but their complicated histories threaten their chance at happiness.
Following two investigations into the same case is fascinating, especially when it also brings complex emotions and previous issues to the forefront - Lena Adams' appearance can't go unmentioned and I wonder if she still has a further role to play in the future. I certainly hope so for there is clearly more drama to be found here. These are messy, flawed people who make stupid mistakes but I love reading about them. Obviously I'm particularly invested in Will and Sara but it was intriguing to learn more about Jeffery and to see the passion that still clearly lingered between him and Sara even when they were tearing strips off one another.
The forensic examinations hold little back and it can be difficult to read of the violence inflicted on the victims. There has been some criticism of violence towards women in crime fiction but The Silent Wife highlights why it's vital that the subject is written about and discussed. The women here aren't nameless bodies who serve only to move the plot forward. Those who are killed are shown to have left their mark on those left behind and their loved ones' grief is almost too hard to bear. Meanwhile, the long-lasting emotional and physical effect on the lives of the survivors is perceptively described. If you struggle to read about sexual abuse then I would recommend giving this book a miss but please rest assured that though it is graphic, it is not gratuitous and Karin Slaughter explores this difficult subject with an honest, raw empathy.
The Silent Wife is darkly suspenseful with an intricately structured, shocking plot that is the stuff of nightmares and with an emotional punch that left me reeling. Very highly recommended.
The Silent Wife is published by Harper Collins, purchasing links can be found here but please consider supporting independent bookstores when possible.
Don't miss the rest of the blog tour, details are below.
About the Author
Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular and acclaimed storytellers. Published in 120 countries with more than 35 million copies sold across the globe, her 19 novels include the Grant County and Will Trent books, as well as the Edgar-nominated Cop Town and the instant Sunday Times bestselling novels Pretty Girls, The Good Daughter, and Pieces of Her.
The Good Daughter and Cop Town are in development for film and television and Pieces of Her is soon to be an eight-part Netflix adaptation, directed by Lesli Linka Glatter (Mad Men), and produced by Charlotte Stoudt (Homeland) and Bruna Papandrea (Big Little Lies).
Karin is the founder of the Save the Libraries project- a non-profit organisation established to support libraries and library programming.
She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Thanks for the blog tour support Karen xx
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