I love Karin Slaughter, I love Will Trent & Sara Linton so this was a request ASAP.
Will & Sara's romantic getaway in the woods sounds like my idea of hell, and of course it goes horribly wrong.
But I love the way they deal with it and get on with solving the case in their brilliant way.
I read this so quickly that I had to read it again!

This is why we lied by Karin Slaughter is book 12 in the Will Trent series and it is another enthralling read. In this storyline Will and Sara are finally married and on their honeymoon. Of course, there is a death and then another, both of the victims are part of the McAlpine clan that own the lodges.
Marcy is the ex wife of Dave and Chuck, was Christopher’s friend, Mercy’s brother and they both die but it is two different crimes. The storyline is long and very involved, with many twists and turns before the team of Amanda, Will and Faith manage to solve all of the criminal aspects.
I did enjoy the last conversation Will has on the phone before the book is finished.
Highly recommended

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Will Trent and Sara Linton have finally gotten married and are on their honeymoon at a remote North Georgia mountain retreat. They haven't told the others staying there their real occupations, as a GBI agent and medical examiner, to ensure a relaxing time. But the retreat is run by a dysfunctional family and by the end of the first night, someone has been murdered and Will and Sara are thrust into action.

I love Karin Slaughter and I love this series, but this, as is true of many of her other books, was too long. It took me over a week to read it and at times I didn't want to return to it because I felt like everytime I read I wasn't getting anywhere close to the resolution. Beyond that, it is a good mystery with an interesting conclusion. I just wish we could have gotten there a little quicker. There were a lot of characters and shockingly I was able to keep them all straight fairly early on. The family running the place was awful, almost everyone of them, so there were plenty of secrets to be revealed. It was a solid read. I will continue reading this series because I love the characters and the stories are always solid, I will just hope they get a tad shorter.

Another great installment from Karin Slaughter featuring Will Trent and Sara Linton. We begin with Will and Sara on their honeymoon - in a surprise location planned by Will. It appears to be idyllic. But the family running the resort are disturbing - and there's quickly a murder for Will and Sara to investigate.

Having read a few of Slaughter's books featuring these two characters, I was really eager to see how their relationship has progressed. There were interesting aspects of this in This is Why We Lied - including some tension based on the desire to work versus the desire to keep each other safe. There are also lots of elements of old insecurities and fears resurfacing, particularly on the part of Will, who is in a place connected with his childhood and is also around someone who traumatised him at that time.

The McAlpine family that runs the lodge Will and Sara are honeymooning at are truly appalling, and Slaughter has done a great job in creating a cast of troubling, sinister and downright terrifying characters. It's all totally believable, unfortunately. Mercy, the daughter of the family, has been credited with making huge improvements in the business since she took over following her dad's accident. But her family don't seem to see it that way, instead looking for any opportunity they can get to undermine and attack her.

The story of Mercy's life is sad and infuriating. She's clearly been a victim of abuse at the hands of men since she was a child. The discoveries that Will and Sara make are shocking, and Slaughter does a good job of introducing twists even after you think you've already had the twists.

This is a very easy book to read and once again, it's made me feel I should really go back to the start and read the whole Will Trent series. It's good to have familiar characters that you are interested in plunged into a completely new environment with a cast of different people to figure out.

My only slight criticism is that at times the writing becomes staccato, which I think is the author's intention, but to me read slightly jarring at a few points. But this is a minor point in what was a really enjoyable read.

Wholly Propulsive..
The twelfth in the Will Trent series finds the newly wedded Trent and Linton at the McAlpine Lodge, a secluded and remote luxury getaway - and an escapist, glamorous honeymoon location for them. Nothing will go as the couple planned and with secrets, lies, deceit and murder on the table it is little wonder. Compelling and swiftly moving with a deftly drawn cast, a well imagined and claustrophobic backdrop and a wholly propulsive plot. Dark and engaging in equal measure.

This is a good book in its own right but as part of a long running series I feel this is not up to the same standard as the earlier books. It was an average 3 star for me.

I love Karin Slaughter so I was so excited for this one and it disappoint, as always there was great pace and suspense all the way through.

Will and Sara have gone on honeymoon to the McAlpine Lodge, a luxury secluded place where they can experience outdoor activities.
One of the owners of the lodge is murdered and there is plenty of suspects to choose from.
I always enjoy Karin Slaughter books and this story had plenty of action and mystery.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Will Trent series goes from strength to strength. His character has developed beautifully over the years and his relation with Sara Linton has grown naturally on the page.
They're on honeymoon in This is Why We Lied in a remote luxury cabin resort. It doesn't take long for a body to turn up - in fact, The book opens with their discovery of the body and flashes back to the events that led up t the murder itself. Sara and Will work together to find the killer.
This was the strongest in the series yet. I didn't want to put it down and outside of tropes such as being cut off from the outside world (this is introduced at the very beginning of the book) I couldn't predict quite what was going to happen.
The pace keeps the plot and the characters moving along nicely.
My favourite in the series so far.

Karin Slaughter is a take it to the bank author. She has never disappointed and this book is no exception. First rate page turner.

Long-time Slaughter characters Will Trent and Sara Linton are taking a well-deserved break for their honeymoon - but for the GBI detective and Atlanta medical examiner, there's no escape from their jobs when the manager of their luxury camp is found brutally murdered on their first night.

This Is Why We Lied is a heart-breaking examination of generational trauma and domestic abuse - and so comes with major content warnings for those elements. Highly recommended, Karin Slaughter hits it out the park once again with this nail-biting, propulsive thriller, set at a family-run camp on an isolated Georgia mountain.

Only Will Trent and Sara Linton could run into trouble on their honeymoon! In fairness to them, it's not something they could have seen coming. Staying in luxury lodges in the middle of the Georgia wilderness should have been, at best, idyllic. At worst ... well, who can rally live without Wi-Fi these days? It was Will's idea of romance, and a chance to experience a little part of something he missed out on as a child in care. If he'd had his wits about him, the simple words 'remote' and 'no wifi' should have given the game away. This was never going to end well was it? But just how 'not well' took even me, a seasoned thriller reader, by surprise. The what of the situation is no shock really - this is a murder and ithe name of the victim is cleared up very quickly in the early part of the book. The who and the why of it all ... well that's another matter entirely.

This book felt a little different in tone from previous books, possibly because the situation at setting are so far removed from the urban setting of Atlanta that creating the context of both this and the cast of characters who are going to be key to what happens takes place over pretty much the first half of the book. Given that this is meant to be their honeymoon, Will and Sara are very much out on a limb for the first part of the book and it's fair to say that local law enforcement has no real interest in investigating thoroughly. The victim is known to them and their demise is very swiftly written off. Which would be fine, if said victim, Mercy McAlpine, wasn't also the manager of the resort. Whilst we quickly establish that Mercy is the victim, Karin Slaughter takes us back in time to the hours leading up to the murder, including the arrival of all of the potential suspects on the mountain, and introducing the McAlpine clan.

The McAlpines ... Gosh they leave a lot to be desired. And I thought I was from a dysfunctional family. I have to be honest, with the exception of our favourite GBI team, there really weren't many people I had much of a pull towards. Of all of them, Mercy was perhaps the most sympathetic, and of the other holiday makers, the charismatic and likeable personalities were few and far between. We are slowly brought up to speed on their back stories, explaining much about they way they behave, but not before the finger of suspicion has spent a long old time pointing in each of their directions in turn. As Faith points out, this is a locked room mystery with a difference. There is a highly limited number of potential suspects, but the possibilities for motive are very far reaching.

The book allows us a little more of a glimpse into Will's history too, bringing him face to face with a former nemesis from his care home days. Perhaps inevitable given the fact he is actively chasing his own history with his choice of honeymoon venue, but it pushes the usually unflappable Agent Trent to the limit and exposes a few of his own prejudices in this particular case. But then bowing to what he feels to be obvious is possibly better than what is discovered, the story taking a dark, skin crawling, and unimaginable turn. I didn't see it coming, but in a family as warped, twisted and bitter as the McAlpines, perhaps I should. Hat's off to the author though for hiding the culprit in plain sight and keeping the mystery until the end.

The book is packed with atmosphere and tension, and the pacing is spot on. There is an ebbing and flowing of intense jeopardy, but we are never really able to settle, as the author sets our expectations from the off. Fans of the series are going to love it, but I think the happy couple really do need a proper vacation now. In another country where they can properly switch off. With no mountains or murderers in the vicinity. And working wifi. Just in case. Another cracking case and definitely recommmended.

Another brilliant Slaughter book, great style of writing, one of my fav characters Sara Linton back and a great storyline to boot. The suspense doesn’t let up in this novel, the characters are well written and some and very likeable whilst others not so.
The plot and sub plot run parallel to each other and it kept me intere and guessing until the end.

I was incredibly excited to receive the email inviting me to read and review ‘This is Why We Lied’. Unfortunately, this didn’t feel up to Karin’s usual standard.

There were, in my opinion, too many characters, too many red herrings and some unanswered questions. I also thought it was really confusing mentioning the layout of the area and all of the different trails and buildings and added nothing really of value. The book also felt excessively long with repeated talk of mosquitos, Will’s hand, the furniture in the cabin, the weather and characters that didn’t add anything.

Having read all other books in the Grant County and Will Trent series I would hope this is just a one off and the next will be back on form.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Who killed Mercy Mac? That is the question that runs through This is Why We Lied. At an isolated mountain lodge, Mercy lays dying with multiple stab wounds and the broken-off knife still embedded in her chest. Any one of the guests could have done it, but so could her family and staff - was it one of her vengeful parents? Was it her ex-husband, her brother, his best friend, her son or one of the guests? Everyone has a secret, and all of them are lying.

Hoping to have a peaceful honeymoon, newlyweds Will Trent and Sara Linton check in, but they are soon faced with a confounding case - can they work out who killed Mercy before they get away with it?

This was my first Karin Slaughter book and a thoroughly enjoyable read! An easy 5*.

There are so many locked room stories out there that it tends to be tedious, but in the hands of Karin Slaughter this one is worth the read. This is why we Lied sees the return of Sara and Will. After the heartbreaking previous novel After that Night, and the subject matter, I had hoped that this would be a bit lighter but really, it isn’t. There are some terrible things happening in the world and no matter what an author writes about you can bet far worse is happening in real life.
The opening of the story sees Will and Sara married and about to start their honeymoon, a honeymoon arranged solely by Will. This includes a hike into a secluded mountaintop retreat. They have hardly had time to settle in when there is a murder. The retreat has patchy wifi coverage, and limited cell phone reception. Added to the mix a storm has washed away the main way in. As Will tries to take charge of the situation and isolate the staff, guests and family that own and run the retreat, he finds that everyone is lying about something. Then a second person is found dead and now both Sara and Will have to figure out what is going on. Will managers to get a message to Amanda, his boss and Faith, his work partner. They are able to get to the site using UTVs and it takes all of them all of their wiles to solve this case, and stop the guests from commandeering the UTVs to escape the retreat. There are enough red herrings to fill a jar and even tho I had guessed early on who had killed Mercy, the first murder, I was completely wrong as to why, which was more horrific than I could have imagined.
I really love Karin’s books, I’ve said before, she is just about my favourite female author and I have never read a bad book from her, and I am sure I have read them all.

#ThisIsWhyWeLied. #NetGalley

Will and Sarah's honeymoon is not what either would have planned but that's good for us as its a great story to read.

When Mercy the manager of the beautiful site where the 2 happy honeymooners are well it's a honeymoon is killed things get changed very quickly and Amanda their boss isn't impressed but as the Sheriff is well useless would be unfair as well as a massive understatement. So as the secrets of the Family Mercy's not the newly created Will and Sarah plus the other guests come to light this becomes a ever increasing adventure that gripped me and I really didn't want to put it down but had to a couple of times however not for long apart from the sleep.

The characters are great there is the wierd the really? and the ones you want to support which aren't many outside the team. But i loved the twists they keep you guessing the story moves at a great pace not to fast but definitely keeps you in your toes. This really is a great read So I want to highly recommend it.

Whoo boy. Ok. I love this series. I love these characters. This was a very interesting installment in this series because it's essentially a locked room mystery (something Faith is very excited about) but the main chunk of the case solving doesn't happen till the second half the the novel. But it works considering what this book is ACTUALLY about.

What it's actually about, and something that Karin Slaughter always explores in such a nuanced way, is the legacy of abuse. The way it shapes peoples lives and shapes their children's lives. How some people 'escape' and some don't. How even if you do get to a good place, it's always something that's going to be a part of your life. We've seen this subject before in this series for sure considering Will's background and Sara's backstory of her rape. But this one felt like a real deep dive into the subject. A lot of the novel was centered around the victim, Mercy, and I think that worked so well. We got to see from her pov and got to know her as a real person. It made this one feel so sad. There's this feeling of helplessness but also it's like. Will and Sara know they have to push through and that it can't be for nothing and that she deserves justice. But not everyone ends up like that. This is a book about how it can be so hard to escape the cycle of abuse and how the cycle of abuse is allowed to continue. Abuse victims can become abusers, or are more likely to be abused again. It's just such a deep subject that's really complicated and hard to read about.

I don't feel like you could do this story justice if you didn't have characters like Will and Sara. They're honestly such important characters. There's a part in this that made me cry in which Will tells Sara a story about how he wanted to go to a summer camp with the other children and had even set his honeymoon up to create this but the reader knows that horrendous abuse was happening to the kids at the camp. Will had a child's memory that had this dark underbelly he didn't know about. He just knew he wanted to go to the summer camp. That detail just felt so real and it was such an upsetting idea. But that's what Karin Slaughter does so well. I don't know another author who can write her characters like that.

Ok so that section went on longer than I thought. I just find this series so hard to put into words because there's so many layers. I loved Will and Sara's relationship. I feel I'm more of a Faith in this scenario, especially when she makes a comment about their annoyingly healthy communication. There was a scene where both me and Will were ready for Sara to blow up on him for being - in my opinion - a dense asshole for 5 minutes - and she did not do that. And they sorted it out and apologized like adults. I guess Sara Linton is way more mature than me. And I love that for them. If romance doesn't look like the way Will loves Sara then I don't want it.

One thing I will say is that I would love a bit more development for Faith. I feel like she's essentially in exactly the same place as she was in the last novel - Which makes sense since this is like. A month after that. But maybe in the next book she can graduate to calling the guy she's sleeping with her boyfriend (I have forgotten his name, that's how long it's been since we've seen him on page). Also I want more Amanda. But I do love when she turns up and steals the show.

So I loved this because it's probably my favourite series? Not so much development because this book takes place over a single weekend, but I love being back with the characters and am already waiting for her to write the next book.

Absolutely fantastic thriller. Karin Slaughter does it again. This one was utterly gripping and I could not stop reading. Highly highly recommend this latest installment. Now the wait commences for the next installment.

I am constantly amazed by Karin Slaughter's ability to create an array of such horrifically damaged, and mostly unlikable characters and then just drop them so effortlessly in to get another original and compelling story. I mean, that's over 20 years of, for me, near perfection in both complexity of storytelling whilst at the same time moving the constant characters forward, giving readers that need to finish another chapter (and Slaughter doesn't do short chapters) and never leave us short changed.

With the delightful ambiguity of the title, we're now, almost, delivered Slaughter's version or the modern locked room mystery; except the 'locked room' is a luxurious mountain retreat run by two generations of one family with secrets to keep and those secrets soon start exposing themselves - unfortunately, the same night that Will Trent and Sarah Linton arrive in their honeymoon, and hours before a storm wipes out the only access to the mountain.

There's no wasted dialogue, some taught interactions and superb use of flashback, and some immense sadness as well, but delivered in sharp, concise and relevant form that suited the format - I thought this was spot on.

Another fantastic read from Karin Slaughter.