I've read some Karin Slaughter but not a lot of Will Trent. I don't feel like I have missed anything but there is a bit of a spoiler for someone who has watched the first two seasons of the show without reading more than a couple of the early books. A lot is going on here. But there is a grit to the story that does not gloss over anything. The characters often have horrible trauma. It was a study in how different people react to those traumas. I really want to go back and read the books I have missed now.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this e-arc!

Literally no idea where to start except I think this book is 5 stars? It’s twisty, immersive, descriptive and captivating. I read it in 2 sittings. I couldn’t stop reading, I didn’t want to put it down at all.

The whole plot is fast paced, you’re always guessing what might happen and who done it. You just keep getting bits of the clues and you keep thinking it’s this or that when you get another clue to divert you!

Amazing story writing and telling, every detail was perfectly placed for an amazing reading experience. A truly amazing time I had with this book and I did not expect the end at all, if it was guessed - props to you!

A must-read!

This Is Why We Lied by Karin Slaughter is the twelfth in the series featuring Will Trent, but also features his (new) wife Sara Linton - who of course has starred in a couple of Slaughter's series. Here the pair have just gotten hitched and Will decided to take Sara to a remote glamping spot - one he yearned to visit as a child in a foster care group home nearby. Of course they stumble into some family drama and when there's a murder on their first night the pair feel duty-bound to seek justice for the victim.

As the backcover blurb indicates there are a few lies on offer here, one of which comes compliments of Sara and Will who have lied to the hosts about their professions... given the usual responses they're met with. But there are many other secrets festering as well and Will is confronted by his past (again) as he crosses paths with a bully from the foster home who was kinda adopted by the family who own the lodge and its grounds.

This is a really clever whodunnit. I was kinda sad about the victim as Mercy was one of the few likeable characters amongst the host family and other guests. As usual Slaughter adds in some surprises in this novel which also features hefty family baggage and tragic legacies that are passed down through generations when they should be thwarted at the first opportunity.

Who doesn’t love Will Trent …

Why we lied sees his return to investigate the murder of Mercy McAlpine the daughter of a socialite who whilst staying at the secluded McAlpine lodge threatens to reveal all the secrets she keeps of the other guests staying …

Another great crime solving mystery - and we see Will marrying Sarah ( finally ) same racing against the clock to find the killer pace - just brilliant

Thank you @netgalley !

Holy shit. Well hot damm. I have never read a Will Trent book and I have watched one episode of the show so I went into this pretty blind but even as a sequel this book does a great job of explaining anything and everything. Will Trent and his new wife Sara are on their honeymoon at a small lodge and campsite in the woods. Their first night ends with the lodge manager, Mercy, getting stabbed and left to drown in the lake. The book takes twists and turns through Mercy's neglectful and awful family, suspicious guests, and the curse of trying to solve a murder in a small town. This book never left me with the feeling I knew what was going on. I was never confused or lost story wise but the twists really do lead you upside down and backwards before the end. I totally recommend reading this to anyone who isn't afraid of some pretty triggering topics like domestic violence, abuse, and rape. It was a great book and I'll definitely read anything else Slaughter has to offer!

Wowzers! What a book! Agatha Christie meets Virginia Andrews in this blistering locked-room thriller which must be one of Slaughter’s most gripping Will Trent stories to date. She’s thrown everything at it — remote location, brutal murder, dysfunctional family — and more twists than you can shake a stick at. And it all comes together brilliantly.

Will and Sara are on their honeymoon at an exclusive, family-run mountain lodge, when on the very first night, Will finds daughter Mercy dying from multiple stab wounds after a vicious family argument. Everyone, it seems, had a motive to want her dead. What’s more, the eight guests are a suspicious bunch to boot.

Although outside his jurisdiction, Will is instructed by his boss at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to take over the case and is soon joined by his partner Faith. What follows is a rollercoaster ride of secrets, betrayals, and coverups, of toxic relationships, small-town complicity and a tangled web of guilt.

The setting, the characters and the action are brought vividly to life by Slaughter’s slavish attention to detail. The queen of obfuscation and misdirection, she spins you around in circles until your mind is dizzy with alternate scenarios.

The pace is relentless, the twists flowing thick and fast. Time and again, towards the end, I thought this is it, only to turn the page and find yet another shocking revelation waiting for me. I stood a better chance of flying to the moon than predicting how it would all pan out.

I loved being back with Will and Sara, whose tenderness and concern for each other amidst all the carnage is a steadying counterpoint to the horrifying events around them. As is Faith’s self-deprecating wit, which never fails to raise a smile.

For me, the litmus test of a great crime thriller is firstly, the credibility of the plotting, and secondly, the authenticity of the procedural elements. As always, Slaughter’s execution of both is faultless. Roll on book 13!

I’m a massive fan of this series and was very excited to get a copy via NetGalley.
Will and Sara have finally got married after the shenanigans of the last book. They have set off on honeymoon to a retreat close to where Will could have gone to camp as a child. There’s clearly some bad, bad stuff going on here, as the book opens with a murder. There’s no escaping a crime scene for these two!
Slaughter is a master of misdirection. I was pretty sure I knew what was happening in this closed room mystery from the start, but lots of additional events and plot switchbacks made me very confused. This is a great series, though not for the faint of heart as it should likely have all the trigger warnings possible.
Another excellent book by this author.

This is the latest in the Sara Linton and Will Trent series. It works as a standalone, but I definitely recommend reading the rest!

Sara and Will are on their honeymoon, organised by Will, at an isolated lodge. When one of the owners is murdered, can the pair help solve the murder before more crimes are committed?

I really liked finding out more about Will's traumatic childhood in this book, with interesting comparisons to Sara's more conventional one. The story has twists throughout - I thought I'd solved it early on, but found myself doubting the solution over and over! Slaughter is wonderful at character development, the book is packed full of people I loved to hate, alongside those I wanted to comfort. A great thriller.

A typical gritty story with no holes barred when descriptions are given. I did suspect who the perpetrator was quite early in the story but then thought I was wrong when we were lead down other paths.
I would have been quite happy without all the romance between Will and Sara, but then I am not in to romance - not my genre. This book is full of damaged people so not an easy read, but definitely another page turner.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Karin Slaughter/Harper Collins UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

I really enjoy this series so was pleased to be able to read the new one and catch up with Will and Sara, although it is book 12 in a series it can also be read as a standalone (just be prepared to want to read the first 11!)

Will and Sara are on honeymoon at McAlpine lodge, only really accessible by hiking and certain vehicles but once it is cut off due to flooding the guests and people who run the lodge (mainly the McAlpine family) become the suspects when Mercy McCalpine is found stabbed to death. It becomes a variation on the locked room mystery and the situation is even described within the book at Agatha Christie meets VC Andrew’s. The VC Andrew’s reference works because of the dynamic of the McCalpine family who are all really unlikeable (even the victim and her teenage son to some extent).

The story is told through multiple POV’s which works to move the plot forward and characters from previous books in the series make an appearance.
Mercy’s sad backstory is mainly told through letters she has previously written to her son which gives a great view into her life.

The plot is quite complicated but well worked out and I enjoyed being surprised by the reveal.

Three generations of the same family, living in a lodge on a mountain in Georgia offering guests fishing, riding, paddle boarding, luxury bathrooms, no internet and an escape from the modern world to soak up nature. Sounds idyllic but this most definitely is not the Waltons, it’s about as far from the Waltons as you can get, I kept thinking of duelling banjos as I read this book and the darkness surrounding the family. It is an awful feeling to think that there are communities out there where people can act as they do with impunity because they are seen as pillars of the community. There are very very redeeming features to the main characters, they are all deeply flawed caused by either the nature of nurture of the extended family and I found it both compelling and disturbing. So many suspects, so many motives to Mercy’s brutal killing and other crimes. It’s a great story but hard to read emotionally. Stick with it, it’s worth it

A nail-biting thriller that kept me up at night

This is Why We Lied by @karinslaughterauthor is my first Slaughter novel, though I’ve been wanting to read her for a long time after seeing her on the thriller side of Booktok.

Now, recently I’ve been feeling fed up of the same Detective thriller novels, they were all getting too similar. THIS novel is what I’ve been needing to get me back into thrillers.

What was meant to be a peaceful, tranquil honeymoon for newlyweds Will and Sara goes awry when they notice that everyone at McAlpine Lodge is clearly hiding something.

When going into this, I had no idea that it was part of a series. This, however did not stop me devouring the book and in no way made it difficult to understand the plot. The character development was so well written I never felt like I would have needed to have read the other book in the series first.

Also had to be mentioned that a thriller book has a map?! I hardly ever see this and I love it. Such a great addition to the book

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Thank you to the publisher @harpercollins and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC


Review is available to view on my Instagram (@rhisreads) which should be linked below

Something a little different from the queen of crime, and Karin Slaughter does it again with this super suspenseful thriller. I did not read the synopsis and (as I always do with my favourite authors) went in completely blind. I feel this makes for even better reading as everything is new to me.

As always, Karin's writing is immaculate and draws the reader in straight away. In the prologue to be exact! I mean, what do you expect, Ms Slaughter has been at this game for some time now...

In case you like to go in blind too, I don't want to give too much away other than that the rest of the book works backwards, as in "twenty hours before..." and the suspense is throughout the entire book, keeping you guessing and wondering "what the actual...?" until the jaw dropping, cringe-worthy end.

There are a mixture of nice and just plain nasty characters in this book, and as per the title, there is a whole lot of lying going on! It's up to you to work out who's lying, and who's telling the truth. So go on, do yourself a favour and grab this book. If it's your first Karin Slaughter (what??) guaranteed you'll be on Amazon to get her complete backlist after reading this one!

And a HUGE thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for an eARC of This is Why We Lied to read and review.

This beauty is out now!

This Is Why we Lied is the next book in the series with Will Trent and Sara Linton. They have finally got married and are on a lovely honeymoon that Will has gone to great lengths to choose and its also a throwback to his childhood. Unfortunately life is not simple and after only one night in paradise in the middle of nowhere there is a murder. There are multiple suspects including a throwback bully from Wills childhood and the children's home he was in. An enthralling read that I could not out down to get to the end of the mystery.
Amazing storytelling as usual from Karin Slaughter and brings even more depth to Will and Sara's characters. I look forward to the next one.

"This Is Why We Lied" throws the newlyweds Will and Sara into a dark and twisted mystery during their honeymoon at the McAlpine Lodge, where everyone is clearly hiding something.
I must admit, I didn't realise at first that this book was part of a series, but Slaughter's talent for character development and intricate storytelling kept me thoroughly engaged. This book can be perfectly well read as a standalone.
While I enjoyed the darkness and complexity of the story and characters, I would have preferred shorter chapters and a slightly faster pace at times. It was a gripping read, but the lengthy chapters occasionally slowed down my focus.
Overall, "This Is Why We Lied" is a dark, multilayered thriller. If you enjoy intense, character-driven mysteries, this book won't disappoint. But it's surely not a fast-paced read to devour in a couple of days—at least for me it wasn't!

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins for the ARC!

Karin Slaughter is on top form with this book. Her plots are always compelling. You don't have to be familiar with the series to get great enjoyment from this story but it's nice to see favourite characters continue to grow.

Karin Slaughter has done it again. Absolutely loved reading this. The only reason it's not 5 stars is just because it was a bit too long and drawn out.
But the plot, the writing in general and and the characters were all great. Definitely did not see that ending coming.
Already excited for the next one.

Well one of the lines in the book sums it up for me perfectly. An Agatha Christie locked room mystery meets VC Andrews.
At first I was hesitant on starting this one since it was #12 in a series, and it can be tough to understand all the characters but the author does a fantastic job of explaining the characters and this could have been a book all on its own. I don’t think I need to read the first 12 to understand it. But I can definitely tell you I will be going back to read the others.
A lot of trigger warnings if you can’t handle domestic violence, child abuse etc.
But if they aren’t triggers for you and you can read this as a book I definitely recommend picking this one up. But be prepared to not be able to put it down.

I really enjoyed this book by Karin Slaughter, a first read for myself from this author and it won’t be the last.

The twists and turns kept me hooked from the beginning and I couldn’t put it down. I had to keep changing in my mind, who the killer was, although I did have an inkling which was right. The angles changed all the time and I throughly enjoyed it.

I did find it was slightly long winded and could have wrapped up earlier. I also didn’t see the point of some of the characters e.g Monica and Frank but everyone else fitted in nicely.

A good read.

Well.....

This is the first Karin Slaughter book I have ever read. I didn't realise before reading the book that it was part of a series. I don't think you needed to have read the other 11 books in the series to be able to understand the back story.

I liked this book it was very much a slow burner, the first three quarters were slow, very slow at times but something about it kept me coming back for more.

This book will not be for everyone as there are some very dark issues covered in this story.

I definitely look forward to reading more Karin Slaughter books in the future.

A massive thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the ARC.