The Last Widow

Will Trent, Book 9

By: Karin Slaughter

Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard

Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author Karin Slaughter brings back Will Trent and Sara Linton in this superb and timely thriller full of devious twists, disturbing secrets, and shocking surprises you won't see coming.

It begins with an abduction. The routine of a family shopping trip is shattered when Michelle Spivey is snatched as she leaves the mall with her young daughter. The police search for her, her partner pleads for her release, but it's as if she disappeared into thin air. A month later, on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, medical examiner Sara Linton is at lunch with her boyfriend Will Trent, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. But the serenity of the summer's day is broken by the wail of sirens.

Sara and Will are trained to run towards an emergency, not away from it. But on this one terrible day that instinct betrays them. Within hours the situation has spiralled out of control. And the fallout will lead them into the Appalachian mountains, to the terrible truth about really happened to Michelle, and to a remote compound where a radical group has murder in mind....

Praise for The Last Widow:

"With a plot as timely as it is riveting...this is one of her best." (Booklist)

"Prepare for a rollercoaster ride, Slaughter is back with a vengeance." (Woman magazine, UK)

"Enthralling, fast-paced, tense and compulsive." (It's All About the Books)

©2019 Karin Slaughter (P)2019 HarperAudio

Far Reaching Story with Awful Narrator

I used to be a die hard Karin Slaughter fan, but her last 2 books have really failed to hit the mark with me. When I first listened to Triptych (my first Karin Slaughter book), I was absolutely blown away by the story and narrator (Michael Kramer). It is a book that stayed in my thoughts for a long time after I first listened to it. The first 3 Will Trent Series books became my all time favourites and I listen to them all at least once a year. But honestly, since Sara and Will became an item it's ruined the series for me.

The Last Widow just doesn't gel. Karin used to have a great way with words, laying down the foundation of the story for the reader, weaving her little web around you so that you are totally ensconced in the story. Her last 2 books (Pieces of Her and even The Kept Woman) and now this book are just far reaching. It feels like they are long just for the sake of being long with "twists and turns" thrown in for content rather than because it adds to the story. I found myself really not caring about Sara's predicament or whether she was going to be ok or not. I just don't like her as she has developed as a character since the Grant County Series.

Will started out as an interesting, multi faceted person who overcame a traumatic history of childhood abuse and neglect to become an intelligent and successful GBI Agent, in spite of his dyslexia. You understood his vulnerability and always rooted for him against whatever adversaries he came across. Since he and Sara got together, Will just seems like a caricature of a moony, love-sick teenager and it's such a 180 turn in the wrong direction that I can't stand him anymore. I find myself skipping over the chapters with Will and Sara because I just find myself rolling my eyes and getting annoyed. From the moment they got together, Sara has been moony in love with Will but always reflects on the things about him that she doesn't like - his (ex) wife even though she knew he was married when she became interested in him. His difficulty to communicate like a "normal person" (because - HELLO! - he was abused as a child!). She gets upset with him and flounces off, only to call him back again because she doesn't want to give up. They've been together a while now and they're both still insecure about how the other feels about them - it's ridiculous and pathetic. It seems like in every book they're together their relationship is in some kind of turmoil. Then there's the cringe worthy descriptions their sex life and them getting hot for each other. Ugh. It's exhausting and irritating and isn't what relationships should be like. I honestly preferred it when he was with Angie. Come to think of it, I am totally on Angie's side against mealy-mouth Sara.


The narrator was deplorable. Her voice was grating and shrill when narrating the female characters and for some reason always spoke in a nasal tone too and she made the men sound like red necks or dumbasses, no in between.

I hate to say that this will be the first Karen Slaughter book I will ask for my credit back.

Repetitive and boring

Way too much repetition by retelling the same events from multiple points of view makes for a BORING story. Very disappointing given the popularity of this author and price paid. Don’t think I will even make it through the entire book. Life is too short to listen to drivel. A real shame as this author has written some great stories but this one is complete garbage