Title: We Are All Guilty Here
Author: Karen Slaughter
Publication: August 12, 2025
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Suspense, Thrillers
Pages: 448

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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)

The first thrilling mystery in the new North Falls series from Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and the Will Trent Series. Welcome to North Falls-a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think. Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites. For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend’s daughter needed help-and now she must bring her home. But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did. Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?

REVIEW:

We had picked a different book for our July book club book, however I pointed out to my co-chair person that this book we are reading is the start of a series and we try to avoid those as much as possible.  So back to the drawing board to pick one out.  We brainstormed with some of the other admins and one of them suggested this book.  We ran with it because it starts out on the 4th of July which was perfect for the month that we are reading it for.  Much to my dismay I realized as I was reading it that it too was part of a series but is currently the only book in the series that has been released so we were ok with that. 

Emmy-Lou has been in her fathers shadow for as long as she can remember.  He is currently the Sheriff and she is a Deputy.  She is patrolling the summer event for the 4th and runs into her best friend’s daughter.  She tries to talk to her but she refuses to listen to her and she leaves in a huff.  Emmy has a public fight with her husband and tries to escape to the porta-potties.  Her best friend’s daughter tries to get her attention but she brushes her off.  Something that she will regret for a very very long time. The number of times this book made me want to chuck it across the room is insane.  The ending pissed me off. I actually flipped pages back and forth about 20 times before I exclaimed WTF!!!  I loved the characters.  The twists and turns that I didn’t see coming were insane.  I give kudos to the author and now know why she is a well read author.  

I am honestly at a loss as to what to say about this book.  It left me in such a way that I think I literally threw it across the couch that I was sitting on.  I will need to read the second book when it comes out because I need to know if they continue on certain storylines or if they died with the first book.  The suspense was amazing.  I couldn’t even begin to guess the twists that the author threw at me several times. I enjoyed the characters’ interactions with each other.  While some of them were temporary some of them have well formed relationships that span years.  They were friendships that you didn’t even expect to fall apart yet they did.  Looking for a good mystery that will keep you guessing to the very end?  This is it!