From New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter, the first novel in her acclaimed Grant County Series.

A small Georgia town erupts in panic when a young college professor is found brutally mutilated in the local diner. But it's only when town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton does the autopsy that the full extent of the killer's twisted work becomes clear.

Sara's ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver,

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"AN ORDINARY LIFE ... Leigh Collier has worked hard to build what looks like a normal life. She has a good job as a defense attorney, a daughter doing well in school, and even her divorce is relatively civilized-her life is just as unremarkable as she'd always hoped it would be. HIDES A DEVASTATING PAST ... But Leigh's ordinary life masks a childhood which was far from average ... a childhood tarnished by secrets, broken by betrayal, and finally torn...

Robbie Whitcomb is five years old when he's taken from his mother in a mall parking lot. In her attempt to chase the kidnapper, she's left badly injured and permanently disfigured. Such are the methods of the man who calls himself Daddy Love-a man known to the rest of the world as charismatic preacher Chester Cash. For the next six years, Robbie is to be Daddy's son. That means doing whatever Daddy says-and giving him whatever he wants. Soon Robbie...

"When a professor's student disappears and is presumed dead, he passes off her manuscript as his own-only to find out it implicates him in an unsolved murder in this new thriller from the USA Today bestselling author of The Request. After years of struggling to write after the deaths of his wife and son, English professor Connor Nye publishes his first novel, a thriller about the murder of a young woman. There's just one problem: Connor didn't write...

When a vicious alcoholic dies in a suspicious fire, Rev. Olympia Brown and Fr. Jim Sawicki must prove his death was an accident and not murder --- but evidence against the wife and daughter is mounting. -- P. [4] of cover.

"Brian and Jeff were best friends, growing up together in New York City in the late 1960s. Then something happened that drove a wedge between them, ending both their friendship and their childhood, something that neither ever spoke about--at least until their shared secret resurfaced some forty years later, forcing them to reunite and, along with Jeff's cousin Julie, to face the consequences of their years of silence"--Dust jacket flap.

"In her rural Appalachian holler, ten-year-old Misty's closest friends are the crawdads. Misty can speak to them, to the birds, to the creek, to everything outside, and she understands how they think. She knows that if she could just speak to her parents in the same way, she could stop all the fighting. But it's too hard. When her only friend William takes their friendship too far, Misty doesn't know how to get help. This is the story of one tough-as-nails...

"Nobody believed that Pastor Matt raped her. The tight-knit religious community punished her when she spoke out, expected fifteen-year-old Mercy to repent for making false allegations. Instead, she ran. And somebody--her father?--beat Pastor Matt into a coma and left his wife for dead. Twenty-three years later, Iris has put a life together, transformed herself from runaway teen Mercy Asher to sought-after jewelry designer Iris Dashwood. But now that...

Detective Karl Shea is about to retire from the Sex Crimes Unit of the Boston Police Department when he receives a diagnosis of terminal cancer. He drops the ball and spends the afternoon in a bar in Harvard Square and blames himself when a missing girl is found dead on his watch. Karl vows to make amends by eliminating known sex offenders in the Boston area. His mission is interrupted when his wife, Shirley, learns of his dirty deeds. She blackmails...