Criminal

A Novel

By: Karin Slaughter

Narrated by: Kathleen Early

Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda’s motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before, when his father was imprisoned for murder, this was Will’s home. 

It appears that the case that launched Amanda’s career 40 years ago has suddenly come back to life - and it involves the long-held mystery of Will’s birth and parentage. Now these two dauntless investigators will each need to face down demons from the past, if they are to prevent an even greater terror from being unleashed.

©2012 Karin Slaughter (P)2019 HarperAudio

I'm confused!!

How is it that the 6th book in this series came out after book 6.5, 7 and 8?? I love Karin Slaughter and I'm working my way through book 6 but I'm having deja vu with much of the story. I feel like I'm getting a refresher course in Will Trents life. Am I the only one who feels this way?

Outstanding police procedural!

I read CRIMINAL, Book 6 in the Will Trent series, when it was released in 2012. I'm unsure for the reason for this re-release but decided to listen because The Last Widow, Book 9 in the series, will be released on August 20. CRIMINAL tells more about Will Trent's background than any other novel. It also delves deeply into the background of Will's boss at the GBI Amanda Wagner. The rapid switches back and forth between present day and the 1970's require the listener to pay very close attention. Kathleen Early's narration is stellar as always. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Old book

Don’t go by the release date on Criminal. Kind of appropriate I guess, it’s criminal that this was presented as a new release. This is an old book and I wasted a credit. Not cool

Great book within a great series, but...

I feel a little cheated in that I saw the release date of this book as recent, so I thought it was a new addition to the series. My bad for not keeping track of how many books and the titles that have been written, so I wasted a credit on an older book in the series that I already own. I am not sure what makes this release different, as it is the same great narrator as the first recording. It is a phenomenal part of the series and I still enjoyed it immensely.

Holy Moley - that was good

I stayed up all night to finish this. It was fantastic. Actually I worry about this author - it is scary what gruesome things are in her brain. She can conjure up some very gruesome activities for the serial killer in this book. Will Trent and Sarah Linton are in the very early stages of a relationship and their intense relationship hits a couple of rocks. Will's evil wife Angie is throwing some of them and the rest come from Will's past. We learn more about Will's background and his connection to Amanda, his boss. The story skips between present day and 1975 - when Amanda has just become a member of the police force and is treated so badly by the male policemen. She and her friend, Evelyn, are on the trail of a serial killer. In the present day Will and Sarah find they are both working on a case that has aspects similar to the 1975 murders. I was completely fascinated with the story and did not want to stop even to eat or when I got my hair cut and styled. It really is a well written and plotted book - it is also expertly narrated by Kathleen Early. I have read many of the Sarah Linton books and some of the Will Trent books and am glad the series has come together as one series. I will be reading more about Will Trent.

Awesome

loved it, mt favorite series to date. the next one is already queued. must read

Slaughter knocks it out of the park

Will Trent fans will savor every phrase of this one. Slaughter navigates the myriad twists effortlessly, honing seemingly mundane details into crucial points on which the plot turns. Having grown up in the South in the ‘70s, I can attest that she paints every detail of the era so accurately that it was like a trip back in time to my teen years. She is utterly fearless with the dialogue, throwing every barbed racist and sexist epithet with a casual, deadly precision so that they hit dead center the bullseye of the truth of how things were at that time. She makes no scolding moral judgments, instead letting the story speak for itself. I’ve long been a fan of Slaughter for her deep-drawn characters, hair-raising descriptions of violence, and attention to forensic detail, but I was absolutely gobsmacked by this tour-de-force—narrated brilliantly as always by the talented Kathleen Early. Karin Slaughter is the reigning queen of the genre.

Sara deserves better than Will!!!

I made the mistake a couple years back and read the Will Trent series before reading the Grant County books about Sara Linton. My first time reading them I loved Sara and Will together. I have only recently read/listened to the Sara Linton books and decided to re-read the Will Trent series. I loved Sara and Jeffrey together. Jeffrey made a mistake by cheating on Sara and Sara didn’t take any crap and divorced him. She didn’t want to be second fiddle. Jeffrey worked his butt off for many, many years trying to win back Sara. Just when everything was perfect he was blown up by a bomb in the mailbox. Sara moved away to Atlanta where she met Will an illiterate Special Agent with the GBI. Will is married to Angie Polaski whom he grew up with in an Atlanta Children’s Home/Orphanage. Will is damaged to say the least. Sara and Will fall for each other. They’re in the beginning stages of a relationship. Will’s wife is never around and leaves for months at a time. They don’t love each other or so Will continues to say but Will always gives into Angie. When Angie snaps he goes running. Had Will never met Sara then Angie wouldn’t even be around, she would be off with her many men. Angie doesn’t want Will, but nobody else is allowed to want him either. Will continues carrying around his wedding ring and is constantly treating Sara like garbage. He kisses Angie and then gets upset when Angie takes off yet he’s upset and now discovers a conscience and worries about hurting Sara. I don’t even think I can continue this series because I am sick of Will. He won’t grow a pair and tell Angie he wants a divorce and get rid of his wedding ring. Not to mention he’s always pushing Sara away. He continues to whine about Angie yo-yo’ing him around, however he is doing the same thing to Sara. Will is in no way, shape, or form good enough for the likes of Sara. She truly needs to come to her senses and tell Will she’s not going to play second best to garbage like Angie Polaski and it’s obvious that will prefers her, so he can go back to the dump and lie with the garbage. I hope she wakes up soon because Will isn’t capable of love, only the hate or whatever he shares with his horrific wife. He’s pathetic and I don’t know what I was thinking the first time read read this series and liked his character.

Seriously amazing book in series!!!!!!

Gotta really read the whole series to get the full impact of this book but it’s a doozy!!!

Criminal!

What more can you say about Karin Slaughter…
This book was enthralling from beginning to end. Loved it.