Fallen by Karin Slaughter

The latest (2011) in the saga of Grant County, GA's Dr. Sara Linton takes another turn with Fallen, the continuing story with Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents Faith Mitchell and Will Trent. If you've read previous books, you know that Faith is a twice-unwed mother (the first child is 20 years old, the latest is four months) and Will is a smart but dyslexic guy whose appeal is not unnoticed by the women in his life. Amanda Wagner, his supervisor in the GBI, gets on his case a lot but he's wily enough (or maybe naive enough) to let her comments roll off his back.

This time Faith gets off work and goes to her mother's house to pick up her baby but gets a feeling of something "not quite right" about the house. She finds Emma locked in a shed, safe, but one man dead and two more in the house. One has a gun to the other's head. One shoots the other and runs, then Faith guns him down.

Meanwhile, her mother is nowhere in sight.

No doubt the situation is a result of Capt. Evelyn Mitchell's "retirement" from the Atlanta Police Department four years ago. She was allowed to retire rather than face charges of corruption with her team of officers.

Enter Will and Amanda, each with his own reasons for getting involved, other than being concerned for Faith's well-being. APD doesn't want their help but they're going to give it anyway.

Karin Slaughter does a masterful job of keeping the plot moving and giving us new insights into the characters. Until the very end, we're not sure whether Evelyn was part of the corruption of her unit or not; Amanda knows but isn't saying. They're all sympathetic characters, if I understand the term, because the reader grows to care about them and has her own hopes for the outcome. One hint: there's a scene toward the end where Will blows Sara's mind with an offer of a handshake. She lets him know in no uncertain terms it isn't acceptable.

Fallen is being released this month (July 2011) and for mystery lovers, it's a must-read!