It is always great to be back with Sara and Will. This time the author tops the reading excitement with the appearance of Jeffrey Tolliver, Sara´s late husband. He and Amanda give Sara literally a hard time in the past and the present. I had great fun reading and was once again thrilled by the way how Karin Slaughter combined and created her figures and plot.
The Silent Wife
by Karin SlaughterWill Trent Series #10
Georgia Series #8
Publisher Harper Collins on July 28, 2020
Genre Thriller
Pages 657
Format Hardcover
Source Library
Goodreads
✶✶✶✶✶
Investigating the killing of a prisoner during a riot inside a state penitentiary, GBI investigator Will Trent is confronted with disturbing information. One of the inmates claims that he is innocent of a brutal attack for which he has always been the prime suspect. The man insists that he was framed by a corrupt law enforcement team led by Jeffrey Tolliver and that the real culprit is still out there—a serial killer who has systematically been preying on women across the state for years. If Will reopens the investigation and implicates the dead police officer with a hero’s reputation of wrongdoing, the opportunistic convict is willing to provide the information GBI needs about the riot murder. Only days ago, another young woman was viciously murdered in a state park in northern Georgia. Is it a fluke, or could there be a serial killer on the loose? As Will Trent digs into both crimes it becomes clear that he must solve the cold case in order to find the answer. Yet nearly a decade has passed - time for memories to fade, witnesses to vanish, evidence to disappear, and lies to become truth. But Will can’t crack either mystery without the help of the one person he doesn’t want involved: his girlfriend and Jeffrey Tolliver’s widow, medical examiner Sara Linton. When the past and present begin to collide, Will realizes that everything he values is at stake . . .
Story
A prison case Will and his partner must investigate shows more and more that Sara´s late husband Jeffrey maybe did not do his job the way he was supposed to. For Will begins a difficult time when he must admit to himself that he can´t read Sara´s signs and language anymore. And considering his own past, he no longer knows if Sara loves him or not or if she is willing to accept him as the man at her side.
Style
The reading pace is fast, and the story is as haunting as it is thrilling. It was wonderful to see Jeffrey and to discover once more that he was not the best man or husband a woman could wish for. To get to know more details about Sara´s divorce and to see how they both worked on a case reminded me of the author´s Grant County series, where Sara and Jeffrey had worked together on many cases.
Here, the mix of a story playing in the past, and the ongoing plot was very well combined and created. To see how Sara starts to realize that a case she had considered solved was not solved at all was quite fascinating. And Karin Slaughter knows how to entertain her readers the best way possible. Her language is clear, every word set perfectly and whenever she has to bring in medical things, she does it in a great way and very easy to understand for the reader.
Characters
Sara plays in a completely different league if you ask Will. He never believes that he could be worth it to be loved by her. But Sara loves him, and that is very visible to the reader. I am always fascinated to watch Will act, think, and speak. Karin Slaughter shows in a sensitive way that Will is dyslexic. A fact that lets Will sometimes doubt that he and Sara will have a future together. The way how they both communicate with each other or how they don´t is always wonderful to watch. And the fact, that the author does it in a certain tone and style is just perfect for the entire story.
I am not sure if Faith, Will´s partner has always been such a chatterbox. But here she is literally chewing up Will´s ears. Most of the time she believes that he is not listening to it at all so when he sometimes does, she is so surprised and shocked that it turns from a serious scene into a hilarious dialogue. Great!
Conclusion
What a fantastic thriller. The development of Sara´s and Will´s relationship was as entertaining and fabulous as the rest of the book. Good, I could have kicked Amanda´s ass multiple times, but she is somehow the salt in the soup. Thank you, Karin Slaughter, for this great book. Highly recommended.
Happy reading
Karin Slaughter
Karin Slaughter, born in 1971, is from Atlanta, Georgia. In 2003 her debut novel Blindsighted was published and went straight to the top of the international bestselling list and catapulted her onto the Thriller-Olympus. She is the #1 internationally bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including the Will Trent and Grant County series and the instant New York Times bestselling standalones, Cop Town, and Pretty Girls. There are more than 35 million copies of her books in print around the world.