Thank you to William Morrow, #partner, for an advanced copy of The Silent Wife in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Publisher: William Morrow Books / Blackstone Audio
Published: August 4, 2020
Summary:
Atlanta, Georgia. Present day. A young woman is brutally attacked and left for dead. The police investigate but the trail goes cold. Until a chance assignment takes GBI investigator Will Trent to the state penitentiary, and to a prisoner who says he recognizes the MO. The attack looks identical to the one he was accused of eight years earlier. The prisoner’s always insisted that he was innocent, and now he’s sure he has proof. The killer is still out there.
As Will digs into both crimes it becomes clear that he must solve the original case in order to reach the truth. Yet nearly a decade has passed—time for memories to fade, witnesses to vanish, evidence to disappear. And now he needs medical examiner Sara Linton to help him hunt down a ruthless murderer. But when the past and present collide, everything Will values is at stake…
My thoughts:
This is the 10th book in the Will Trent series and the only book I’ve now read twice! And the reason for that is because this is the book that started me on my Grant County/Will Trent journey and I’m so glad. I wasn’t new to Karin Slaughter but I had only been reading her stand-alones up to this point and it wasn’t until I received this book that I jumped headfirst into the series. And once I did…I knew I had to go back to the very beginning to see how it all started!
I really liked this book the first time I read it…but now having read both the Grant County and all the Will Trent books up to this one, I appreciated this story so much more. Karin Slaughter is nothing short of a genius when it comes to the plotting of these two series and I am in complete awe! How she is able to weave all these plotlines together from the previous books, pull certain threads back into the mix and not feel like you are getting the same story over and over again, and still give us new material, is just brilliant.
Because I’ve now both the Grant County series and all the Will Trent books up to this point, this book had a more emotional impact on me. It was heavier, it was more frustrating at times, and of course, it was still dark and gritty. That’s not to say that this cannot be read as a stand-alone, because it can, but when you come at it having read all that’s come before, you just have so much more background information to fully appreciate how everything connects and ties together.
I’m excited to see where this series goes next. It’s been a while since a new Will Trent book came out and my mission this year was to be caught up by the time the new book came out…and I did it, with time to spare! I’ll be starting the new book, After That Night, very soon – be on the lookout for my review!
Audio thoughts:
Of course I had to relisten to this one…I’ve been enjoying these books on audio and even though this one is long, coming in at over 18 hours, I couldn’t put it down! Kathleen Early makes listening to these books so enjoyable, despite the darkness of the storylines. It’s amazing how consistent she is with the voices of the characters from book to book.
My original review: Review: The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter (audio) – Always With a Book
Books in this series:
5.5 Snatched
6.5 Busted
10a. The Silent Wife – reread
11. After That Night – due out Aug 2024
