Review: The Last Widow (by Karin Slaughter)

My Rating:  4 stars

 

I normally don’t like to jump into a series in the middle without having read all of the previous books, as I’m pretty big on character development and the concern is always that I won’t be able to relate much to the characters due to missing out on so much of their backstory.  Given this concern, I was a bit apprehensive at first when I received an ARC of Karin Slaughter’s latest thriller The Last Widow, which is actually book 9 in the Will Trent series and also features characters from the previous Grant County series, neither of which I have read before.  On top of that, I’ve also never read this author before, despite the fact that she is one of the most popular writers in the mystery/thriller genre and I’ve had several of her books on my TBR list for awhile. 

My original intention was to start from the beginning of the series and read my way through to the current one so I could familiarize myself with the characters’ backstories, but of course with the time crunch I was under, that didn’t end up happening, so I made the last-minute decision to jump right into this one and hope for the best.  Well, it turns out I needn’t have worried, as the character and relationship development in this particular installment were excellent – Slaughter included enough details from the main characters Will Trent and Sara Linton’s backstories that I was able to read this as a standalone without feeling confused or that something was missing.  More than that though, I actually became enamored with both characters and liked them to the point that, by the end of the book, I really wanted to read all the previous installments in this series so I could see for myself how Will and Sara’s relationship evolved as well as understand their respective histories individually before they became a couple.

From a plot and story perspective, this was an intense, action-packed read, one that I found myself unable to put down after starting it.  My review will be deliberately vague where the plot is concerned, as the book summary already provides enough information in this regard, plus as a thriller, it’s best to go into this one knowing as little as possible. With that said though, I do have to mention that the story was a lot more violent and graphic than I expected, so if that’s a concern, then definitely be warned.  For me personally, the subject matter was also outside the realm of what I usually read, so it would seem that I’d have difficulty getting into the story, but Slaughter is such a powerful storyteller that, a few pages in, I was already drawn into and hooked on the story.  One of the things that I still can’t get over after having finished reading this is how timely the story was given the current world we live in — there was a huge “ripped from the headlines” realistic feel to so many of the events that occurred in the story, which is a testament to the astounding amount of research that Slaughter put into her work.  

This is a book that I’m sure fans of the Will Trent series will enjoy, though it also works extremely well as a stand-alone, so if, like me, you haven’t yet read the previous books in the series, I still recommend diving into this one sooner rather than later; for fans of fast-paced, intense, well-written thrillers, this one is pretty much a must-read!  I know for me, I definitely can’t wait to read the next book in this series, though hopefully by the time the next one comes out, I will have caught up with this series’ backlist first!

Received ARC from William Morrow (HarperCollins) via NetGalley.