The gripping and exciting first book in a brand new crime thriller series from the No.1 Sunday Timesbestselling author.

Book blurb

Welcome to North Falls. A small town where everyone knows everyone. But nobody knows the truth.

Emmy Clifton has lived here all her life. She thinks she knows her neighbours. She’s wrong.

She thinks it’s just another hot summer night: a night like any other. She’s wrong.

When her best friend’s daughter asks for help, she thinks it’s just some teenage drama. She thinks it can wait. She’s never been more wrong in her life.

As the town ignites in the wake of the girls’ disappearance, Emmy throws herself into the search. But then she realises: You never really know a town until you know its secrets.

Is Emmy ready for the truth?

My thoughts

This is a heartbreaking story which stretches over two periods of investigation more than a decade apart.

Alongside a distressing missing teenagers investigation is the relationship between Emmy, Deputy Sheriff and Gerald, Sheriff who are daughter and father. They have a good relationship. Emmy has a best friend Hannah it is her step daughter Madison who is missing with her friend Cheyenne. Some things change as a result of Emmy’s actions on the night the girls go missing.

Twelve years later we are with Emmy and her father still law enforcement in North Falls when, as a result of a podcast campaign, they hear the devastating news that a prisoner is being released. Could they really have been wrong?

Then another girl goes missing! Citizens of North Falls are incensed. Emmy and her father call for the crowd to disperse when a man shoots Gerald!

This story of how a small town deals with grief, loss and suffering. Of what happens after someone who has for years been considered the heinous perpetrator of a violent crime but then is released. Were they really wrong all those years ago? Will they find this missing girl?

They have to go right back to the beginning.

Jude is a federal agent she is retiring after years of bringing home youngsters to their families. It’s gruelling work, times are changing and it’s time for her to go. Then she hears about the North Falls incident and feels there is one last case she might be useful in doing what she is so good at doing. It’s also North Falls and time she went back.

Emmy and Jude make for an interesting and incredible duo to investigate. They have personal issues but they are both good at what they do. What they find out will be mind blowing. How they prove it brings them into dangerous situations.

A story of secrets and the fallout from finding out the truth which is a compelling, thrilling and irresistible read.

Karin Slaughter simply seems to get better with every new book and We Are All Guilty Here is no exception. It’s the first in a new series which I am looking forward to reading and seeing just where it goes. We Are All Guilty Here does stand on its own so I am hoping indeed expecting an exploration of the characters, at least the main ones – Emmy and Jude – with as always more excellent storytelling. I hope I’m right because I very much liked these two characters and there certainly seems to be plenty more to be said about them, their relationship, the missing years and what happens going forward. This is certainly a book well worth reading.

Thanks

Huge thanks to HarperCollins for providing an eCopy of We Are All Guilty Here via NetGalley in order for me to read and share my thoughts on.

Coming 19 June

20 Books of Summer

I have read We Are All Guilty Here as part of my 20 books of summer challenge.

My list of books being read for this challenge.

20 books of summer has new hosts Emma of Words and Peace and you can read all about it on Annabel’s blog including all the rules and sign up. It’s a challenge I’ve always enjoyed and am sure I’ll continue to do so. 

The challenge takes place between 1 June and 31 August 2025

Information

Publisher: ‎HarperCollins | Publication date: ‎19 Jun. 2025 | Print length: ‎448 pages

Buy: HarperCollins | Amazon | Hive | Your local bookshop | Your local library

Author

Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular storytellers. She is the author of more than twenty instant Sunday Times bestselling novels, including the Edgar-nominated Cop Town and standalone novels The Good Daughter and Pretty Girls. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her is now a #1 Netflix original series, Will Trent is now a Disney+ television series, and further projects are in development. Karin Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.

For more information visit Karin Slaughter on Karen’s website or follow her on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Also by Karin Slaughter

Blindsighted | Kisscut | A Faint Cold Fear | Indelible | Faithless | Skin Privilege*

Triptych | Fractured | Genesis* | Broken | Fallen | Criminal | Unseen | Cop Town | Pretty Girls | The Kept Woman | The Good Daughter | Pieces of Her | The Last Widow | The Silent Wife | False Witness | Girl, Forgotten | After That Night | This is Why We Lied

EBOOK ORIGINALS: Snatched | Cold, Cold Heart | Busted | Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes | Last Breath | Cleaning the Gold (with Lee Child)

NOVELLAS AND STORIES: Like a Charm (Editor) | Martin Misunderstood

Grant County series

Set in the fictional town of Heartsdale, Georgia, (in fictional Grant County) the narrative takes place from the perspective of three main characters: Sara Linton, paediatrician and part-time coroner; her ex-husband, Jeffrey Tolliver, chief of police; and his subordinate, detective Lena Adams.

The series includes Blindsighted, Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless and Beyond Reach* (also called Skin Privilege). 

Will Trent series

The Will Trent series takes place in Atlanta and features GBI special agent Will Trent, his partner Faith Mitchell, and Angie Polaski. The first two books in the series are Triptych and Fractured. Later, Sara Linton from The Grant County Series joins the Will Trent series which then continues with Undone (also known as Genesis), Broken, Fallen, Criminal, Unseen, The Kept Woman, The Last Widow, The Silent Wife, and After That Night, This is Why We Lied.

There are also two short stories featuring Will Trent – Busted and Snatched.

Standalone

Short stories