Latest news with #WeAreAllGuiltyHere
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Book review: Karin Slaughter revisits familiar territory — but this time it's personal
Readers familiar with Karin Slaughter's Grant County and Will Trent series, or her three standalone thrillers, will be delighted with this, the first of a new series. It's set in the fictional North Falls, a small town where everyone seems to know everyone else and is reminiscent of the rural Georgia scenery of her Grant County. Emmy Clifton belongs to a family which has dominated the town for decades. Her father Gerald is the sheriff and, when we first meet her, she is a young police officer struggling with a failing marriage to a husband who is a useless parent to their young son. Another challenge she is facing is her mother Myrna's failing health. Two teenage girls, Madison and Cheyenne, go missing the night the town is celebrating the Fourth of July with a fireworks display. For Emmy, the quest to find them is personal. Distracted by a row with her husband, she turned Madison away when she sought help; the teenager is the stepdaughter of her best friend Hannah, and Emmy has known her since she was little. As Emmy investigates, she quickly realises that, like most teenagers, the girls have secrets, but they are not the only ones, they are surrounded by adults, including members of her own family, who are not always telling the truth. When the bodies of the girls are found, the murder investigation intensifies. 'We Are All Guilty Here' by Karin Slaughter The novel jumps forward 12 years to the present. Emmy is divorced, she's become her father's deputy, and her son Cole has become a police officer. Emmy and Hannah's friendship has not recovered. She and her father have consoled themselves with the fact they succeeded in catching the killer — but did they? He is released from jail when a new witness comes forward. Shortly afterwards, another girl disappears. In this second part of the novel, Slaughter introduces a new character, Jude, an FBI agent known for her success in hunting down child predators. She appears to be taking a surprising interest in the latest disappearance, arriving in North Falls to help find the teenager. Readers will be surprised to discover her motivation. Emmy begins to wonder if she and her father locked up the wrong man. That's painful for her as she admires her father so much. When the original suspect is released, it forces her and those working with her to revisit the original investigation. Emmy is driven by instinct and very much influenced by her father. Gradually, she begins to suspect that maybe someone pointed the police in the wrong direction 12 years before, and is trying to do so again. As each layer is peeled away, the suspense builds up. As fans familiar with her work expect, Slaughter does a great job developing the characters and their lives, so readers feel they know the Clifton family and community of North Falls. The Clifton family are as messy as they are fascinating, and hopefully we will learn more about some of them in future novels in the series. Slaughter's writing always reflects real life, this time touching on sexual assault, child abuse, and exploitation. She is adept at exposing the complexities of relationships, between family and friends, and exploring how misunderstandings develop. In this novel, she exposes how easily tensions can develop between parents and teenagers as the young people try to become independent. The novel ends in an interesting place for several characters, which means its sequel will be eagerly anticipated. For now, enjoy this absorbing read.
Los Angeles Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Will Trent' author takes charge with new book series and ‘Good Daughter' TV adaptation
As Karin Slaughter talks about her new thriller book series, 'We Are All Guilty Here,' she's equally wry, reflective and ready take off on a whole new level. Her success is formidable: 24 novels have sold more than 40 million copies and been translated into 120 languages. They include the Grant County series featuring Sara Linton, a small-town pediatrician and medical examiner, which was followed by another centering on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Will Trent. The Will Trent series is the basis for the hit ABC TV series starring Ramón Rodriguez that was recently renewed for Season 4. Add to that a half dozen standalones, including 'Pieces of Her,' adapted into a 2022 Netflix series starring Toni Collette, and an upcoming Peacock adaptation of 'The Good Daughter,' and Slaughter's rise to the present moment makes sense. Two things are striking when talking to Slaughter over Zoom from her second home near the small town of Blue Ridge, Ga.: One, the massive deep-purple bookshelves that cover the entire back wall of her office and almost dwarf the petite writer do not resemble the brag walls I've seen in some writers' offices. Slaughter's bookcase — which she reveals she designed herself — includes work by Southern writers she admires and champions. (More on that later.) Two, she seems very much at ease as she prepares to launch the new book in the midst of a grueling schedule to bring 'The Good Daughter' to the small screen as a limited series next year. Pretty impressive for a writer who mentions that, early on, she sold only three books at a book conference where she appeared alongside the late mystery legend Mary Higgins Clark, who sold 'about 12,000 books.' Slaughter laughs at her exaggeration, but it's clear that it was a humbling experience. 'I was sneaking out the back with my tail between my legs,' she remembers, 'and Mary caught up to me, took some cash out of her wallet and said, 'I want to buy one of your books.'' It was an act of generosity that Slaughter has paid forward many times over as she's bought the books of lesser-known writers and championed their work, both in the U.S. and the U.K. But Southern writers are where Slaughter's heart is, her face lighting up as she talks about her favorites. 'My life changed when I read Flannery O'Connor,' she explains. 'I was a very strange little girl who didn't quite fit in and who wrote these really jarring, sometimes violent stories. The early ones were about my sisters being murdered or kidnapped or just disappearing. And the happy ending was always that I became an only child!' Joking aside, she adds, 'People were telling me I was weird, that what I was doing wasn't very 'ladylike.'' But when a local librarian put a book of Flannery O'Connor short stories in her hands, something shifted. 'I was like, 'Wait a minute!' she says. 'O'Connor was very weird; she lived in a small Southern town like me. She never fit in. And she was famous for writing these short stories. She created a whole freaking genre!' Later, reading Alice Walker, young Slaughter gained a deeper understanding of a world where slavery wasn't as romantic as 'Gone With the Wind' had led her to believe. 'Walker's writing was so eye-opening for me. That world was never presented to me, a little middle-class white child living in the South.' The Atlanta child murders from 1979-81 had an equally profound impact on the fledgling writer, a voracious reader of novels across all genres. 'It made me very aware of crime,' she says. 'And not just the crime itself, but how it changes communities and people, even in my idyllic small town.' How small was her hometown of Jonesboro in those days? 'When I was growing up, there was a guy on the corner of our street who had been convicted of being a pedophile. Story was, he wasn't sent to prison because he was a family man, and the prosecutors didn't want to ruin his life.' Her fingers make air quotes to emphasize the irony of the perpetrator being favored over his victims, an injustice she'd rectify decades later in her fiction. But the Atlanta child murders gripped the city and outlying suburbs like Jonesboro and changed her community's worldview. 'Before, we looked at bad people as 'different,' as a shaggy-haired stranger when we should have been looking at the guy on the corner,' Slaughter says. She explores that truth in 'We Are All Guilty Here.' Teenaged Madison Dalrymple, itching to escape with bestie Cheyenne Baker to the glamorous life in 2011 Atlanta, hates everything about her small hometown North Falls, including 70-year old Sheriff Gerald Clifton, whose 'great-great — however many greats — grandfather' was a founding father of the county. The Cliftons, especially Gerald, are treated like royalty by residents: 'Madison's dad joked that everybody who wasn't a Clifton either worked for the Cliftons or had been arrested by the Cliftons.' Gerald's daughter, Emmy, 30, is a sheriff's deputy working the town's Fourth of July fireworks show while trying to shake off an argument with her ne'er-do-well husband. In the process, she brushes off Madison, who seems desperate to talk. Hours later, Madison is missing, and a guilt-ridden Emmy, led by her father, joins other deputies racing against the clock to unravel the whereabouts of Madison and Cheyenne — with tragic results. Like many of Slaughter's novels, 'We Are All Guilty Here' is not for the squeamish — she is steadfast in her mission to realistically depict violence against women as a way of warning them about the dangers that can lurk in even the most trusting of relationships. And it wouldn't be a Karin Slaughter thriller without a few twists, not the least of which is a time jump from the disappearance of the girls until a second disappearance in North Falls 12 years later upends assumptions about the perpetrator of the first crimes and kicks off a new investigation involving an older and wiser Emmy and her son Cole, also a deputy sheriff, as well as Jude Archer, a mysterious, recently retired FBI profiler come to town to consult on the new investigation. It's a structure that shows off the veteran crime writer's meticulous plotting of a lot more than the crimes at hand. 'I planned all of it from the beginning,' she admits, relishing a discussion of some of the subtleties of the Clifton family dynamics that add depth to the novel. 'And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely unaware of the Murdaugh family when I created them.' The attention Slaughter gives to building out the world of North Falls and Clifton County in the novel also allows her to touch on issues of racism, xenophobia and homosexuality, territory also mined by other contemporary Southern writers she admires, including S.A. Cosby, Wanda Morris, Denene Millner and Connie Briscoe. 'I'm writing my Southern experience, but I also live in Atlanta, a very diverse, multicultural and vibrant city,' Slaughter says. 'I live in a state that has blood on its hands from the scourge of slavery. I live in a country that is still dealing with that. And I think that when you're writing a complicated, psychologically driven story, you have to acknowledge those things. But I don't think you have to jump up on a soapbox because readers will do their own work.' Slaughter took on a new kind of challenge when she adapted 'The Good Daughter' for NBC's streaming platform. 'It started just as a thought experiment to see if I could do it,' she says of the decision to write the 'Good Daughter' script before the book was optioned for TV. 'I didn't want to waste anybody's time.' But then Bruna Papandrea of Made Up Stories and Fifth Season came on as producing partners, and Peacock picked up the project straight-to-series. For much of the production, Slaughter was the limited series' lone writer and showrunner. Previously she served as an executive producer on 'Pieces of Her' and 'Will Trent,' but not in a hands-on way. 'On the other projects, I read the scripts and gave feedback with varying degrees of acceptance and collaboration,' she says. But for 'The Good Daughter,' Slaughter did almost everything, from script writing to making decisions on costumes and signing off on budgets. While it sounds daunting for a first-timer, Slaughter took it in stride. 'People forget that, as an author, you're really running a small business,' she explains. 'You've got to deal with contracts and business relationships with different publishers all over the world, so I felt like those skills translated. And there's a lot of hurry up and wait on book tours with the media and press junkets and book signings, so the production schedule for 'The Good Daughter' was like being on a book tour for 71 days as opposed to two weeks!' 'The Good Daughter' is the story of Charlotte and Samantha Quinn, daughters of controversial attorney Rusty Quinn, who survive a brutal invasion of their home in rural Pikesville, Ga., that's linked to one of their father's cases. The shocking crime, outlined in the book's opening chapter, is both violent and heart-wrenching, and it shatters the Quinn family and separates the sisters. Years later, they reunite when Charlie (as Charlotte is nicknamed), now a criminal attorney herself, witnesses another murder, this time a school shooting. When their father decides to defend the accused teen, it dredges up past traumas for Charlie and Sam as well as secrets Pikesville residents and the Quinn family have hidden for years. Slaughter found 'The Good Daughter' production exhilarating, working with many of the 'Will Trent' crew members as they filmed on location in and around McCaysville and Blue Ridge, where the story is set. She credits the crew, a collaborative relationship with director Steph Green and great performances — by Rose Byrne as Samantha Quinn, Meghann Fahy as Charlotte Quinn and Brendan Gleeson as their father Rusty — with making her first time as a showrunner memorable. 'Everybody really believed in this story. And I'm really proud that we were able to tell it through a woman's lens; everything that happens in the series is only told from Sam or Charlie's point of view. But it's also the first show I've ever seen that has a survivor of gun violence as a main character.' While Slaughter is mum on whether she'd undertake another showrunner role, she's excited about what's next, which definitely includes a second North Falls thriller. What's it about? 'Let's just say somebody dies and we find out why at the end,' she quips before adding more seriously, 'I know that doing all that-world building and work on my North Falls characters won't pay off until maybe next book or three books from now. It took a lot of discipline to not reveal so much, but over 24 books, I've learned to be patient and trust that readers will want to stay with me for the ride.'
Irish Independent
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
New crime novels and thrillers to read this July from Karin Slaughter to Steve Cavanagh
Reviewed this month: We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter, Karma Doll by Jonathan Ames, The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware and Two Kinds of Strangers by Steve Cavanagh Our thriller and crime critic Myles McWeeney on the best new novels to read this month.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Karin Slaughter reveals the cover of her new book 'We Are All Guilty Here,' talks replacing Jessica Biel in 'The Good Daughter' (exclusive)
At this moment, no matter the day or time, Karin Slaughter is probably writing something. The bestselling crime author will be releasing her 25th book in 25 years, We Are All Guilty Here, on Aug. 12, 2025. Yahoo Entertainment has the first look at the cover, which launches a brand-new series for the Georgia-based storyteller. 'It's a new character and a return to my roots because I'm writing about a small town in Georgia,' she said. 'I love the insularity and the familiarity of a small town, and the idea that you think you know everybody, but actually you don't. We all have this idea of big cities being scary and that bad things happen there, but the really bad things that crime writers write about happen mostly in small or medium-sized towns.' See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Slaughter's success as a suspense writer has spawned a second career as her novels have been adapted for TV. There's ABC drama Will Trent, based on her most famous character, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, going strong in its third season. Slaughter is an executive producer on the show. She's now spreading her wings further. Next week, shooting begins on her new Peacock series, The Good Daughter, based on her 2017 book of the same name, starring Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy. For the first time, Slaughter serves as showrunner in addition to writer and executive producer. 'I would say it's a delight,' she said of her broadened career path. Here, we talk about her 25th book, being the 'Wikipedia' for ABC's Will Trent, finding a replacement for Jessica Biel in The Good Daughter, her 'murder shower' and more… What can you tell us about It starts with a family called the Cliftons, and we meet Emmy and her father, Gerald, who's the sheriff of Clifton County, which is named after his family. It's my way of setting up what I think of as saga storytelling about family and connections. And obviously there's some murder. We have two young girls who go missing, and it's a race to find out not just what happened to them but why. That's something that has always interested me — as horrific as these crimes are, and obviously we should acknowledge that, there's a greater question of why, and the value that we place on young girls when they are in jeopardy versus when they're just living their lives. I wanted to talk about that dichotomy. You're known for not shying away from violence in your books — and I read on your website it's because it's important to you to spotlight the violence that women experience. Absolutely. I love [Jack Reacher thriller writer] Lee Child and guys who write crime … but I think with a female author bringing a female point of view, the violence feels more real. In some cases — not Lee obviously — it's more about the guy being a hero than the woman's journey. This isn't a blanket statement, there are exceptions. But I really thought that a voice that was missing was: How do women feel about this? Also, just explaining why women sometimes make the choices they do, and the fact that we live with this idea that violence can be visited upon us in a way that men don't live with. We tend to question women. If a man is murdered, we don't say: Well, what did you do to get murdered? But if a woman is attacked violently, it's: What was she wearing? Why was she there? These questions haven't really gone away. … We need to treat men and women who are victims of these crimes with a little more grace. With 25 books and three shows (including Netflix's miniseries in 2022), I wasn't surprised to read that you never get writer's block. That's true, but sometimes it's a bad thing because my brain is always running 100,000 miles an hour. Sometimes stories just click, and sometimes I've written enough that I know that when I get to a point and something's not working, that it's OK to stop, back away and take a nap or do whatever I need to do to reset. I actually called my shower my 'murder shower,' because I'll take a shower and it's like: 'Oh, I just need to murder this person.' It just comes together. Are you surprised about this second act making television, especially the continued success of ? I would say it's a delight. It's really just been amazing. I love Ramón Rodríguez, who plays Will Trent, and I won't list out the whole cast but they're just amazing. The writers have come up with such great stories. I'm in awe of them. We've got 18 episodes this season, and so they've got to start from scratch 18 times within a few months. They're not doing a formula, so each episode is its own thing. To me, that's just, Wow, how are they doing that? How active a role do you have on ? Are you frequently on the set as EP, or do you just keep in contact from afar. I'm their Wikipedia. They call or text and say, 'Hey, what was Amanda's mother's name?' They're great about inviting me to set and to cast dinners and things like that. I know everybody always talks about how well a particular cast gets along behind the scenes, but they honestly do and that comes from the top down with [creators] Liz [Heldens] and Daniel [T. Thomsen]. They are really all about, Let's tell the best story, do what we need to do and not be jerks about it. Ramón sets the tone for that as well. They're just a very friendly, happy group. You have a bigger job with Peacock's as showrunner, writer and executive producer. I've written all the episodes — there's going to be six — and we actually start shooting [March 18]. So I'm working with the actors, who have been flowing into town. We're shooting in Atlanta, which I really advocated for because we have a wonderful film world here. We did the table read, and it was just amazing watching these performers bring their best to these characters that I created 10 years ago in my pajamas. What are the differences between writing books and a TV series? Because I'm the showrunner for [The Good Daughter], I'm also looking at costumes and makeup and talking to the dialect coach and making sure they don't get steered in the wrong direction and sound like they're from Texas. It's work, don't get me wrong, but it's also interesting to learn new skills and to be around a lot of people. It's very collaborative, as opposed to writing a book, which I just do by myself with my editor. Then to just sit down across from Meghann Fahy, who's playing Charlie, and it's like she just walked out of the book. She so embodies the character, and she's such an amazing professional. The same with Rose Byrne. It's exactly how I thought these characters would look and behave and act. It's fascinating to see it come together. As the showrunner, you also have to deal with challenges like the exit of Jessica Biel, who was supposed to play Charlie but departed the series. Jessica is lovely and I can't be really sad about her leaving because she went to my friend Alafair Burke's show [The Better Sister]. She's just amazing and did a really great job on that, and Alafair has been my buddy forever. I've been in this business long enough to think, Well, things happen for a reason. I'm just glad it worked out and that my pal is going to have a great show too. Have you ever been in an episode of one of your shows or want to? I was in Pieces of Her [starring Toni Collette] for maybe three seconds. I had to walk — which I immediately forgot how to walk — past this gorgeous, 6-foot-tall Australian woman and was really self-conscious. I thought, If I mess up, they're gonna have to do this again and again. It was just too stressful. I thought, I'm gonna leave this to the professionals. With 25 books in 25 years, can you think down the road and speculate where you'll be when book 50 comes out circa 2050? Oh, Lord, well, I hope that I am working on book 51. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
