Emmy Clifton works as a cop for a small town police force. At the start of the novel, she’s at the town’s fourth of July celebrations. She picks a fight with her no-good husband, then brushes off Madison, her friend’s teenage daughter. And then Madison disappears along with her friend Cheyenne. All that is found are the girls’ discarded bikes, and a large puddle of blood.
Slaughter rose to fame with her Grant County series, and those books will always have a special place in my heart. They were violent, yes, but the characters carried the series. Sara Linton annoys me to no end, but Jeffrey and Lena were some of the most interesting fictional people I’ve ever encountered within the genre. However, having violent crime upon violent crime committed in such a small town is more than a little implausible, so Slaughter eventually abandoned the series in favour of her Will Trent books, which take place in Atlanta and make the ceaseless violence a bit more believable. With We Are All Guilty Here, Slaughter returns to a small town setting. Everyone knows everyone and Emmy’s surname carries clout. Therefore, the idea that a killer lives in their midst is all the more terrifying.
Slaughter generally knows what she’s doing, and there are things at which she excels. Her books are always fast paced, but never at the detriment of the plot or the characters. She can build a tension arc like no other. Her books generally have messy but loving family and relationship dynamics. The plots are taut and, barring a few exceptions, fairly unpredictable. The small-town setting adds an interesting layer, with years-long friendship intertwined with conflicts that date back decades, torrid affairs, sullied reputations and spoken and unspoken judgement. Slaughter resists the temptation to make the place into a snakepit, nor does she idealise the setting. Stars Hollow, this ain’t.
Emmy, as the protagonist, is likeable enough, though as a character she could do with a bit more fleshing out (I was intrigued by her messy yet surprisingly wholesome relationship with a local lawyer). Her son Cole, who also works as a police officer, is actually kind of adorable without being grating. FBI Agent Jude Archer is badass, and any man who doesn’t know how to write a badass female character would do well to have a look at her. The dynamics between the three work surprisingly well. It’s also rather refreshing to have a book where most of the main characters are middle aged women, or women approaching middle age. It’s an underappreciated demographic.
It’s not perfect. Slaughter, for one, writes about rape so much that it’s a little worrisome at this point. I know that she has said that she wants to highlight violence against women, but it’s a little too gratuitous for that and besides, there are other crimes against women; why not write about those? It’s also very dramatic and, at times, a little overwrought. Emmy isn’t a bad character, but she spends most of the book in the throes of panic and that doesn’t aid her development. Some of the minor characters, such as Emmy’s force-majeure cousin Taybee, are fun and intriguing, but others are a little clichéd. The girls go missing in the first chapter of the book, and I feel like a bit of background and a slower start would have allowed the audience to get a better feel for the characters. Then again, nothing in this book is underdone; neither the violence nor the interpersonal dynamics, nor the dialogues. It’s the antithesis to cozy crime.
I’m curious to see where Slaughter will take us; she’s announced that this is the first installment in a new series. As someone who thinks that the Will Trent series has run its course, I enjoy that idea, but I wish Slaughter had taken a little bit more time to flesh things out before dialing things up to eleven. Aside from that, it’s a well-written thriller that’s great if you’re in the mood for something bombastic.
But please, Karin, from a long-time fan: lay off the rape stories.
Needless to say, this book carries a few trigger warnings: sexual assault, paedophilia, torture, child murder, cancer, alcoholism and I probably forgot a few.