Our favorite detective, Special Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations and his now-fiancee, medical examiner Sara Linton, are trying to solve several crimes that aren’t officially on the books in Karin Slaughter’s latest thriller, “After that Night.” This novel, like Slaughter’s many other books, offers much to its readers. We are immersed in the action as Trent and Linton and Trent’s partner Faith MItchell work behind the scenes to try to connect several rapes that occurred years apart.
Slaughter also brilliantly shares the backstory of these main characters without being heavy-handed (often a risk because this is a series) or worse, leaving us not knowing their background. We really come to like these people over the course of the novel, and we care about what happens to them. Additionally, Slaughter shares some tough insight into what rape victims endure both during the rape and, perhaps just as horribly, afterward.
Rape is the subject of this investigation, and two women died as a result of their rapes. Sara Linton is also dealing with the flashbacks this brings reminding her of her own rape fifteen years previously. In fact, one of the attacks they are investigating occurred just two weeks before Sara was attacked. The men they suspect of involvement are all people whom she knew from medical school. One is the doctor who received the fellowship Sara had been promised just before she was raped. She then couldn’t accept it because of injuries that resulted from that attack. One of the victims of the rapes is someone Sara tried to help, but who died on the operating table. Sara had made her a promise to find her rapist and bring him to justice.
Little did Sara realize what a tangled web she would be unraveling when she and Trent begin the investigation. Some of the most affluent physicians in Atlanta might be involved, and it’s up to the three of them to figure out how, and to get enough evidence to bring it to their superior, Amanda, so they can start investigating officially.
Along the way, we learn some harsh statistics about rape. How many rapes aren’t reported. How few rapists are convicted. Women might not be surprised to learn that if the victim is “too pretty,” the jurors at trial might think she was asking for it, while if the woman isn’t “pretty enough,” they won’t believe her. And the men in the novel seem all too disgustingly realistic in their arrogant dismissal of women and their attempts to reduce women to body parts, like “big titties” or other pejorative terms.
Some of the narrative is chilling, as when Slaughter points out that often, monsters hide in plain sight among us. She writes, “A hospitalist, a cardiothoracic surgeon, a nephrologist. They all looked so normal, like the sort of people you would trust.” And while much of the novel points out how women are ignored, lied to, and not believed, she effectively further stresses that point when Faith Mitchell tells Trent that, “I’m raising a daughter in a world where people will either blame her or ignore her if she’s drugged and raped, in a state that would let her die of a placental abruption…”
Yet in spite of the violence and the depressing topic itself, the story is also filled with hope and love. The three main characters have people they care for, people they would do anything for. While they deal in some of the worst society has to offer, they are also often upbeat. Slaughter includes some humor in the situations and dialogue. Her characters aren’t perfect, but they can see themselves clearly and know what their imperfections are. They are, on the whole, very likable. We can relate to them.
The books in this series are highly regarded, and that is why there is also a Will Trent series on ABC, although the characters in the show are physically different from those in the books. It’s tricky, because if, like me, you’ve watched the series, in a sense it doesn’t matter how Slaughter describes them; we are seeing the characters from the screen in our minds. And if you’ve fallen for Betty, no worries, She’s in this book as well. Even if you haven’t read any of the Will Trent series before, you can jump right in with this one and not feel lost. In fact, you’ll probably get hooked and want to go back and read them all. Have fun.
This review is based on the final, hardcover book provided by William Morrow, the publisher, for review purposes.