With “We Are All Guilty Here,” acclaimed author Karin Slaughter kicks off a new series set in rural Georgia and featuring Emmy Clifton, a deputy sheriff. There’s something very satisfying about reading the first book in a new series by a favorite author. The first book in a series provides important background information about the characters and their relationships and their backstories. Subsequent mysteries will, of course, fill in enough details so that future stories make sense on their own, but I believe having read the very first novel provides special insight.
The story begins twelve years in the past as we witness the abduction of Madison Dalrymple, on the night of her fifteenth birthday, the 4th of July. Her best friend Cheyenne had already been kidnapped. Emmy Clifton, attending the fireworks, had talked briefly with Madison, who was the daughter of Emmy’s very best friend Hannah. But when Madison approached Emmy a bit later, Emmy was on the way to the bathroom and brushed her off. It was the last time she would see Madison alive.
Slaughter takes us, step by step, through the process as Emmy; her father Gerald, the sheriff; and others work frantically to find the girls. They are racing against time to find them alive. Slaughter uses the narrative to explain the relationships in Emmy’s family. The two siblings, Martha and Henry, who died in their teens. Tommy, her much older brother, and his wife Celia. They both work in the public school, and they are very close to Gerald, Emmy’s mother Myrna, and Emmy.
Emmy is married to Jonas, a wastrel musician and serial pot smoker. He lives in the house that Emmy pays for, eats the food that she buys, drives the car that she makes the payments on, and occasionally deigns to help care for the son that she bore him. They began dating in middle school, and it’s difficult to understand the attraction and what keeps her in the marriage. Her best friend Hannah has been begging Emmy to leave Jonas for years.
The first third of the novel ends in an emotional scene as Emmy finds the two girls. Then, the novel moves twelve years forward. We see the results from the investigation of the double kidnapping and trial of the purported killer of the two teenagers. Another teenager is kidnapped in an eerily similar event. She was riding her bicycle, was hit by a car, and then abducted. Her mangled bicycle was found. She was not.
Again, it’s a race to find the kidnapped girl before she is killed. Slaughter lays out the average timeline in which we learn the very depressing fact that after 24 hours, few kidnapped victims are still alive. As Emmy races to find suspects, to interview all those who might be involved, a new character appears.
Jude Archer has worked for decades at the FBI. She is a PhD psychologist and most recently worked for years to find the victims of a depraved serial killer who left the bodies of the young women in a huge National Park. She finally found the last one when she saw the news about the abducted girl in Georgia. She flies to Clifton County, home of the Clifton clan and more particularly, Emmy Clifton, to offer her help.
Along the way, Slaughter offers us insights that make us stop wondering about this particular crime, but rather consider the universal truths of what she says. For example, “Every kid gets a different set of parents, even if they grow up in the same house.” I stopped to consider that. I am from a family with five children, and boy did that sentence ring true. The parents Emmy grew up with were very different from the parents that the three older siblings had. In fact, it’s difficult to reconcile what we learn, with the parents we see interacting with Emmy at the start of the novel.
At another point in the story, Jude points out that all the kidnapped girls had controlling parents. She says, “the thing about controlling parents is that they are teaching their children how to be controlled.” Again, an insightful piece of commentary. If we teach children to think for themselves, to wonder, to be curious, then we are teaching them that they are in control of their destiny, their lives, and that they have the power to make their own decisions. If we teach them to listen to their elders, their “betters,” we are teaching the opposite. And, of course, it’s usually girls who are taught to listen, to not be assertive, to not question authority.
Even if you have suspicious about who might be the culprit, I guarantee that you will still be surprised by the final outcome. Actually, there are several surprises throughout the book. And at the end of the book, I felt connected enough with the characters, especially Emmy and Jude, that I can’t wait to see what the next book brings. I’m thrilled I started this series right from the beginning!
Please note: This review is based on the final, hardcover book provided by William Morrow, the publisher, for review purposes.