Karin Slaughter once again proves her mastery of the psychological thriller with "We Are All Guilty Here," a novel that grabs you from the first page. This isn't just a crime story; it's a deep, unsettling exploration of family secrets, past trauma, and the insidious ways guilt can fester and shape lives.

Slaughter expertly weaves together multiple timelines and perspectives, slowly revealing fragments of the past that cast a chilling light on the present. Just when you think you've pieced together the puzzle, she throws in another twist that will leave your jaw on the floor. The pacing is relentless, building tension with every chapter.

Beyond the mystery, "We Are All Guilty Here" delves into profound themes. It explores the lasting impact of childhood trauma, the complexities of family dynamics, and the difficult choices people make when confronted with unimaginable circumstances. Slaughter doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of human nature, but she handles them with a sensitivity that prevents the narrative from becoming gratuitous.

For fans of gritty, intelligent thrillers that linger long after the final page, "We Are All Guilty Here" is an absolute must-read. Karin Slaughter delivers a powerful, unsettling, and ultimately unforgettable novel that solidifies her reputation as one of the genre's most formidable voices.

This was a great crime novel. It had fantastic pace, good characterisation and some clever twists. It didn't shy away from the visceral and shocking, and was a real page turner. A very engaging read from an excellent author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a long book and a couple of times I thought we were at the end only to find we weren’t. I particularly enjoyed the fact that there was so much background story about the Clifford family, a very extensive family whose Patriarch is the County Sheriff and whose daughter is the Assistant Sheriff, then her son is also a policeman, and her estranged sister is a psychologist who specialises in the disappearance of children, which is, of course the main storyline of the book. I’m especially delighted to find that this is book one of a series! I will definitely be looking forward to the next one!

I’ve read a few books by Karin Slaughter and I’ve enjoyed them all, I like her writing style and the storylines are always captivating, this one was no different. An easy five stars!

The truth needs admitting here, first. I have read so many, if not all of Karen Slaughter’s books in the past, that I expected this to be at least quite good, but it’s one of her best. As you turn the first few pages you know you’re in the company of a great writer, who knows just how to pitch her style, words and characters, even if the story isn’t the reader’s favourite. I have read a few that I didn’t enjoy as much as the majority, but this book is up there in her top five.
As a couple of girls disappear, you’re dragged into a small town atmosphere, where everyone thinks they know everyone, but clearly don’t. The secrets are revealed along the way and each time you think you’ve solved the mystery, more clues send you elsewhere. The copycat occurrence means that lead character Emily needs to work even harder this time. She let the girls down last time and there must not be a similar outcome.
The writing is so good it’s easy to feel a part of the story and you’re walking down the same streets, looking for clues.
This book has been a welcome change to the Sara and Will stories and proves this writer is as great as many assume.

We Are All Guilty Here is the first book in this new North Falls series by Karin Slaughter.
Emmy is a sheriff deputy and when you start the book it is centred around an urgent search for two missing teenagers. The book jumps from the search of the two girls to twelve years later when a similar event occurs and brings back all the unresolved trauma. The book follows the intricate lives that weave together that usually do in a small town.
The book bounces between the two timelines well. I wasn’t a lover of the police procedural and felt it made the book slow going. The characters were quite dull and I wasn’t drawn to them as they seemed quite flat. The book felt at times a little drawn out and could have easily dropped fifty to hundred pages. I have to say I am a fan of everything Karin Slaughter has done in the past but for me this wasn’t my kind of book. I hope I am in the minority and this book does well it just wasn’t for me.
I would like to thank NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

'We are all Guilty Here' by Karin Slaughter is told from two time points: the present day investigation and one that precedes it by 12yrs. When girls go missing from the quiet town of North Falls, Officer Emmy Clifton finds herself personally entangled in the cases; trying to both find the girls and bring to justice the perpetrator. However, the investigation comes at a huge personal cost, and as it precedes, it unravels the towns and her families own dark secrets.

I had some preconceived ideas about Slaughter's writing which turned out to be completely unfounded. This really is a masterclass in writing. The characters, sense of location, and the plot are all first class, making this a hugely enjoyable book to read. There are a number of twists along the way, and for me the ending wasn't predictable (although I do tend to just go along for the ride with crime novels and not try to make too many guesses). I will now look out for Slaughter's other books and I am hopeful that Emmy Clifton will make reappearances in future novels.

I'm in two minds about this one. The opening is tense and the sense of heat is conveyed very well. Throughout the novel descriptions are excellent and the pace is kept up most of the time. However, I felt that the book overall didn't completely work for me. It felt like two books joined together and there was far too much extraneous detail - do we need all the cousins?

I thought the whole Jude part could be cut and the story kept to Emmy as bringing in another character mid-point seemed awkward. Also the first part of the story ended very abruptly without a properly satisfying resolution. I wasn't keen on the way the exposition went on and on after the denouement. I was also uninterested in Jude's backstory - again given after the end of the novel proper - and I'm afraid I groaned at the revelation, which just seemed too much in a book already overloaded with characters and backstories.

There's a lot to like about it but for me it became irritating towards the end.

My sense is that it needs a good edit - maybe this hasn't been seen by an editor yet?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As a longtime fan of Karin Slaughter, I was thrilled to receive an ARC of her latest novel We Are All Guilty Here—and it absolutely delivered.

True to form, Slaughter had me hooked from the very first page. The plot is packed with twists and turns, keeping me guessing right up until the final chapter. Her ability to build tension and craft complex, compelling characters is as strong as ever.

I was especially excited to learn this is the start of a new series. I’ll be eagerly awaiting Book 2!

4.5 rounded up to 5!

Wow, what a book! This book felt different from Slaughter’s other novels. It was well thought out and I liked how it wove past into present. I think some may find it long in parts, but I liked how she fit all the pieces of the puzzle little by little. I was not expecting the ending at all! I am really hoping she continues writing more about Emmy and Jude, I think there is so much more those characters have to give!

What a wonderfully captivating read! I believe this is my favourite Karen Slaughter novel!

Two young girls vanish during a fireworks display, and Officer Emmy Clifton faces a desperate race against time to find them. Adding to the urgency, one girl is the stepdaughter of her closest friend. In such a close-knit community, where everyone seemingly knows each other's business, who could commit such a terrible act? Astonishing revelations about the girls emerge, followed by even more surprising discoveries about the perpetrator, or perpetrators...

The characters are richly developed, and the story's intricate layers keep you engaged from start to finish. I can't wait for the next book in the series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

I am a longtime fan of this author and was excited to receive an ARC via Netgalley. This is the first book in a new series. The first few chapters of the book introduces us to the characters, some of their background and sets up the crime. After that I found that the following chapters were too detailed in terms of the procedural work and heavy. The second part set up a lot of twists, one that I did not see coming and one that I guessed and the other a little more surprising. All in all a very good read and a great start to a new series

We Are All Guilty Here Karin Slaughter


4 stars

A new detective makes her debut

Never has a title been so apt! Emmy-Lou is a deputy in the small town of North Falls and her father is the Sheriff. In fact most of the town is controlled by The Cliftons but as we soon discover there are good and bad Cliftons.

The story starts 12 years ago when Emmy-Lou after a very public argument with her abusive husband ignores Madison,the daughter of her best friend when she is reaching out for advice. Soon after both Madison and her friend Cheyenne are found brutaly murdered. Emmy-Lou has never forgiven herself and when 12 years later another young girl goes missing she is determined to give everything to the investigation.

She is joined by a soon to be retired FBI agent who is a specialist in missing children and together they start to unravel all the guilty secrets of various townspeople ranging from child abuse, drug usage, pornography, marriage break-ups, divorces etc etc. There are so many people in this small time that are hiding guilty secrets but which one of them is the abductor and indeed was the original person convicted 12 years ago actually guilty.

This author is a past master of twists and turns in her books and this one was no exception, I had no idea who was guilty throughout and then there was a final twist that I had no idea was coming.

My only criticism is that I think there were actually too many people involved in the story and I did sometimes get confused but I think this might be due to introducing a whole new cast of characters as this is the first book in a new series. I will certainly be looking out for the next book.

Karen Deborah
Netgalley Reviewer

I haven’t read a Karin Slaughter book for a long time but I do remember her books as being tense, gritty and unputdownable. I wasn’t disappointed.

Two girls go missing on fireworks night. Officer Emmy Clifton wants to find them safe and well as one of these girls is her best friend’s daughter. As she starts to investigate the case. she finds out that no one is as they seem in North Falls. They all seem to be covering for each other and the clock is ticking…..l

The story has a good plot with some very well developed characters in. I did find that it had some long descriptive parts but I found that these built up the suspense.

I really enjoyed reading this book and am looking forward to reading more of this authors work again.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I have blown hot and cold on reading previous books by Karin Slaughter and found one too depressing to continue. But I enjoyed this one although I thought it slowed down too much about two thirds of the way through when Emmy Lou and Jude decided to review the earlier abductions from the absolute beginning and went over stuff that the reader already knew.
Emmy lou is the youngest of the Clifton dynasty who have given their name to the county in which the small town of North Falls is located and have dominated the law with Gerald Clifton currently being the Sheriff. Two teenage girls go missing and Emmy Lou is part of the police team searching for them. She is very driven and committed to finding them and feels guilty as she could have done more to help Madison before she went missing.
Years later there is another abduction and this time Emmy lou leads the investigation but struggles with the workload, expectations from the public and the complicated relationships with the rest of the extended Clifton clan.
I thought that there were some good twists with the plot and another surprise at the end after everything seemed to have resolved.
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the ARC.

In the quiet town of North Falls, where everyone knows everyone—or thinks they do—a festive night turns chilling when two teenage girls vanish during the Fourth of July fireworks. What begins as a missing persons case quickly spirals into something far more disturbing, as Officer Emmy Clifton peels back the town’s carefully constructed facade. Behind the picket fences and polite smiles lie buried secrets that refuse to stay hidden.

*We Are All Guilty Here* is a haunting exploration of the lies we tell to protect those we love—and ourselves. Karin Slaughter paints a vivid portrait of a community unraveling, where the truth is elusive and trust is in short supply. Emmy’s investigation draws her deeper into a web of betrayal, shame, and long-buried trauma, where even the most familiar faces carry shadows.

With unflinching precision, Slaughter navigates difficult terrain—touching on themes of exploitation, justice, and complicity—while never losing sight of the emotional heart of the story. North Falls itself becomes a character, its suffocating intimacy amplifying the tension at every turn.

Combining razor-sharp procedural detail with a deeply human core, Slaughter crafts a thriller that is as emotionally resonant as it is nail-bitingly tense. For readers who crave dark mysteries set in deceptively quiet places, this one lingers long after the final page.

Good to be in at the start of a new series by Karin Slaughter. A small town, yet again, policed by generations of one family. The disappearance of two young girls, far from innocents though their families regarded them as such, causes unrest and a breakdown of close relationships in the community. Interesting characters and plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader interested. A great page turner.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Karin Slaughter/HarperCollins UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

My first Karen Slaughter book and I absolutely loved it!!! The twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat seat for the whole book, and I was obsessed with finding out what was going to happen next! I did not see that ending coming, and I can't wait to read more!

🪶 This is the first book I read by Karen Slaughter and I'm already a fan now. She knows how to make the perfect combination of thrill, heartache, plot twist and then put it in her novel.

🪶 Emmy is a police officer who is investigating the kidnapping of two teenagers in North Falls, Madison and Cheyenne. Madison, who also happens to be the daughter of her best friend Hannah, wanted to say something to Emmy before she disappeared, and the guilt of it made her even more determined to find the girls. Little did she know that the people around her were not as simple as they portrayed themselves to be. Will Emmy and her team be able to solve this mystery and punish the criminal?

🪶 This is the first book in her new series but it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone too. The book took me around 13 hours to complete but be rest assured it didn't drag for even one second. I really enjoyed reading it even though it was single POV and narrated in third person.
Definitely recommended to teenagers, their parents and guardians and all thriller lovers. Trigger warnings include homicide, abduction, molestation and descriptions of trauma. But the ending was definitely worth the read.

🪶 RATING: 5✨️/5✨️

A good story, and well-written. I love Karin Slaughter's writing, and this book certainly didn't disappoint. I'm looking forward to her next book.

Thank you for my earc.
Karin slaughter has done it again! I loved this book: the story timeline, characters, ending and all the twist along the way!