Fallen by Karin Slaughter

In Fallen, Evelyn, Faith's mother, isn't answering her phone. She supposed to be minding Faith's daughter, so Faith immediately gets suspicious. Faith rushes to her mother's house, only to find the front door open and a bizarre scene inside. Her infant daughter is hidden away in a storage shed out back while there's a dead man in one room and a hostage and gunman in another. Her mother is nowhere in sight. It's all hands are on deck to track down Evelyn, a former cop, and figure out who took her and why.

I really enjoyed this 5th book in the Will Trent series. This thriller is fast paced and quite the page turner. Even though it's part of a series, I think it can be mostly read as a standalone book. It's the first one I've read, and while I was a little puzzled at times, but I think I got most of what was happening. I did have a little trouble figuring out who everyone was and who they worked for, so maybe a little background information would have helped with that.

The story jumps between the two different legs of the investigation. On one side, there's Amanda Wagner and Will Trent, Faith's partner. On the other is Faith, who's also a witness in this case. They are all going off in different directions to solve the kidnapping case and rescue of Faith's mom. As the investigation continues, they find corruption in the police force and lots of stuff that might put lives at risk if they can't get to the truth.

I liked reading about Faith and liked her tenacity. I found it strange that even though she and Will were partners, they didn't speak that much to each other...at least in this one. I also thought the relationship between Will and his wife Angie was extremely strange, but then I don't think anyone was trying to say it was "normal". I also liked reading about Jeremy, Faith's son and Zeke, Faith's brother.

Favourite quote:

...a woman can run faster with her skirt up than a man can with his pants down. (page 64)

New word: bespoke (page 128): specially made

Highly recommended. I already have Criminal, Will Trent #7 on my to-be-read shelf. I'm going to keep any eye open for other books in the series.

For more information about this book, please visit the Random House website.

For more information about the author and her other books, please visit Karin Slaughter's website.

I won this copy from a contest held by the Stop You're Killing Me (SYKM) website.

Fallen by Karin Slaughter, Delacorte Press (Random House), ©2011. ISBN 9780345528209(Hardcover), 387p.