I think I complained that the last few Karin Slaughter books I read had felt a little more watered down than her earlier books. Um I think she maybe heard me because that was not an issue here. This book feels like a return to my favorites of hers, the earliest books in this series. It also doesn't hurt that my favorite character, Lena Adams, is back.

One thing I don't like and never like in this series is the drama between Will and Sara. They're romantically involved and have been romantically involved for like six books and four years. Every book there's one small issue they have that has them passive aggressively fighting the entire book only to be solved in half a conversation at the end. It's so completely unnecessary. It's never a big part of the book, but I wish Slaughter would just chill and let them be cool for a minute. There's enough drama in the case that you don't need the romantic drama too. And it's always some lame miscommunication that doesn't need to exist at all.

But onto the positives. Lena Adams. My favorite. I love her role in these books so much. Lena is a cop, just like all the other characters, but they all hate her. Like so much. It's not a book with Lena unless she gets called a heinous bitch at least twelve times. Literally both of the main cops had to be kicked out of her house to stop from physically assaulting her while she was eight months pregnant. Lena sucks as a person and a cop. She's lazy and selfish and does dumb things because she cares more about her badge than other people. But the main characters aren't golden children either. They literally watched a man beat a chained prisoner and then looked the beaten man in the face and said they didn't see anything. It's hilarious to me because Lena is hardly worse than they are and none of them see it. She wasn't in this book much, but I just think her presence improves everything.

I also quite liked the actually crimes they were investigating. They were brutal and graphic and horrible, even in the context of thrillers. It was all so awful, but honestly I read these books because I want something awful.

I also guessed who the killer was pretty early on, but I'm always a bit pleased by that. I don't mind being surprised, but I'm good at guessing and this wasn't an obvious twist.

I don't know what more to say. This is the tenth book in the Will Trent series and I've reviewed them all. If you like cop thrillers full of unlikable characters and horrible graphic crimes, you should probably give Slaughter a go. She's one of my favorite thriller authors and this is by far my favorite cop thriller series. This is a good addition and it makes me pleased that this book seems an improvement on the last couple. Not that they were bad (Slaughter at her worst is still better than most at their best, imo), but they seemed lacking in a way this book does not. It's just a good read.