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I very much enjoyed this third thriller in Karin Slaughter's Will Trent series, although I'm wondering if I should have read her Grant County series first as a character with history in that series, Dr Sara Linton, has crossed over to this one in Atlanta. No problem so far but I suspect we're going to see more of her in future books.

This was a very suspenseful thriller opening with an elderly couple running into a naked woman running down the road. As well as being hit by their car, she is in a dreadful condition, after being starved, beaten and tortured in horrendous ways for several days. Special agents Will Trent and Faith Mitchell from the Georgia Bureau Investigation take over the case when they discover another victim and suspect that a recently abducted woman might also be about to undergo the same fate. It becomes a race against time to find the links between these women and the warped individual torturing them.

Karin Slaughter's thrillers are always very character driven and the relationships between the characters are key to enjoying them. Will Trent is an abandoned child who grew up and suffered abuse in the State foster system. He is dyslexic and has trouble reading, although he was smart enough to get through high school and college and uses special software to help him at work. Faith, his partner, knows of his disability and as she values him highly as a smart and honest cop, helps to cover for him when required. Will and Faith's boss also knows about his reading difficulty but despite being cold and hard-nosed is prepared to overlook it for her best detective. This episode reveals that Faith is also likely to need some help and understanding from both Will and Amanda in the future.