Personality Conflicts Complicate this Mystery
Karin Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project — a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming.
Dell
464 pages
$12.99
iBooks
$9.99
It’s interesting that this book, which is the second (of 12 books) in Slaughter’s Will Trent series, was chosen to be adapted into a two-part introduction to the television series, when it was launched two seasons ago. There’s some interesting backstory that is referred to here, but that you have to puzzle over if you haven’t read the first book (Tryptich) in the series.
Will is an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and was responsible for uncovering corruption in the Atlanta Police Department, which led to a number of people being charged and fired. One of these was Detective Faith Mitchell’s police captain mother, who chose to retire, even though she was not implicated in the mess.
When Mitchell is forced by circumstances to work with Trent on the case at the centre of this story, they both find it difficult. As Mitchell discovers that Trent is an exceptional detective, she comes to realize that his conclusions regarding some of her former colleagues must have been correct.
The story opens in Ansley Park, one of Atlanta’s most upscale neighbourhoods, where a mother comes home to find her daughter murdered and strangles the young man she thinks is attacking her.
All of those assumptions are incorrect. It turns out that the girl at the top of the stairs is not her daughter, but her best friend, that the young man lurching down the stairs was already dying from a knife wound, that another man was involved in both killings and that her daughter has been kidnapped.
Trent’s boss at the GBI, Amanda Wagner, who is also Faith’s aunt, borrows her from the APD and assigns her to work with Trent on this complex case.
While one always expects a certain amount of change when a book is adapted to film or television, as a fan of the TV series, I was surprised to discover that both Wagner and Mitchell, who are portrayed in the show by black actors, are actually Caucasian in the books.
It is an important part of Will’s background that he was brought up within the Atlanta orphanage system. By coincidence, Paul, the father of the kidnapped girl, was also a product of that system, and he and Will have a most antagonistic history. Baby Will was found in a dumpster near the orphanage and, as a result, young Paul developed the habit of calling young Will “Trash.” He continues this as the case goes on, and their animosity towards each other gets in the way of finding solutions.
The other key thing about Will Trent is that he is dyslexic and has to come up with all kinds of ways to both cope with this and hide it from most of the people around him.
This is a complicated story, more of a thriller than a mystery, and it has many layers. The story is as much about relationships as it is about solving the problems created by the murders and the abduction. I have both read and listened to this book, and I found both experiences worthwhile. The television adaptation takes some liberties with the details, but it is fairly faithful to the main plot points.
Karin Slaughter is the author of more than 20 instant New York Times bestselling novels, including the Edgar–nominated Cop Town and the standalone novels The Good Daughter; Pretty Girls; and Girl, Forgotten. She is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces Of Her is a #1 Netflix original mini-series starring Toni Collette.
The Will Trent series is on ABC (and streaming on Disney+ in Canada) and is in its third season. The Good Daughter and False Witness are in development for film/TV. Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project — a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.
