Criminal by Karin Slaughter

Title: Criminal 

Series: Will Trent 

Author: Karin Slaughter 

Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda’s motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before, when his father was imprisoned for murder, this was Will’s home. It appears that the case that launched Amanda’s career forty years ago has suddenly come back to life—and it involves the long-held mystery of Will’s birth and parentage. Now these two dauntless investigators will each need to face down demons from the past if they are to prevent an even greater terror from being unleashed.

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Criminal was good but not as great as its predecessors. 

I think the main reason why it wasn't as good for me is that Will was not in it for half of the book.

Criminal can be divided between the past in the 1970's where Amanda Wagner and Faith's mother, Evelyn Mitchell are the main characters and in the present were Will, Faith, Sara, and Amanda are running the investigation into the murder of a college student, Ashleigh Snyder.

When the book begins, we learn that Will's father has been released from prison. Will is shocked this evil man is out and of course, he's mad at Amanda for keeping things from him once again. 

Just in case his father's reappearance is not enough to make Will's life go into turmoil, we have Angie, his currently estranged wife who's stirring up trouble for him and Sara. Angie loves to make Will suffer. She's mean and she takes pleasure in hurting him. I was disappointed in Will for not stopping her when he needed to. 

The time taken away from Will and focusing on Amanda and Evelyn were less interesting to me except for the portrayal of the 1970's situation with women in the police force. Those were eye-opening. 

One thing which is becoming tiring to me is that most of the criminals portrayed in both of the series I'd read by Karin Slaughter use religion in an evil way. I'm hoping for a new approach in Unseen.

The more I read about Will's past, the more I like him. He has overcome a life full of disadvantages. It's sad that he doesn't understand how smart he really is. Thankfully, there's Sara to support him when he needs it the most. 

"He still felt like a stranger."

Cliffhanger: No

3/5 Fangs

Fallen by Karin Slaughter

Title: Fallen 

Series: Will Trent 

Author: Karin Slaughter 

There’s no police training stronger than a cop’s instinct. Faith Mitchell’s mother isn’t answering her phone. Her front door is open. There’s a bloodstain above the knob. Everything Faith learned in the academy goes out the window when she charges into her mother’s house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the laundry room, a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn’t see is her mother. 

When the hostage situation turns deadly, Faith is left with too many questions. She’ll need the help of her partner, Will Trent, and trauma doctor Sara Linton to get some answers. But Faith isn’t just a cop anymore, she’s a witness—and a suspect. To find her mother, Faith will have to cross the thin blue line and bring the truth to light—or bury it forever.

BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Karin Slaughter's Unseen.

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“At the risk of sounding like a country music singer, you can take my heart, but I can’t let you take my dog.”

Another incredible book in the Will Trent series. 

I'm a huge fan of Will. He's very smart but has a bunch of insecurities. He does his job well and he can think outside the box. Although he always blames himself for something that is beyond his control, this doesn't last long and he's able to look forward and function. 

His personal life is a mess. He's still married to Angie, who's not a nice person. For most of their marriage, she has been gone. One reason why I can't stand her, besides the obvious pleasure she gets from hurting Will, is her treatment and attitude towards Betty. Will needs to cut the umbilical cord in this very unhealthy relationship. 

“Will let out a long breath. "She leaves me a lot. That's what she does. She leaves, and then she comes back. And then she stays some and then she leaves again.""Where does she go?""I have no idea.""You've never asked her?""No."Sara Didn't pretend to understand. "Why not?".He glanced out into the street, watching the traffic zoom by. "It's complicated.” 

Fortunately, Sara Linton entered Will's life two books ago. Sara is everything Angie isn't or I should say she's the opposite of every other woman in Will's life. Sara is patient, understanding, unable to be hurtful on purpose. No woman has been nice to Will before. This terrifies Will. He's sure Sara will find something bad in Will and walk away. Will still has a lot of healing to do. 

"Don't you understand? I don't want to be needed. I want to be wanted."

Now, going back to the case. This one is personal. Faith Mitchell comes back home to find her baby Emma locked in the shed, a bloody handprint on the door, a hostage situation inside her house, and her mother Evelyn has been taken. 

Will and his boss Amanda Wagner are all over the investigation. Yet, Amanda is still hiding Evelyn's secrets which makes it harder for Will to be an effective investigator. 

Kudos to Faith in trusting Will on this one. She could've made a huge mistake making her a TSTL award winner but she wasn't. 

There was so much I loved in Fallen. I had a hard time listening to the audio. Despite the speed, I NEEDED to know what was going to happen next. I had to switch to my Kindle many times.

Cliffhanger: No

5/5 Fangs

Undone by Karin Slaughter

Title: Undone

Author: Karin Slaughter 

Series: Will Trent #3

When a tortured young woman enters the trauma center of an Atlanta hospital, Dr. Sara Linton is thrust into a desperate police investigation with Special Agent Will Trent and his partner, Faith Mitchell. Though guarding their own wounds and their own secrets, Sara, Will, and Faith find that they are all that stand between a madman and his next victim.

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Undone is the third book in the Will Trent series. 

Will Trent and his partner Faith Mitchell are part of the GBI. When the book begins, Faith had passed out and she has been taken to the ER. Here is where Will will meet Sara Linton for the first time.

Sara Linton was the main protagonist from Karin Slaughter's Grant series. She's a pediatrician as well as a coroner back in Grant County. In Undone, she has moved to Atlanta and is working as an ER doc. Something horrible happened to her 3 1/2 years ago and she needed a change of scenery. She's still healing.

“And now, when she looked in the mirror and saw a new line on her own face,a new wrinkle, all she could think was that she was growing old without him” 

At the same time that Faith is in the ER, a woman is brought in. She was hit by a car but a lot more has happened to her before the car accident. What she has suffered turns her into a GBI investigation. A serial killer is on the loose and Will, Faith, and Sara will all be involved in the investigation.

Another amazing book in the Will Trent series. It has become one of my favorite series. The character development is extensive and thoughtful. 

My thoughts on the main players:

Will---> So damaged. His past has marked him and despite being a smart man he has many vulnerabilities. One his wife loves to exploit.

“Who’s Sara?”
“Sara Linton,” Faith said. He shrugged, and she studied him carefully. Will never forgot names. He never forgot anything. “The doctor from yesterday?”
“Is that her name?”
Faith resisted a “Come on.”
He asked, “How would she know how long Anna was kept?”
“She used to be a coroner in some county way down south.”
Will’s eyebrows went up. He slowed to look at another sign. “A coroner? That’s weird.”
He was one to talk. “She was a coroner and a pediatrician.”
Will mumbled as he tried to make out the sign. “I took her for a dancer.”
“Woodland,” Faith read. “A dancer? She’s twenty feet tall.”
“Dancers can be tall.”

Faith --> I like her but gosh she can be mean! Luckily it didn't last. She's starting to trust Will and their relationship is more like siblings.

“I am just an awful, awful person, Sara. I can’t believe I said that to you.”

Sara--> I loved Sara from the moment I first started reading the Grant series. She's awesome and she was great in Undone too. She deserves happiness and I hope she achieves it with Will at some point.

Amanda Wagner--> She's tough on Will and also with Faith but I do think she protects them and cares for them.

Angie--> Not my favorite character. She uses Will and she doesn't care about his feelings. She had a tough past as well but this doesn't give her a free pass to hurt Will constantly.

Betty- Will's dog. Love her. 

“Sara studied him. "Is that a Chihuahua behind your back?""No, I'm just happy to see you"Sara gave him a confused smile, and he reluctantly showed her Betty.”

Going forward with Broken.

Cliffhanger: No

5/5 Fangs

Fractured by Karin Slaughter

Title: Fractured 

Series: Will Trent #2

Author: Karin Slaughter

Publisher: Random House

With its gracious homes and tree-lined streets, Ansley Park is one of Atlanta's most desirable neighborhoods. But in one gleaming mansion, in a teenager's lavish bedroom, a girl has been savagely murdered. And in the hallway, her horrified mother stands amid shattered glass, having killed her daughter's attacker with her bare hands. 

Detective Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is here only to do a political favor; the murder site belongs to the Atlanta police. But Trent soon sees something that the cops are missing, something in the trail of blood, in a matrix of forensic evidence, and in the eyes of the shell-shocked mother. Within minutes, Trent is taking over the case -- and adding another one to it. He is sure that another teenage girl is missing, and that a killer is on the loose.

Armed with only fleeting clues, teamed with a female cop who has her own personal reasons for hating him, Trent has enemies all around him -- and a gnawing feeling that this case, which started in the best of homes, is cutting quick and deep through the ruins of perfect lives broken wide-open: where human demons emerge with a vengeance.

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“You see cases as puzzles and whatever it is that’s so different in your brain makes it possible for you to solve them the way no one else can.”

Fractured is my favorite book by Karin Slaughter so far and it all has to do with the amazing Will Trent. As a character, he's definitely someone unforgettable. 

In this new book, Will Trent and Amanda Wagner, his boss are called into a murder scene. At first, Will thinks this is going to stay under the jurisdiction of the police department but when a girl is found missing and the clock is ticking, Trent will do anything to find her. 

Will is not going to be able to do everything by himself. Amanda assigns Faith Mitchell, a detective with the Georgia Police Department to help him out. Due to a past conflict with Amanda's mom, Amanda isn't thrilled to work with Will but she wants to find the lost teenager as much as Will does.

Fractured had all the best components to make it a success. It's told from a dual POV which shines a light into what the main characters are feeling. From it, we learn more about Will's issues. Despite being a very smart man, he still feels threatened by his past and his shortcomings. He tries to disguise them as much as he can.  He's used to working alone and when Amanda tells him he has to work with Faith, he doesn't know how to react at the beginning. He makes assumptions and mistakes but not on purpose. 

His private life is still a mess. He's engaged to Angie Polanski but from what I read, I think he deserves much better. Thankfully, Angie doesn't have a lot of page time. 

“Talk about sloppy seconds. Was there such a thing as sloppy thousandths?” 

I like to see Will's vulnerable side and nothing is clearer for me than the love for his dog Betty. He was forced to take her in but now she has become his companion. Will takes better care of her than of himself.

Faith was a great addition to the story. She got pregnant way too young. Her son is in college. She doesn't have a college education but she's a good detective and like Will, she only wants to find Emma Campano before is too late. 

 I just bought Undone.  I'm excited to see what is coming next for Will and Faith.

Cliffhanger: No

5/5 Fangs 

Triptych by Karin Slaughter

Title: Triptych 

Series: Will Trent #1

Author: Karin Slaughter 

Publisher: Delacorte Press

In the city of Atlanta, women are dying—at the hands of a killer who signs his work with a single, chilling act of mutilation. Leaving behind enough evidence to fuel a frenzied police hunt, this cunning madman is bringing together dozens of lives, crossing the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries too. Among them is Michael Ormewood, a veteran detective whose marriage is hanging by a thread—and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career. And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael's lover before she became his enemy.

But another player has entered the game: a loser ex-con who has stumbled upon the killer's trail in the most coincidental of ways—someone who may be the key to breaking the case wide open...

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Triptych was so good! It had a great twist early on. One I did not see it coming.

The novel starts with the murder and rape of Aleesha Monroe, a prostitute at Grady Homes, one of Atlanta's projects. Detective Michael Ormewood is assigned the case and Leo Donnelly is another cop helping him with the investigation until a newcomer is pushed to his side. Special Agent Will Trent with the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) is designated to help Michael. Michael doesn't care for Will very much but he's forced to play nice after there's a question of other rape victims being attacked by the same perpetrator.

“I’m part of a special division of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation set up to aid local law enforcement around the state in apprehending violent criminals. My role here is purely advisory.”

Besides Michael and Will, two other characters are quite important.

The first one is Angie Polaski. She is a vice detective who's good at her job but the complete opposite in regards to her personal life. During her undercover work, she meets John Shelley. A man who was in prison for twenty years and who has been recently released. John is trying to keep his nose clean from any wrongdoing. He doesn't want to go back to prison. He would rather die than go back in. 

And this is where the story becomes quite interesting and I'm afraid I can't divulge more without giving spoilers.

I was hooked after the introduction of Special Agent Will Trent with the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation). He sure made an impact in this novel. Will is very smart. He does his job well but he has a few big vulnerabilities which only made his character even more interesting to me. 

“You one weird motherfucker.”

Will's damaged goods but so is Angie. Angie reminds me a little bit of Lena but I'm hoping I won't hate her as much as I hated Lena in the Grant series. 

I was happy with the resolution of Triptych and I'm excited to learn more about Will in the next few books.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs