Book Thoughts: The Silent Wife

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…

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The history. Jeffrey. The Jeffrey Tolliver. He's the character who absolutely broke me when he died. And now we got a glimpse of him – eight years ago in Grant County. It made me want to reread the Grant County series which I totally loved and what made me a Slaughter fan. 

That said, this does not mean that I do not like Will because I do adore him too and I am deeply enjoying the Will Trent series.

Of course, where there’s Jeffrey, we could sense that Lena will also be there. This book sheds more light in their relationship, which I appreciated--but, I just have to say, I still don't like Lena. Period. The end. Sorry.

 

The different timelines. The shifting timelines worked really well here. When the story changed perspective to Jeffrey, back to eight years ago, I had flashbacks of the previous novels and this added depth to what had actually transpired back then.  It somehow felt surreal revisiting Grant County--it felt like actually returning there and witnessing events unfold in real time.

 

The hunch. Could Jeffrey really have done something like that? Is the image we have built of Jeffrey going to collapse? Honestly, I found myself resisting the idea. I did not want any of my thoughts to happen. I somehow got this feeling that something wasn't right--that if anything wrong happened, it was from someone on their side. While I'm not sure I fully predicted the reveal, I was no longer shocked by it either. In the end, everything that was done made sense.

 

The crime. Horrifying and chill-inducing. This is how I would describe this 10^th installment. This is deeply unsettling. Ms. Slaughter, as always, doesn't hold back when it comes to gruesome details; her descriptions are so vivid that it's impossible not to pictue them, and that's what makes them disturbing and gives me chills. And I applaud Ms. Slaughter for bringing such into her books and never once hesitates to show the evils of this world in a powerful way.

What I admired in this one is how Ms. Slaughter was able to show us how people, or women to be more specific, deal with such types of encounters in their life. The realization of the trauma and the suffering they would have to endure which will stay with them their whole life was something else. The depth and the effect of such crimes will forever stay with these victims and something that can never be erased – it is so heartbreakingly depicted in this one.

The relationship. I always enjoy reading the dynamics of the different characters in this series. The partnership between Faith and Will, the GBI team and Amanda's bossiness, and especially the realtionship between Sara and Will. This brought back realizations from Sara and Will of their past. Their pasts, especially that of Sara, resulted to tensions to their relationship. This book dives deeper into their relationship. I was a bit heartbroken for Will but I’m glad they were able to work it out. I cannot wait to see what will happen to them next and how their relationship will evolve in future books. As Ms. Slaughter said, there will be more Will and Sara stories. A love story weaved into terrifying crimes. 

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For new readers, do not hesitate, you can start on this one. However, if you want to dig deeper into this Slaughter world, go start reading the Grant County series first then dive into the Will Trent Series. I'm telling you, you will not be disappointed.