Book Review — The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter

“She’s buying time.”
“For what?”
“That’s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question, isn’t it?”

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So you guys all know I’m a romance reader at heart. I crave reading about love stories. I want to feeeeeeel all the feels, I want to swooooooon and squeeeeee over the sweetness (yes, the extra letters were needed for emphasis), I want my heart to break a little, then be put back together. BUT. I also sometimes need a mental breather. Y’know?

Sometimes you just need to hit refresh mentally and emotionally in my experience as a reader. And I accomplish this by stepping outside of my usual happy book place and reading a book from another genre. My second favorite genre to romance is thrillers and mysteries so today, when I was feeling the need for a palate cleanser, I read this book.

Two years back, I read another psychological thriller/mystery by this author that I was really impressed with called Pretty Girls (my review) and what I was most struck by was how STRONG a writer Karin Slaughter was. Like seriously. She immediately went on my list of authors to read more of and so back when this book was released I bought a copy and it has been just waiting for the perfect mood to read it. That turned out to be today for me.

This book is basically a murder mystery. It’s a complex whodunnit that almost feels like… okay, imagine if a Criminal Minds were made into a movie but was presented in a book formate. Lol. Make sense? It’s an intricate story with a lot going on but in a mystery that just made it that much more interesting because honestly I had no idea who dunnit at all and I loved that it kept me guessing.

“Husbands and wives. Mothers and daughters. The past and the future.

Secrets bind them. And secrets can destroy them.

The author of Pretty Girls returns with an electrifying, emotionally complex thriller that plunges its fascinating protagonist into the darkest depths of a mystery that just might destroy him.

With the discovery of a murder at an abandoned construction site, Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is brought in on a case that becomes much more dangerous when the dead man is identified as an ex-cop.

Studying the body, Sara Linton—the GBI’s newest medical examiner and Will’s lover—realizes that the extensive blood loss didn’t belong to the corpse. Sure enough, bloody footprints leading away from the scene indicate there is another victim—a woman—who has vanished . . . and who will die soon if she isn’t found.

Will is already compromised, because the site belongs to the city’s most popular citizen: a wealthy, powerful, and politically connected athlete protected by the world’s most expensive lawyers—a man who’s already gotten away with rape, despite Will’s exhaustive efforts to put him away.

But the worst is yet to come. Evidence soon links Will’s troubled past to the case . . . and the consequences will tear through his life with the force of a tornado, wreaking havoc for Will and everyone around him, including his colleagues, family, friends—and even the suspects he pursues.

Relentlessly suspenseful and furiously paced, peopled with conflicted, fallible characters who leap from the page, The Kept Woman is a seamless blend of twisty police procedural and ingenious psychological thriller — a searing, unforgettable novel of love, loss, and redemption.”

I found this to be an addictive, compelling, intriguing story that was constantly evolving and bringing new developments into the light alone with little twists that would pop up to spiral the story in a new direction. I also really like her storytelling style. Her books are very informative — they don’t assume you know anything so you’re never confused, but they also don’t bore you with needless explanations. Instead they present something, explain it, and move forward. Her characters are intelligent and perceptive, and the mystery is well crafted. There were a couple slower parts to the story but for the most part I was deeply engrossed and wanted to keep on reading.

You can read this book as a complete standalone. I learned (after I started reading it) that it’s also part of the Will Trent series but honestly you can read this alone and don’t need to know anything else to understand this book.

I know this isn’t my usual review style, but it’s also not my usual genre of choice. The more I thought about reviewing this book the way I normally do it, the more I realized that no matter what I said, I’d be giving something away so all in all, I think it boils down to this:

Whether you’re either a romance reader looking for something different to read or a thriller novel lover, I recommend checking this book out if you’re in the mood to read a really solid, well written murder mystery!

Rating: 4-4.5 stars! Contemporary Thriller/Mystery, can standalone.

• Buy THE KEPT WOMAN (Kindle)
• Buy THE KEPT WOMAN (Paperback)
• Buy THE KEPT WOMAN (Hardcover)
• Buy THE KEPT WOMAN (Audiobook)
• Buy THE KEPT WOMAN (iBooks)