The Kept Woman

July 25, 2016
Dale Harding, the murder victim at the center of bestseller Slaughter’s exciting if flawed sixth novel starring Will Trent and Dr. Sara Linton (after 2013’s Unseen), was a retired (and dirty) Atlanta cop. Harding’s body turns up in a nightclub belonging to a celebrity athlete who recently beat a rape charge in a case handled by Will, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent. A gun at the crime scene ties the whole mess to Angie Polaski, Will’s dangerously off-kilter wife, who frequently leaves him for long periods but always returns. Further complications follow after Sara, Will’s current girlfriend, who’s now a GBI medical examiner, tells him that Harding wasn’t the only one who suffered—and bled a lot—in the club. The case becomes almost too large for Slaughter to contain, which could explain her choice to rely on an awkward extended flashback sequence, but she mostly manages to wrangle this installment into an intense look at the nature of loss and control, and how love can taint both. Five-city author tour. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Associates.

Will Trent is back, and narrator Kathleen Early delivers the Georgia investigator and series regulars with every one of Karin Slaughter's convoluted plot twists and emotional complexities in place. Nightclub owner and All-Star basketball player Marcus Rippy has already been acquitted of one rape when he's accused of another. An unstable, estranged wife who won't leave him alone, the gruesome murder of a dirty cop, and a new boss who's out to get him are only a few of the complications Will faces as this thriller unfolds. Early is especially effective in the lengthy flashback explaining the events that occurred in the week before the murder. As she keeps the characters real and the tension high, she never misses the nuances packed into this clever, gripping mystery. S.J.H. � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine