‘The next thrilling mystery from Karin Slaughter,
New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and the Will Trent Series.‘
– We Are All Guilty Here
[ About We Are All Guilty Here ]
Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.
Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.
For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend’s daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.
But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.
Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?
[ My Review ]
We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter publishes June 19th with Harper Collins. It is the first book in this brand new crime thriller series described as ‘the addictive new 2025 crime suspense thriller that will keep you up all night.’
Set in the familiar surroundings of Georgia, Emmy Clifton is a police officer in North Falls, a town that has been home to the Cliftons for generations.
‘Clifton County was in the south-western part of Georgia, with a population of nearly 20,000 people. Fewer than a thousand of them lived in the county seat of North Falls.’
Emmy works alongside her father, Gerald Clifton, who is also sheriff of North Falls. Now a man in his mid-seventies, his age is showing in his joints and his movements but he is still a commanding presence at six feet two. The community of North Falls is a very close one with all having ‘a particular distrust for anything that wasn’t born and bred within the 190-acre limit of North Falls’. Hosting their annual Fourth celebration is always a great opportunity for everyone to get together, relax and have fun. Emmy and her colleagues have a presence at the event, with only the expectation of the usual frictional fracas. When both her father and herself get ‘the tickle’, a bad feeling that something isn’t quite right, they both start a subtle investigation of the surrounding area.
It soon becomes very apparent that two teenage girls, Madison and Cheyenne, are missing and that their lives are in immediate danger. Madison is the daughter of Emmy’s best friend, Hannah, so this case is very personal for Emmy. Questions are asked and potential suspects are pulled in but with no hard evidence, Emmy and the team are perplexed. What soon becomes clear to all involved is that Madison and Cheyenne had been up to something and the waters start to get very murky indeed.
Emmy Clifton is dealing with her own personal struggles and this disappearance is pushing her anxiety levels through the roof but she is good at her job and, as the clock ticks, she begins to unravel some very disturbing information. North Falls has always been a town where ‘everyone knows everyone’ but can you ever really make a claim like that? As Emmy picks away at the scant clues she grits her teeth and lets her inherent impulses guide her in her search. Will she find these two girls before it’s too late? How long does she have until a suspected kidnapping could potentially change to a suspected murder?
Karin Slaughter never fails to bring her readers compelling and immersive heart-thumping stories. With characters that you learn to love and despise, the pages almost turn by themselves. Emmy Clifton is a wonderfully depicted individual. She has had a fair share of problems and is always very accommodating with the other people in her life. She is generous to a fault, leaving very little time for herself and this constant on-mode leaves her exhausted on many occasions. Emmy is flawed but she is resilient and determined to find justice at all times. She is gritty, unafraid to take risks, but we also get to see her vulnerabilities.
We Are All Guilty Here is a very disquieting and edgy read with a powerful storyline that engages from the opening pages. A very strong launch of a new series, Karin Slaughter is undoubtedly a master of her trade. Impeccable writing, perfectly plotted with a rising tension that never leaves the page, We Are All Guilty Here is a top-notch crime fiction novel, another sure-fire winner for this #1 international bestselling author.
[Thank you to Harper Collins Ireland for a copy of We Are All Guilty Here in exchange for my honest review]
[ Bio ]
Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular and acclaimed storytellers. She is the author of more than twenty instant New York Times bestselling novels, including the Edgar–nominated Cop Town and standalone novels Pretty Girls, The Good Daughter, and Pieces of Her. She is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe.
Pieces of Her is a #1 Netflix original series starring Toni Collette, and WILL TRENT, based on her Will Trent series, is on ABC (and streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally). False Witness and The Good Daughter are in development for television. 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. (Ref ~ https://www.karinslaughter.com/bio-1)
