Busted – Karin Slaughter

Will Trent is on his way to an undercover assignment when he stops at a gas station for a drink and accidentally gets mixed up in a robbery. When most of the people involved end up dead and the old lady working in the gas station seems determined to mislead the Police is there more to this than meets the eye?

This is another short story in the Will Trent series so works as a stand alone story and doesn’t affect the main series in any great way.

It’s almost a nice little palate cleanser after how intense “Criminal” was. There’s no real stakes in play for the main characters but the case is interesting and Slaughter still manages to get a bit of a twist in, which is pretty impressive for a short story!

I gave this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Criminal – Karin Slaughter

A young woman has gone missing from the local college at a similar time as to when a notorious killer is released from prison on parole. Amanda Wagner is unusually keen to keep Will away from this case with the reasoning soon becoming clear when the young woman’s body is found. She was killed in a similar way to Will’s Mum and the recently released killer was the culprit, who also happens to be Will’s Dad. Can Will keep his personal feelings in check? What does all of this have to do with Amanda?

Snatched – Karin Slaughter

Whilst on assignment at the very busy Atlanta airport, Will Trent has only a split second to make a judgement call about a child and the man travelling with her. Does he make the right one?

Fallen – Karin Slaughter

In the fifth instalment in the Will Trent series, Faith Mitchell goes to pick her daughter, Emma, up from her Mum’s house and finds Emma locked in the shed with a trail of blood leading to the house. When she storms into the house she finds a dead man and more blood but no sign of her Mum. What has happened to Evelyn and does it relate to Will’s previous investigation into her Narcotics squad? Will must try and put the pieces together in time to save both his partner and her Mum.

Defending Jacob – William Landay

The Barber family are the same as a lot of suburban American families. Nothing stands out about them. Andy is the Assistant DA, his job is to build a case and convict criminals and he’s good at his job. When one of his son, Jacob’s class mates is found murdered in a local park he is more determined than ever to find the killer and protect his family. But when the evidence starts to point towards Jacob, Andy and his wife, Laurie, will do anything to defend their son because they know he couldn’t possibly have done this. Or do they?

Firefly Lane – Kristin Hannah

It’s 1974 and Kate Mullarkey is a teenaged girl at the bottom of the high school social pecking order until Tully Hart moves in across the road. Tully is instantly the coolest girl in school and also wants to be friends with Kate. They become best friends and begin planning the rest of their lives together and though their lives change along the way, their friendship remains the one constant until an act of betrayal changes everything. When tragedy strikes, can they put their differences aside and come back together one last time?

The Nothing Man – Catherine Ryan Howard

18 years ago, 12-year-old Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive when the man dubbed “The Nothing Man” broke into their home in the middle of the night. Now she has written a book about her search for the identity of the Nothing Man and how she hopes to eventually bring him to justice. Security guard, Jim Doyle, is reading Eve’s book and getting angrier by the page, because the book is about him, he was the Nothing Man but can he become the Nothing Man again in order to stop his secret from being revealed.

The Bone Hacker – Kathy Reichs

After an investigation into a man suspected to have been struck by lightning and fallen from a bridge leads to a connection to the Turks and Caicos Islands, Temperance Brennan finds herself embroiled in a much bigger case. Male tourists have been going missing on the island for years with the Government keen to avoid a scandal and cover it up but now their bodies have been discovered, each with their left hands removed and Brennan is called upon to assist with the recovery of the bodies and the investigation but is there more to this than meets the eye?

I’m A Fan – Sheena Patel

“I’m A Fan” tells the story of the relationship between the unnamed narrator and “the man I want to be with” as well as her obsession with another woman that this man is also having a relationship with, “the woman I’m obsessed with” as well as a commentary on social media, racism and the patriarchy.

The Regulators – Stephen King

In the small town of Wentworth, Ohio, everything seems to be normal. The Carver children argue over sweets, the local newspaper boy, Cary Ripton, is out on his round and writer, Johnny Marinville, is minding his own business doing some gardening. Nobody notices the strange red van idling just up the hill and even if they had, would they have ever realised the horrors that were to come?