After That Night (Will Trent Series #11)

by Karin Slaughter

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

After That Night continues the growing legacy of Will Trent by peppering in a slew of twists and turns that you’ll never see coming. Karin Slaughter’s ability to keep readers hooked by the whims of her words is remarkable. This is a thriller layered with depth and emotion.

WATCH WILL TRENT ON ABC!

“Enter the world of Karin Slaughter. Just be forewarned, there’s no going back.” —Lisa Gardner

Will Trent and Sara Linton are back in an electrifying thriller featuring GBI investigator Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton from New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter

After that night, everything changed . . .

Fifteen years ago, Sara Linton’s life changed forever when a celebratory night out ended in a violent attack that tore her world apart. Since then, Sara has remade her life. A successful doctor, engaged to a man she loves, she has finally managed to leave the past behind her.

Until one evening, on call in the ER, everything changes. Sara battles to save a broken young woman who’s been brutally attacked. But as the investigation progresses, led by GBI Special Agent Will Trent, it becomes clear that Dani Cooper’s assault is uncannily linked to Sara’s.

And the past isn’t going to stay buried forever . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063157798
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Series:	Will Trent Series
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	18,732
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

KARIN SLAUGHTER is one of the world’s most popular storytellers. She is the author of more than twenty instant New York Times bestselling novels, including the Edgar-nominated Cop Town and standalone novels The Good Daughter and Pretty Girls. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her is now a #1 Netflix original series starring Toni Collette, Will Trent is now a television series starring Ramón Rodríguez on ABC, and further projects are in development for television. Karin Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.

Editorial Reviews

Grueling, pitiless, yet compassionate…. It’s a signal achievement of Slaughter that the climactic revelations add still another layer of horror to her tale.”  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on After That Night

“Slaughter’s fans will be avid for the latest in this bestselling series, while its costar, state investigator Will Trent, has inspired a show on ABC, further expanding Slaughter’s already vast audience.”  — Booklist (starred review) on After That Night

“It is a sign of Karin Slaughter’s skill that although there is far more talk than action this novel is never less than nail-biting…. The final twist—a touch of ironic genius—will make your jaw drop.”  — London Times (UK) on After That Night

“An irresistible thriller powered by righteous anger.” — The Mail on Sunday on After That Night

“Karin Slaughter raises her game with every book. After That Night is compulsive reading.” — Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go

“Karin Slaughter always keeps me hooked and Girl, Forgotten is no exception. Totally worthy of a no interruptions, read-all-day bingeathon.” — Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“It just doesn’t get any better than this five-star story.”
— Mystery & Suspense Magazine on After That Night

“It is a sign of Karin Slaughter’s skill that although there is far more talk than action this novel is never less than nail-biting … The final twist — a touch of ironic genius — will make your jaw drop.” — Times

“[Slaughter] brings her trademark intensity to every relationship she lays bare. Like touching a live wire that continues across three generations.” — Kirkus Reviews on Girl, Forgotten

“Layer upon layer of mystery, a great cast of characters, and some genuinely startling twists. This is Slaughter at her best.” — Booklist (starred review) on Girl, Forgotten

“Slaughter skillfully leads readers on a thrilling journey into the past to solve the murder that a small town wants to forget, yet is still haunted by.”  — Library Journal (starred review) on Girl, Forgotten

“Gripping.... Slaughter reliably entertains.” — Publishers Weekly on Girl, Forgotten

“Cunningly conceived and written . . . Deeply satisfying.” — Washington Post on False Witness

“Annnnd she does it again. Slaughter’s latest high-stakes thriller follows a defense attorney whose dark past is coming back to haunt her—all thanks to a new client she’s called in to represent days before his trial. There’s deception, sabotage, violence, family secrets . . . all the stuff you could want from a fictional page-turner, really.” — theSkimm on False Witness

“Karin Slaughter’s False Witness is a twisty, searingly contemporary mystery steeped in a dark past, and she weaves a story that catches your breath and keeps you gasping and guessing until the end.”  — Stacey Abrams, author of While Justice Sleeps, on False Witness

“Slaughter offers us a high-stakes thriller that handles the tragedy of addiction with empathy and grace. Her heroines are believable, flawed and courageous.” — Oyinkan Braithwaite, award-winning author of My Sister, The Serial Killer, on False Witness

“All of Slaughter’s books... are satisfyingly surprising and plausible, but it’s Slaughter’s prodigious gifts of characterization that make her stand out among thriller writers…Slaughter’s satirical touches are as deft as her grimmer renditions of real life.” — Washington Post on Pieces of Her

“The ever-popular crime novelist is back with another pulse-pounding standalone, this one considering the twisted relationship between a mother and a daughter after the latter realizes she may not know the woman who gave birth to her at all.” — Entertainment Weekly on Pieces of Her

“Expect from a Karin Slaughter crime thriller . . . just the right amount of twists, turns, shocks, surprises and domestic thrill and shrill.”   — Parade

“The success of writers like Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins and Karin Slaughter isn’t just due to the fact that they’re women. . . . It’s about writers comprehending why women are so compelled by stories about brutal, graphic violence in the first place.” — The Atlantic

“Her talent is the equivalent of an Edgar Allan Poe or a Nathaniel Hawthorne . . . An exemplary storyteller, weaving her words with skill and intelligence. She will be recognized as one of the great talents of the 21st century and will hold an honored place in the realm of world literature.” — Huffington Post

“One of the boldest thriller writers working today.” — Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author

“Her characters, plot, and pacing are unrivaled among thriller writers, and if you haven’t yet read her, this is the moment.” — Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author

From the Publisher

08/21/2023

Bestseller Slaughter’s disappointing 11th entry featuring Georgia investigator Will Trent (after 2020’s The Silent Wife) traces the fallout from a sexual assault. Doctor Sara Linton (from Slaughter’s Grant County series) is working at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital when 19-year-old Dani Cooper is admitted with fatal injuries from a car accident. Sara also recognizes signs of rape, which Dani confirms with her dying breaths. Having been raped herself 15 years earlier, Sara vows to bring Dani’s assailant to justice. Three years later, Sara prepares to go on the stand in a case against Tommy McCallister, who’s been charged with Dani’s assault; meanwhile, Tommy’s parents, multimillionaire doctors Britt and Mac McCallister, pressure Dani’s family into accepting a settlement that will keep Tommy out of jail. Sara enlists Trent—her fiancé—and his investigative partner Faith Mitchell to dig up information about the McCallisters, and they stumble on a bombshell piece of information that may reframe Sara’s own assault. Slaughter is hardly in top form here: the repetitive, protracted plot hinges on too many coincidences and easy confessions. Fans will hope for a return to form the next time out. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

An irresistible thriller powered by righteous anger.”

Mail on Sunday (London)

Kathleen Early delivers a captivating performance…Listeners will be enthralled by the twists and turns of the investigation…[and] nonstop engagement from start to finish. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”

AudioFile

This novel is never less than nail-biting...[and a] scorching depiction of toxic masculinity...The final twist—a touch of ironic genius— will make your jaw drop.”

The Times (London)

Karin Slaughter raises her game with every book. After That Night is compulsive reading.”

author of I Let You Go Clare Mackintosh

Will Trent knows the ins and outs of the human condition as well as he knows Atlanta. Which is to say, very well. Be charmed and prepared to ‘feel seen’ when Will’s on the case.”

Barnes&Noble.com

08/01/2023

In her 11th Will Trent novel (following The Silent Wife), Slaughter skillfully weaves misogyny, wealth, violence, power, and control into a thrilling police procedural while poignantly addressing the lasting effects of trauma and the toll cases take on investigators. Emergency-room doctor Sara Linton's patient, raped and beaten, speaks her last words: "Stop him. Please stop him." Three years later, Sara, now a medical examiner at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, is testifying at the civil trial of the man believed to be responsible, when the mother of the defendant (a former colleague of Sara's) tells her that this case and Sara's sexual assault years earlier are connected. With a renewed commitment to justice for her late patient, the abduction of another woman, and the need to know how the assaults are connected, Sara, her fiancé Will Trent, and Will's partner Faith embark on an off-the-books investigation to stop a serial rapist. The case reveals a conspiracy of the rich and powerful intent on getting away with rape, forcing Sara, Will, and Faith to confront their pasts to move forward with the investigation and with their lives. VERDICT This title will appeal to fans of S.A. Cosby, Laura Lippman, and Stacey Abrams.—George Lichman

Library Journal

★ 2023-05-24
Another violent crime in Atlanta provokes another deep dive into the tormented past of Slaughter’s regulars.

Three years after Dani Cooper, 19, crashes into an ambulance, gets taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, mutters to pediatrician/medical examiner Sara Linton that she thinks she’s been raped, and then dies, Thomas Michael McAllister IV is placed on trial for her assault. Since Sara’s the only person who heard Dani’s gasping recollection, she’s the star witness, and she fully expects Douglas Fanning—the sharklike lawyer retained by pediatric surgeon Mac McAllister and his wife, Britt, to protect their well-sheltered son—to force her to testify about her own rape 15 years ago, which resulted in an ectopic pregnancy that ended any chance she might have had of bearing children. Fanning drills Sara unmercifully but doesn’t bring up her history. Even more surprisingly, Britt McAllister, when Sara encounters her in the courthouse restroom, smugly informs her: “What happened to you. What happened to Dani. It’s all connected.” Indeed it is, and in order to work out the connections, Sara, who identified her rapist as janitor Jack Allen Wright, will have to work with her fiance, Will Trent, and his partner, Faith Mitchell of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, to dig deeper. Their goal: to figure out which fellow medical student who attended a fateful mixer all those years ago—a group Sara’s now come to think of as the Rape Club—was behind the assault on Dani and a potentially endless list of other victims. These horrors may seem too unspeakable to pin down to any one perpetrator. It’s a signal achievement of Slaughter that the climactic revelations add still another layer of horror to her tale.

A grueling, pitiless, yet compassionate anatomy of rape for readers who can take it.

Kirkus Reviews