Fractured (Will Trent, #2)

Title: Fractured (Will Trent, #2)

Author: Karin Slaughter

Published in: 2008

Date read: 12th August 2023

Score: 5/5

Genre: Crime, Detective, Thriller

Plot: (Warning, may contain spoilers):
"Fractured" by Karin Slaughter is the second novel in her Will Trent series, plunging Special Agent Will Trent into a complex and gruesome murder investigation that quickly spirals into a kidnapping and a web of dark family secrets in an affluent Atlanta neighbourhood.

The story begins with a horrifying scene: Abigail Campano, an Atlanta housewife, returns home unexpectedly to find a broken window, a bloody footprint on the stairs, and a man standing over the seemingly dead body of her teenage daughter. In a desperate act of self-defence, Abigail kills the man with her bare hands.

However, when Special Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) arrives on the scene, he immediately senses that something is amiss. His sharp, almost intuitive understanding of crime scenes, despite his struggles with dyslexia, leads him to notice crucial details that the local police have missed. What initially appears to be a straightforward case of a mother defending her daughter quickly unravels into a much more intricate and disturbing mystery.

Trent discovers that the dead girl is not Abigail's daughter, Emma, but Emma's best friend, Kayla. Furthermore, the man Abigail killed was already dying from a knife wound, indicating that there was another perpetrator. Most chillingly, Emma Campano herself is missing, presumed kidnapped.

Will is assigned a new partner for this case, Detective Faith Mitchell from the Atlanta Police Department. Faith harbors a deep resentment towards Trent, as he was instrumental in uncovering a police corruption scandal that led to her own mother's forced retirement. This tension creates a challenging dynamic between the two, but they must learn to work together to find Emma and the true killer.

As Trent and Mitchell delve into the lives of the wealthy Campano family and their friends, they uncover layers of secrets, lies, and dysfunction. They realize that the abduction and murders are connected to events at a prestigious private high school attended by Emma and Kayla, and to a manipulative figure who exploited the vulnerabilities of several teenagers. The investigation forces them to confront the dark underbelly of a privileged community.

The climax of "Fractured" is a tense race against time to locate Emma and apprehend the actual killer. Trent and Mitchell must piece together fragmented clues, navigating a treacherous path of deceit and violence, ultimately revealing a disturbing motive rooted in manipulation and long-held resentments. The novel is a chilling exploration of the façade of perfect lives, the devastating impact of secrets, and the lengths to which people will go to protect their image and their twisted desires.

Comments:
Brilliant story - fantastic throughout but...I just want to mention that, although I have watched the TV adaptation, I am not pleased with the direction that they have taken. I love the TV version of the characters, particularly Amanda Wagner, but the two that I cannot warm to because of the books are Angie and Ormewood.

Books that we've read by Karin Slaughter (18):
Blindsighted (Grant County, #1) (2001), Kisscut (Grant County, #2) (2002), A Faint Cold Fear (Grant County, #3) (2003), Indelible (Grant County, #4) (2004), Faithless (Grant County, #5) (2005), Triptych (Will Trent, #1) (2006), Skin Privilege (Grant County, #6) (2007), Fractured (Will Trent, #2) (2008), Genesis (Will Trent, #3) (2009), Broken (Will Trent, #4) (2010), Fallen (Will Trent, #5) (2011), Criminal (Will Trent, #6) (2012), Unseen (Will Trent, #7) (2013), The Kept Woman (Will Trent, #8) (2016), The Last Widow (Will Trent, #9) (2019), The Silent Wife (Will Trent, #10) (2020), After That Night (Will Trent, #11) (2023), This Is Why We Lied (Will Trent, #12) (2024)