We Are All Guilty Here – ARC Book Review

The gripping and exciting first book in a brand new crime thriller series from the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author.

Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.

Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.

For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend’s daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.

But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.

Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?

Karin Slaughter is my auto buy thriller author. Her books are interesting, intriguing and…disturbing all mingled together. We Are All Guilty Here is the first book of the North Fall series and yes, this is a book that you actually wouldn’t want to put down.

North Falls is a small town where everyone knows everyone and everything that is happening in the town. On the night of Fourth of July, two teenage girls, Madison and Cheyenne disappears. Emmy Clifton is the last one apparently to see Madison. Madison wanted to talk to Emmy but Emmy who was having some personal issues brushed her off. And with Madison disappearing, Emmy was guilty about it. The case was personal to Emmy as Madison is the stepdaughter of her best friend Hannah. The rush to find the teenage girls was there and they eventually find the teenagers bodies floating in a pond at the back of the house. They arrest a man but then Emmy couldn’t help but feel that the two teenage girls have been hiding secrets. Twelve years later, the man is released from prison and then another girl disappears. Emmy and with the reluctant help of her FBI sister must find the girl before it’s too late, before the cycle will repeat.

I really like the way Slaughter writes–how she tactfully describes Emmy’s flows and at her determination to solve the case. The pacing was all right but tolerable in the story. Most of the characters seem to have flaws in their personal life, including Emmy. I like the way Slaughter describes the community in the small town and how nearly every single men in the town were suspects. The whole story was intriguing and page turner. Normally, Slaughter’s thriller book has some disturbing elements and this book is no surprise–the death of the teenagers particularly the detailed torture of Madison was slightly disturbing to read. Nonetheless, I like the pacing, the twists and turns and of course the ending. Slaughter knows how to pull the reder into the story.

Overall, this book is worth five stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.