In addition to being an exhaustive and gimlet-eyed social history of modern Atlanta, especially its flawed criminal justice system and law-enforcement agencies, Criminal is the kind of hold-on-to-your-hat, nail-biting story Slaughter has become world-famous for. It's also the grisliest good-thing-it's-not-true crime novel I've read since Hannibal Lecter bestrode the American publishing landscape.
—Richard Lipez

At the outset of Slaughter’s tense fourth thriller to combine characters from her two crime series (after 2011’s Fallen), life is running smoothly for agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation as he eases into a new relationship with Dr. Sara Linton, until the abduction of 19-year-old college student Ashleigh Snyder. When his GBI mentor and boss, Deputy Director Amanda Wagner, specifically tells him to stay away from the case, Will knows something is wrong. Flashback to 1975, when Amanda is a rookie in the Atlanta Police Department, along with Evelyn Mitchell, who later becomes the mother of Faith, Will’s GBI partner. The APD at that time is rife with racism and sexism, but Amanda and Evelyn refuse to abandon the case of several missing prostitutes, despite warnings from other (male) detectives to back off. Slaughter seamlessly shifts between past and present, while her usual attentive eye for character and carefully metered violence is on full display. 6 to 8–city author tour. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Associates. (July)

Slaughter’s latest brings to light heretofore-unknown aspects of the lives of Will Trent—an agent at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation—and his boss, deputy director Amanda Wagner. When a young college student goes missing, the circumstances surrounding the disappearance bring back memories of the first case Wagner worked as a young detective in 1975. What is the connection between the two cases and why has Wagner locked Trent out of the investigation? The answers exist, and Kathleen Early does an excellent job of revealing them as she narrates this complex thriller. Early handles the book’s numerous plot twists and shifts in time, pacing, and point of view with aplomb, delivering a compelling and enjoyable listening experience. Confronted with a large cast of characters, Early manages to give each character a distinct voice without falling into caricature or cliché. She is especially effective in her reading of sections of the book set in the 1970s in which Amanda and her partner fight the prejudice of their peers in order to be taken seriously as detectives. A Delacorte hardcover. (July)

Dazzling . . . possibly [Slaughter’s] best novel to date.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
 
“One of the best crime novelists at work today . . . Slaughter weaves a rich tapestry of complex characters with a compelling mystery. Readers will feel emotionally attached to these characters, and their journey will both delight and surprise even the jaded suspense fan.”—Associated Press
 
“This could be her best.”—USA Today
 
“Slaughter keeps on fulfilling and surpassing the promise of each of her books. . . . Criminal is full of surprises.”—Bookreporter
 
“Crime fiction at its finest.”—Michael Connelly
 
“Slaughter flawlessly executes a gripping crime novel. . . . Old devotees will be thrilled, and new readers will be hooked.”—Library Journal
 
“The book should be considered one of the best thrillers of the year.”—The Roanoke Times
 
“Slaughter delivers another riveting, pulse-pounding crime novel.”—Booklist (starred review)

Will Trent’s sordid family history and the birth of the career of Amanda Wagner, Trent’s boss at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, will engage Slaughter fans in a story that goes back to 1975. The horrific case Wagner cut her teeth on is also part of Trent’s backstory, so narrator Kathleen Early must transition clearly between the earlier police investigation and the present. Early’s composed delivery sets in stark relief the horrors inflicted upon the 1975 victims, who were “pinned down like a specimen in a science project.” The rampant and abusive sexism of the Atlanta Police Department is also graphically depicted. Early’s best performance is her vocal time travel from the youthful, determined Amanda to the gruff GBI agent she becomes, a narrating feat that also applies to her circle of stalwart sisters. Tension is fine-tuned, and characters are subtly shaded in, with Southern accents surprisingly sparse. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Now that Slaughter has put former Grant County Medical Examiner Sara Linton (Broken, 2010) and Faith Mitchell, of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (Fallen, 2011), though hell, it's GBI Deputy Director Amanda Wagner's turn on the hot seat, in a jolting case that involves murders separated by 40 years but united in ugliness. Georgia Tech sophomore Ashleigh Snyder has gone missing. The case is a natural for endlessly troubled GBI agent Will Trent, but for some reason Amanda, though she's directed every other available agent to search for Ashleigh, is keeping him off the case. Not only has she banished Will to the airport in a dead-end patrol of men's rooms, he also finds her hanging around the Techwood apartments, geographically close to Ashleigh's place but economically a million miles away. How come? Amanda's motives are rooted in the murder of Jane Delray (or was it Lucy Bennett, as Lucy's brother Hank insisted?) back in 1975, the year Will was born and Amanda was cutting her teeth in the GBI. Shuttling back and forth between that fateful summer and the present, Slaughter links the murder of a prostitute you'd think would have been long forgotten to the fate of Ashleigh Snyder. As per usual in this explosive series, the darkest revelations involve recurring characters. Yet the narrative arcs of the regulars continue to fascinate because Slaughter's not afraid to put them through irreversibly life-changing situations. However successful you find the dizzying alternation between present and past nightmares, this double-barreled load of horrors is the clearest indication yet that Slaughter, like the sage of Yoknapatawpha, is less concerned with the shape of individual novels than with her sprawling, multivolume saga as a whole.