Will Trent Is on the Case! Here's a Complete List of Karin Slaughter's Books in Order

Will Trent is certainly the man of the hour. The fictional lead of Karin Slaughter's bestselling series of thrillers is now the shining star of ABC's new procedural series, Will Trent. Season 1 premiered in January 2023 and was quickly renewed for Season 2.

While the strike may have temporarily put the brakes on the series, the author behind all 10 Will Trent novels is still hard at work, releasing the 11th novel in the series After That Night in June 2023.

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The crime novelist from Georgia introduced Will Trent to the world in 2006 in the novel Triptych. Trent is a special agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) who grew up in the foster care system and uses his keen powers of observation to solve crimes others can't. That first novel has spawned 10 sequels, three novellas and now a television show. While we wait for the series to return, here's how to read all 11 Will Trent books in order. The TV show, with a new case each week, is not a straight adaptation of the novels. Rather the series takes a bit of liberty with episodes inspired by the series and the characters from the novels. If you're ready to catch up, here are the Will Trent books in order

Karin Slaughter's Will Trent books in order

1. Triptych (2006)

In the debut novel in the thriller series, the world meets Will Trent and his love interest Angie Polaski. The book follows the pair while they work to find a serial rapist at large in Atlanta. Slaughter, who was best known for her Grant County series, launched her new career-defining franchise with Triptych, so it's a great place to start.

2. Fractured (2008)

The sophomore Will Trent novel is the basis for the TV show's pilot. We see Trent get paired with his partner Faith Mitchell who is mad at him for investigating her mother, a former police chief, who was fired due to his work. Now the two must work together to solve a murder and kidnapping case among Atlanta's wealthy elite.

3. Undone (2009) — also published as Genesis

Published as Genesis outside the U.S., Undone sends Trent and Mitchell to rural Georgia to try and discover the identity of a a sadistic torturer. This novel also brings characters from Slaughter's Grant County series into the Will Trent universe.

4. Broken (2010)

Broken is another Will Trent/Grant County crossover with Trent heading to Grant County to help solve the murder of a college student whose body is pulled from a frozen lake. If you really want to get into this novel, you might want to read the Grant County series first. That series includes Blindsighted (2001), Kisscut (2002), A Faint Cold Fear (2003), Indelible (2004), Faithless (2005) and Beyond Reach (2007).

5. Fallen (2011)

Fallen is yet another crossover between Will Trent and Grant County, although this one is mostly focused on Faith Mitchell, whose mother goes missing, leaving behind a bloody crime scene at her house. Mitchell and Trent must then work together to discover what happened to Mitchell's mom, the former police chief that Trent got kicked off the force.

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Snatched (2012) — novella

Snatched is the first of three short Will Trent novellas. This one follows Trent, who begins to investigate a possible kidnapping while in the Atlanta airport. The story is available as an e-book or added to copies of Criminal.

6. Criminal (2012)

The sixth Will Trent novel delves back into the leading man's past. When he is inexplicably kept off a case, he wonders why, but the answer links a missing college student to Trent's childhood growing up in an orphanage. To solve the case, he'll have to face some of his own demons as well.

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Busted (2013) — novella

The second of Slaughter's trio of Will Trent novellas, Busted finds Will Trent caught in a gas station robbery while he travels to Macon, Georgia on a case. The quick read is available as an e-book and in paperback copies of Unseen.

7. Unseen (2013)

The reason why Will Trent is traveling to Macon in Busted is revealed in Unseen. He'll be going undercover as an ex-con to solve a case involving a local drug ring. While he's cut off from communication, his love, Sara Linton, has also traveled to Macon, and as luck would have it, their reasons for the location change quickly and become dangerously intertwined.

8. The Kept Woman (2016)

In The Kept Woman, Trent and Linton are back in Atlanta and Linton has recently landed a new gig as the GBI's new medical examiner. When a body is found at a construction site, the pair must work together to determine how the man died and why. Trent's past returns to haunt him and the secrets lurking behind happy marriages are exposed.

Cleaning the Gold (2019) — novella with Lee Child

Karin Slaughter loves a crossover, but usually she's using characters from her own created worlds. In this short work of fiction, she teams up with novelist Lee Child to bring his famous Jack Reacher into the mix. Trent goes undercover at Fort Knox to investigate none other than Reacher himself. Of course, Jack Reacher is a hero in his own right, so the villain must be the force pitting the two against each other.

9. The Last Widow (2019)

Before talk of the Centers for Disease Control was on the news daily, Will Trent was investigating the kidnapping of a scientist from the now-famous Atlanta landmark. A month later, bombs go off in the same neighborhood as the CDC. Trent must work to solve both cases and see just how they are connected.

10. The Silent Wife (2020)

For Will Trent's tenth outing, he's trying to solve a cold case and an active investigation at the same time. When a woman is brutally attacked in the same way as a woman eight years prior, Trent begins to wonder if perhaps they'd locked up the wrong man. Now he's got to determine if there is still a killer on the loose or if its a copycat finishing the business of a man already in prison.

11. After That Night (2023)

Slaughter's latest delves into the past of Trent's love Sara Linton. Fifteen years prior, she'd been the victim of a brutal attack she's tried to forget, but when she witnesses something similar, it brings up old memories. Now she must face her past as she and Trent also solve the case that stirred up bad memories all around.

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