Finished in a matter of hours... gripping, disturbing and characters that we know and love! Utterly absorbing and hard to process once I finished!

Karin Slaughter's latest addition to her Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) agent Will Trent and medical examiner, Dr Sara Linton, series is a dark, unsettling and disturbing nightmare of a affair. GBI have been called in to to investigate the murder of inmate, 38 year old Jesus Vasquez, at the penitentiary during a riot, when they are offered information on the perpetrators by another prisoner, Daryl Nesbitt. He claims that he is innocent of the brutally devastating attacks, sexual assaults and murders of women in Grant County, pointing the finger at the then Chief of Police, Jeffery Tolliver, Sara's dead husband, and his fellow police officer, Lena Adams, as responsible for a corrupt investigation. Nesbitt says he can prove he is innocent, that there have been at least eight other women murdered since his imprisonment, by the real serial killer, furnishing GBI with newspaper articles on their deaths, demanding they investigate in exchange for revealing who killed Vasquez.

Will and Sara's relationship develop tensions, fears and insecurities as Sara is plunged into her past, the trauma of Jeffery's original investigations, a bitter period where she had been divorced from the handsome Jeffery after his infidelities, before she later married him again as she had never stopped loving him. GBI and Sara begin to look at the deaths of the women, beginning with the most recent, Alexandra McAllister, thought to have been an accident. Lena, loathed and not trusted by the GBI in the slightest, is now pregnant informing them she has shredded her notebooks, making it difficult to uncover the truth of her and Jeffery's actions that led to Nesbitt being identified as the killer. It soon becomes alarmingly clear that the serial killer has continuing raping and killing women through the years, becoming more adept at disguising the deaths as accidents. His MO though has remain the same, stalking the women, stealing hair accessories from his victims as trophies, hitting them on the head with a hammer, drugging them, rape and sexual assault, paralysis, leaving their bodies in the surrounding woods.

GBI find themselves up against a killer that is smart, deliberate, methodical, a risk taker, relishing hiding in plain sight, continuing to prey on women relentlessly, with never a flicker of remorse. Sara's personal relationship with Tolliver comes under the spotlight, the past taking up so much of her head space in the present, impacting on her relationship with Will, and having her examining the different natures of the men she had fallen in love with. The highlights in Slaughter's terrifying narrative of extreme violence and rape against women, is the sliver of hope in the theme of survival through the worst of horrors and trauma that could befall a woman, and the undeniable love portrayed between Sara and Will. This is brilliant, if tortuously dark and disturbing, storytelling that I highly recommend to crime and thriller readers. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.

Karin is my favourite author, getting an ARC of her book fills me with great joy because I just know I am in for a treat.
This is probably Karins best book yet, with a crossover of characters, one in particular I miss.
Heartbreaking in it's voilence, disturbing and chilling throughout and utterly devastating upon certain discoveries. Wow this book is incredible! If you have not read anything by Karin Slaughter yet, why not?
Five stars from me and I am already waiting for the next one

The Silent Wife
Author: Karin Slaughter
Publisher: HarperCollins Uk
Publication Date: 25/6/20

I have read and enjoyed all of the Sara Linton/Will Trent books and in this one, particularly liked the parallel timeline returning to Sara’s previous life with Jeffrey. I love the style of writing in that although the crimes are described in brutal detail, the way it is written is always respectful and does not seem gratuitous. That said, the description of the crimes in this book are particularly graphic and at times I had to physically look away. The authors notes at the end of the book explained why she chooses to write about violence against women and the context made me even more in awe of her books.

An immense and satisfying conclusion. I would strongly recommend this to lovers of crime fiction.

I’d like to thank the author, publisher and netgalley for providing me with this advance digital copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

I was drawn right into this book this new episode in this terrific series.Karen Slaughter writes characters that come alive a story that kept me on the edge of my seat.Highly recommend The Sikent Wife and any of her thrillers.#netgalley#harpercollins uk

I just loved all of Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series and I was devastated when she killed Jeffrey, Sara’s husband and Chief of Police. When she started the Atlanta novels when Sara and Will get together I couldn’t believe I could like Will as much as Jeffrey but the author is so adept at building such wonderful characters that in no time at all I was in love with Will too and desperate for their relationship to work. These books are love stories as well as crime thrillers!
In this book the reader gets the best of both worlds, flashbacks to Grant County when Jeffrey was still alive but divorced from Sara and the current day when Will and Sara are having communication issues in their relationship.
Atlanta GBI are asked to investigate a serial rapist case where Jeffrey believed he’d put the perpetrator in prison although a lot of the evidence was not conclusive and there were a few things that were covered up,at the time.
8 years later and Daryl Nesbit who was suspected of the crime wants out claiming he is innocent. He is in prison for child pornography but Jeffrey believed he was also the rapist and was keen to make sure he stayed in gaol so he couldn’t attack any other women. However more victims are discovered after Daryl was in prison. Maybe his claim is true....maybe he did not do it.
Will, Sara, Faith and Amanda, their boss, have to reinvestigate the case. Sara has to look at Jeffrey’s files and notebooks and this takes her back to the earlier time.
As Sara gets more involved in the past Will feels he is competing with a saintly ghost and he is Sara’s second choice.
The plot is very clever and moves effortlessly between the two time frames. Gradually more and more is revealed about the rapes and murders as the team rush to stop it happening again. Be warned that there is a lot of graphic description about the rape and murder victims in the book but if you are reading a story about serial killers this is to be expected.
This is an amazing book which had me gripped from the very first page. I felt like I was catching up with old friends and I was truly bereft when I reached the end as I just wanted to read more about Will and Sara.
You could read this as a stand alone as all is explained but there are 16 other books for you to enjoy and I highly recommend reading them.
I can’t wait for the next book in the series - I hope it won’t be too long in coming!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

Well, it's been some time since I read a crime novel that is as page-turningly gripping as this! I would normally avoid anything about serial killers, especially killers fixated on violent sexual crimes against women: there's a disturbingly fine line between books which luxuriate in misogynistic brutality and those that call it out - this one manages to stay in the latter field, with scenes that made me flinch. But the portrayal of trauma, grief and what it might take to survive, even barely, is hard-hitting and feels authentic: there's more interest here in the victims and their various hard-won strategies for survival than is typical in the genre.

After being underwhelmed by Slaughter's last two books (Pieces of Her, The Last Widow), it's good to find her back in top gear. In an ingenious double time-frame plot we have Will, Sara, Faith and Amanda investigating in the present, and a return to divorced Sara, Jeffrey and Lena Adams investigating in the past: this is before Blindsighted so a kind of prequel to the Grant County series, and Sara is raw over Jeffrey's infidelity and boy, does she show it!

The crimes are gritty, the plotting twisted, but what really makes it is the characterization is right back on track. Seeing Sara with both Jeffrey in the past and Will in the present made me realise how much more invested I was in the former relationship: Sara and Will are just too juvenile for my tastes and however much baggage they both carry, there's an air of creating conflict just for the sake of it (view spoiler).

Switching between the two time-frames keeps the tension taut and it may be cheesy but Slaughter works the cliff-hanger chapter endings like a pro. There are a few massive plot holes (view spoiler) I also recognised the criminal immediately, to the point that I wondered if he'd been mentioned in the books which are later chronologically? In any case, seems even the GBI can't always spot a psychopath when they meet one!

But these are niggles not deal-breakers: overall, brilliant, scary, and utterly gripping.

I really enjoyed this book because it goes back to one of her old characters, the chief. The flashback chapters kept you gripped and hooked all the way through. One of my favourite Karin Slaughter books. Would recommend for a thrilling and exciting read. Thank you to Netglley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

Another author I’m a huge fan of. I stayed up far too late into the night reading this one. I have been gripped and constantly guessing throughout this one.

I could not have been more excited to jump back into another Will Trent story and this one sure drew me in. All the usual suspects are there, Will and Faith, the ever hilarious Amanda 😂 and my favourite, Sara. So you can imagine my surprise, and excitement when we got to delve back 8 years, and back to Grant County, for the gripping story that spans two series, many disappearances, grim discoveries and lot of detective work...

This absolutely blew me away, how can we be 18 books down the line and I still can't get enough of this series?

Slaughter does it again with the mystery, the intrigue and doesn't pull punches with letting is 'see' the dark and twisty side to her stories.

Amazing.

Some time since I have caught up with Karen Slaughter forgot what I had been missing. This novel featuring Will Trent and the other members of the Grant County team and Sarah his partner is spread over almost a decade. A man jailed for other crimes but suspected of the abduction and murder of young girls but claims innocence of these crimes. A story that keeps the reader guessing right up to the very end.

‘The Silent Wife’ is the 10th book in the popular Will Trent series by thriller author Karin Slaughter. And her second addition to the series in under a year. It’s not often that I would usually opt for one of Slaughter’s books, not that I don’t like her series, but simply that I have taken a dislike to one of her major characters – to my relief, I discovered that the infamous Lena would play a rather minor role in ‘The Silent Wife’ and so I could comfortably dive into the narrative.
While investigation a riot at a nearby prison, Faith and Will from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, are contacted by a criminal with a curious tale – he swears that he is innocent of a series of rapes and murders committed 8 years ago. A recent spate of attacks seem to bear weight to his story. Numerous flashbacks to the original crimes, allow the reader to see a younger Sara and Jeffery working the case and also showcases how Lena came to be the duplicitous character we now know.
It’s fascinating to look back at the characters that we know so well but yet to see another side to their relationships, and how those interactions, impact on them in the current book. Even newcomers to the series, we see the differences from the flashbacks, although be warned there is a lot of catching up to do if you start on book 10.
The crime storyline itself is also fascinating, but it is not an easy read and I would recommend that if you are at all uneasy with the topics of abuse or rape, then to stay well clear as I did find it difficult to read at stages. However, the unveiling of the killer is brilliantly done and such an excellent twist. I’m eagerly waiting for book no. 11.

I don't know where to begin. This was such an incredible story i'm in shock. The hunt for a serial killer no one knew about; going back to Grant County, seeing Jeffery and Lena again! It was like Christmas! Karin Slaughter always writes incredible, tense, thrilling stories but the emotional impact was perfect. Sara and Will were really put through the ringer in this book (haven't they suffered enough) as they tried to find a brutal and vindictive killer. Faith is always great and Amanda is so perfectly Amanda. I really enjoyed the flashbacks to Grant County and seeing the different sides to Jeffery and Sara. It makes me want to go back and reread those books again. This was amazing.

Many readers have autobuy authors. Writers who's work they will purchase blind with no synopsis, no ratings, no information beyond the creators name.
Karin Slaughter is an autobuy author for me, and has been since Blindsighted.

I have never been more invested in a set of characters than I am with those of the Grant County series and The Silent Wife was even more of a treat with the return of characters Jeffrey & Lena.

Told with two timelines, Sara and the GBI investigate the possibility of an Atlanta serial killer with ties to a historical Grant County case.

It has to be said that Slaughter's books are not for the faint of heart. The violence against women is brutal and unflinchingly described.
In other cases I myself can struggle to ingest such content but Slaughter tells these moments in past tense, often during autopsy or medical investigations, never in first person and always with the utmost care. Combined these factors make her stories incredibly emotional but not traumatic.

Sara/Will/Jeffrey have me enthralled by a romantic storyline that I would usually cast aside and has even edged a few tears from my cold heart over the course of the Grant County Series. The tension has been building for so long that I almost threw this book at the wall with strangely enjoyable frustration.

I had an inkling as I drew towards the end of the novel as to the truth but was nonetheless amazed by the finale.

You can read this book as a stand alone, any previous history is covered throughout the book, but I will always recommend you start from the beginning to fully appreciate the character development and community Slaughter has built.

Definitely a five star from me, I cannot wait for the next chapter.

I am a huge fan of anything Karin Slaughter writes, and once again I loved this book.

Everything about this book is amazing, the story is thrilling and gritty, you cannot help but fall in love with Will and Sara and the conclusion at the end made me realise that I had seen it coming all along.

The Silent Wife is a relevant and fast paced read that leaves you on edge of your seat. It sees the return of two of Karin Slaughters most well loved characters which is sure to please long time fans of her novels. A worthy read for both new and returning readers.

This is an incredible book.

Sara Linton and Will Trent are back, but this time it’s a dual timeline story (which I’ll confess, I’m fond of) where we also get to see Jeffrey Tolliver and Lena Adams again! Amazing!

Karin Slaughter writes with her usual detailed and brutal honesty and the descriptions of the crimes are often so disturbing that you find yourself needing to take a breath before you can move on. But move on you do as the intricate web of this epic book pulls you in.

I was gripped from start to finish by the clever structure of the story, the incredible writing and the horrific, but scarily realistic storyline.

Read this book. You won’t regret it (except for the nightmares, maybe...) Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

#TheSilentWife #NetGalley
Karin Slaughter is known for her character development and pacey stories and here is not an exception. Its a mind blowing novel with the edge of your seat suspense.
A predator is stalking the women of Grant County. He lingers in the shadows, until the time is just right to snatch his victim.
He waits.
A decade later, the case has been closed. The killer is behind bars. But then another young woman is brutally attacked and left for dead, and the MO is identical.
He takes.
Although the original trail has gone cold – memories have faded, witnesses have disappeared – agent Will Trent and forensic pathologist Sara Linton must re-open the cold case. But the clock is ticking, and the killer is determined to find his perfect silent wife....
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Harper Fiction for giving me an advance copy of this awesome crime thriller.

Just finished this book and it was so good!
The writer of the best crime fiction books is back!
I have been a fan of Karin Slaughter since the release of Blingsignted in 2011. The Silent Wife is the 20th book in the Sara Linton series and it is absolutely unputdownable! I read this book in less than 24 hours and it did not disappoint!
All of my favourite characters are back, Sara Linton, Will Trent, Lena Adams, Faith Mitchell and...........Jeffery Tolliver!
The characters in Karin’s books have been in my life for 19 years so they feel like friends, as such I am invested in their lives so I was so happy to have them all together in a story again.

The book starts with a death at a prison which puts Will and Faith in contact with a convicted pedophile who accuses Sara’s dead husband Jeffery of convicting him for a crime he didn’t commit.
The case is looked in to and there are inconsistencies. New victims are discovered with same MO which intertwines both the past and the present.

I don’t want to say any more about the plot as I don’t want to ruin it for anyone but I loved that Jeffery was brought back in to a story. It gave me, as a 19 year fan, a chance to revisit his relationship with Sara but at the same time realise what Sara and Will has in the present.

It would help to read this series in order but Karin does recap bits to fill in blanks about relationships of the main cast. This reminds readers like me and enables new fans to read just this book if they wanted to read it as a stand alone rather than a series.

Whether you’re a fan of crime fiction or Karin Slaughter I can highly recommend this book.

I was sent an advanced copy of this book by Harper Collins UK in exchange for an honest review

@fictionpubteam @slaughterkarin #TheSilentWife #KarinSlaughter #HarperCollinsUK #SaraLinton

#TheSilentWife #NetGalley
Karin Slaughter slashers your heart with this griping and emotional page turner. A must read. I've read each and every book in this series. This book is so brilliant that it's a rollercoaster ride of emotions and suspense. I loved Lena. The way her character is portrayed.
A woman runs alone in the woods. She convinces herself she has no reason to be afraid, but she’s wrong. A predator is stalking the women of Grant County. He lingers in the shadows, until the time is just right to snatch his victim.
I adored it very much.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Harper Fiction for giving me an advance copy.