By far, one of her best books ever......

Full review can be seen on my November Reading List & Reviews post. You can see more book reviews at Life with Emily

On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. Vanished into thin air, the authorities are desperate to save the doctor. One month later, the serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast—followed by another seconds later. One of Atlanta’s busiest and most important neighborhood’s has been bombed—the location of Emory University, two major hospitals, the FBI headquarters, and the CDC. Medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, rush to the scene—and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to destroy thousands of innocent lives.

review: This is book #9 in the Will Trent series by Karin Slaughter and this book certainly disappoint! Karin Slaughter always delivers an action-packed book that will leave you on the edge of your seat. This book, like many of her others, draws you in by only giving the necessary information. She slowly provides other details and clues to keep you engaged until the final detail ties it all together. I found the events of this book to be incredibly timely and it actually scared me a bit! p.s. her books can work as stand alone as well! rating: 4.5 out of 5 ⭐️

Karin Slaughter fans have been waiting a long time for this book. The Last Widow is the 9th book in the Will Trent series. Last time we saw Will, was in The Kept Woman back in 2017. Well, it was definitely worth the wait- and you can see why it took so long (apart from Slaughter writing two stand alone novels in the mean time). The research for this book must have taken an insanely long time. It is so very detailed. I get super excited when a new Slaughter book is announced, so it is no surprise that I gave this one 5 stars. Here’s what I thought:

Bit of a back story for the two main characters – Will Trent and Sara Linton. We met Sara back in Blindsighted (the first of the Grant County series in 2001), where she was married to Jeffrey, the town’s chief of police. She looked after the towns kids as the doctor, and looked after their deceased as the coroner. Helping her husband solve murder cases, Sara was involved in a lot of drama throughout the series. After Jeffrey’s murder, she met Will, a GBI agent, whilst helping on another case. She has evolved from the small town pediatrician to the medical examiner for the GBI.

Will was first introduced to us in Triptych, where we also met his horrible ex-wife Angie. Luckily for us Angie doesn’t show her face in The Last Widow. Will is socially awkward, he’s not used to attention and people being nice to him, and he was brought up in the foster system. He and Sara have found love in the most hostile of circumstances and now face their toughest challenge…

Sara gets kidnapped by a terrorist organisation known as the IPA. They need her to help rid the kids of a measles outbreak in their mountain camp. Will must go under cover to rescue her before it is too late, and the IPA carry out their mission.

Now, as I mentioned, KS has done A LOT of research into her subject matter. White supremist groups, chemical and biological weapons, racist paedophiles – you name it, KS has looked into the depths of horror and pulled out a masterpiece of writing. She doesn’t hold back. We get the details, however disgusting they are, and trust me, the bad guys here are nothing short of scum. She doesn’t use violence and gore for shock value, it is used to accurately set the scene of situations that unfortunately seem all to real.

My heart breaks for Will when he realises Sara has been taken and that he can’t do anything about it. You can tell she is his world, and he needs to help her. Can he get her back? Can he stop the IPA from delivering their ‘message’ before it is too late?

Special mention for Faith, Will’s partner at the GBI, she is instrumental in getting Will the back up he needs when he needs it most, and she also provides the humour to keep us up when the subject matter is getting just a little too tough. "Her cop's salary, along with her propensity for having children out of wedlock, had put a major dent in her travel budget".

I am hoping to see Van Zandt again at some point in relation to Faith… "She bit her lip. She was going to end up blowing this guy just for his access to secret government control rooms".

Overall, this is a great instalment in the Will Trent series. I would recommend, although you are likely to need chunks of time to read this as it is quite unputdownable!

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