The Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) has been called to Phillips State Prison to investigate the murder of an inmate, Jesus Vasquez. 

The 38-year-old was killed at the start of a riot — and, as they begin to question the other inmates, the GBI are offered information by one of the prisoners. 

Daryl Nesbitt is accused of having committed a number of brutal, terrifying attacks on women in Grant County — but he insists he’s innocent, and that then-Chief of Police, Jeffery Tolliver, and his fellow police officer, Lena Adams, were at the head of a corrupt investigation. 

Nesbitt’s insistence that he is innocent rattles the GBI — in particular, Will Trent and Tolliver’s ex-wife, Dr. Sara Linton. 

The inmate has newspaper clippings of attacks on at least eight other women, all of whom have been murdered after his imprisonment — and he demands that they investigate the real serial killer in return for information about Vasquez’s murderers.  

As the novel goes on, Sara and Will’s relationship is put to the test. Will realises that if he’s going to find out the truth, he must solve the original case — dredging up old, painful memories that force the past and present to collide. 

They begin to look into the deaths of the women in the articles, beginning with the most recent, Alexandra McAllister — whose death was thought to have been an accident. 

It isn’t long until it becomes clear that the killer is still out there and that their M.O remains the same after all this time. The GBI find themselves in a race against time to keep the killer from striking again. 

While The Silent Wife will have you hooked from the very first page, it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. 

The descriptions of the attacks and the crime scenes, both in the past and the present, are so brutally vivid that they will draw the reader in with all five senses. 

However, they’re also — in part — what kept me hooked on thew book; I had to know who was doing these terrifying things and why. 

The book jumps between two different timelines — the past and the present investigations — but it’s done in such a clear way that there’s never a question of what time period you’re actually in. 

The Silent Wife is the tenth book in the Will Trent series, but you don’t necessarily have to have read all of the others to start this one. 

Although finishing the book will definitely make you want to start the series. 

The first of the books from either series that I’ve read, The Silent Wife was an incredible introduction into the world of Will Trent and Sara Linton. 

For the most part, I didn’t have trouble following what was going on.But I’ll fully admit that there were moments where I was a bit confused; getting the sense that there was underlying history between some of the characters but having to resist the temptation to do a (potentially spoilery) deep-dive on the series. 

And while this is the first of Slaughter’s books that I’ve read, it’s definitely not going to be the last. 

Within a day of finishing up The Silent Wife, I’ve got the first of the Will Trent and Grant Count series’ ordered — and I’m really looking forward to having the chance to dive in.  

The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter, published by HarperCollins, is available now.