The Last Widow

The Last Widow
Karin Slaughter

The Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller! The highly anticipated new thriller from internationally bestselling author Karin Slaughter, featuring Will Trent and Sara Linton It begins with an abduction.  The routine of a family shopping trip is shattered when Michelle Spivey is snatched as she leaves the mall with her young daughter.  The police search for her, her partner pleads for her release, but in the end…they find nothing. It’s as if she disappeared into thin air. A month later, on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, medical examiner Sara Linton is at lunch with her boyfriend Will Trent, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. But the serenity of the summer’s day is broken by the wail of sirens. Sara and Will are trained to help in an emergency.  Their jobs – their vocations – mean that they run towards a crisis, not away from it. But on this one terrible day that instinct betrays them both. Within hours the situation has spiralled out of control; Sara is taken prisoner; Will is forced undercover. And the fallout will lead them into the Appalachian mountains, to the terrible truth about what really happened to Michelle, and to a remote compound where a radical group has murder in mind…

Copyright (#ulink_b30253e5-9cf2-539b-bf1f-bbbdc84e8c64)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

Copyright © Karin Slaughter 2019

Will Trent is a trademark of Karin Slaughter Publishing LLC.

Lyrics from:

“I’m on Fire” (written by Bruce Springsteen)

“Sara Smile” Hall & Oates (written by Daryl Hall, John Oates)

“Whatta Man” Salt-n-Pepa ft. En Vogue (written by Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor, Cheryl James with samples from the original song written by David Crawford and performed by Linda Lyndell)

“Love and Affection” (written by Joan Armatrading)

“Sure shot” Beastie Boys (written by Adam Keefe Horovitz, Adam Nathaniel Yauch, Jeremy Steig, Mario Caldato, Michael Louis Diamond, Wendell T. Fife)

“Two Doors Down” (written by Dolly Parton)

“Smalltown Boy” Bronski Beat (written by Steve Bronski, Jimmy Somerville, Larry Steinbachek)

“Because the Night” Patti Smith Group (written by Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith)

“What I Am” Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (written by Edie Brickell, Kenny Withrow, John Houser, John Bush, John Aly)

“Give It Away” Red Hot Chili Peppers (written by Michael Balzary (Flea), John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith)

Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

Cover photograph © Karina Vegas/Arcangel Images (https://www.arcangel.com/creative-stock-photography)

Karin Slaughter asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008303389

Ebook Edition © June 2019 ISBN: 9780008303402

Version: 2019-05-21

Dedication (#ulink_b30253e5-9cf2-539b-bf1f-bbbdc84e8c64)

“We’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That’swhat it is to be alive.”

– Kurt Vonnegut

Contents

Cover (#ufcfc9ce3-93a3-5e0c-bcc6-eb176b0ec256)

Title page (#u8c28161b-749b-5806-b49e-ace789a81cb7)

Copyright (#u184f4b16-4dbc-539d-862f-1207666e6436)

Dedication (#u82f46824-92ea-5723-aacf-b461f40c48bd)

Part One: Sunday, July 7, 2019 (#u530a8b3a-f360-56df-982f-cd574e38483b)

Prologue (#u58052b97-5294-57a9-af0c-290c573544f7)

One Month Later: Sunday, August 4, 2019 (#u4d2b2a3f-07bc-5c38-983e-89afd01663a2)

Chapter 1 (#u3d7c0d5b-f172-5fab-96ce-ea90e05d9023)

Chapter 2 (#uf742b638-ec8a-5abc-9dc4-0ceab0967eb5)

Chapter 3 (#u707bbb61-6451-5732-acee-f9f991c59c4e)

Chapter 4 (#ue456faff-41e8-5137-91ad-b8cad55f8d4c)

Chapter 5 (#u1e217e4f-de78-5732-aee8-cad402ac27f0)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Two: Monday, August 5, 2019 (#litres_trial_promo)