A Georgia prison inmate's offer to unmask a phone-smuggling operation in return for reopening his pedophilia conviction leads Slaughter's regulars into an eight-year-old case that strikes all too close to home.Daryl Nesbitt insists to Will Trent and Faith Mitchell, of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, that he was railroaded by Grant County Detective Lena Adams and that the sexual images of children on his computer were fruit of the poisonous tree that should never have been admitted into evidence. He certainly didn't attack Grant Tech student Rebecca Caterino, brutally assault her, and leave her for dead; the real scandals are that Lena, the ranking detective on the scene, didn't realize that Beckey was alive till GBI medical examiner Sara Linton realized it half an hour after the police came on the scene and that after Lena sent Leslie Truong, the fellow student who found Beckey's body, walking back to campus, Leslie was raped and murdered before she arrived. Not only are there horrors aplenty along the trail of what looks like a serial killer who may still be notching two victims a year, but revisiting the earlier crimes gives Slaughter, through a series of extended flashbacks, a chance to relitigate the breakup of Sara's marriage to late Grant County chief of police Jeffrey Tolliver, who headed the investigation that sent Daryl Nesbitt to jail. Slaughter, renowned for her shocking opening sequences, this time reserves the horrors for her unflinching descriptions of the multiple assaults, some of which result in fates worse than death for the victims, and for Sara's confrontation with a killer who's both monstrous and all too human.More slow-burning than most of Slaughter's shockers, this one will still rattle you down to your bones.

In bestseller Slaughter-s macabre 10th thriller featuring Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent (after 2019-s The Last Widow), Will and his partner, Faith Mitchell, are investigating a prison murder when inmate Daryl Nesbitt extends an offer. Nesbitt will tell them who the killer is if the GBI will look into eight incidents-one recent-that he believes are connected to the rape of Beckey Caterino eight years earlier. Nesbitt is serving time for child pornography discovered on his computer during the cops- investigation of the Caterino case, but Nesbitt maintains that Chief Jeffrey Tolliver-the now-deceased husband of Will-s girlfriend, medical examiner Sara Linton-framed him, and that a sadistic serial attacker remains at large. Will-s scrutiny of Jeffrey-s detective work sends Sara on a wistful trip down memory lane, leaving Will uncertain of their future. Will and Jeffrey-s inquiries, unfolding through frequent flashbacks, add nuance and complexity to an already intricate plot. Slaughter delivers an unflinching, deeply empathetic exploration of the stigma surrounding rape and the enduring trauma suffered by its survivors. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (Aug.)