This is why we lied

Will Trent and Sara Linton have barely arrived for their honeymoon at McAlpine Lodge when screams lead them to lodge manager Mercy McAlpine, who has been savagely stabbed. She whispers her last words in Will's arms. Will, who has been struggling with the loss of his mother, now must deliver Mercy's message to her teenage son and secure the scene for local police. But Sheriff Biscuits Hartshorne has already pinned Mercy's murder on her abusive ex-husband, Dave, and isn't interested in investigating. Will knows what Dave is capable of. Dave was called "the Jackal" in the group home in which they were placed as kids. But why would he kill Mercy now? Alternative motives abound. Mercy threatened to reveal family secrets that would derail plans to sell the lodge, her brother's creepy friend Chuck was obsessed with her, and the lodge's other guests are throwing up a myriad of red flags. The sheer number of motives should stretch credulity, but Slaughter's skillfully nuanced portrayal of the investigation, exposing abuse, manipulation, and desperate greed, creates a disturbingly realistic page-turner. This bar-raiser for the classic locked-room mystery is in good company with Sarah Pearse's The Sanitorium (2021), Adrian McKinty's The Island (2022), and One by One, by Ruth Ware (2020).

A honeymoon turns into a grisly locked-room mystery in Slaughter's harrowing 12th outing for Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent (following After That Night). Will and his bride, medical examiner Sara Linton, plan to celebrate at McAlpine Lodge in northwest Georgia, but on the night they arrive, hotel manager Mercy McAlpine is murdered in one of the property's cabins. Will and Sara jump into action, first turning their suspicion toward Mercy's abusive ex-husband, whom Will knows from the time they spent together in an Atlanta boy's home. As Will and Sarah continue to poke around, however, other suspects come into focus, including Mercy's hot-tempered father and ice-cold mother, who hope to force a sale of the lodge, and a guest who has intimate knowledge of Mercy's criminal past. After Will's Bureau of Investigation colleagues show up, the body count rises, and Will unearths some unspeakable secrets within the McAlpine clan. The subject matter gets almost operatically bleak, but Slaughter saves the day with her gifts for suspense and characterization--Mercy, in particular, makes an impression. This long-running series still has gas in the tank. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (Aug.)