Karin Slaughter | The Kept Woman (Will Trent #8)

The Book:

The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter (Will Trent #8)
Published September 20, 2016 by William Morrow
Date read: May 5, 2023

The Characters:

GBI Special Agent Will Trent and Dr. Sara Linton; GBI Special Agent Faith Mitchell, Deputy Director Amanda Wagner

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The Plot (from Goodreads):

With the discovery of a murder at an abandoned construction site, Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is brought in on a case that becomes much more dangerous when the dead man is identified as an ex-cop.

Studying the body, Sara Linton—the GBI’s newest medical examiner and Will’s lover—realizes that the extensive blood loss didn’t belong to the corpse. Sure enough, bloody footprints leading away from the scene indicate there is another victim—a woman—who has vanished . . . and who will die soon if she isn’t found.

Will is already compromised, because the site belongs to the city’s most popular citizen: a wealthy, powerful, and politically connected athlete protected by the world’s most expensive lawyers—a man who’s already gotten away with rape, despite Will’s exhaustive efforts to put him away.

But the worst is yet to come. Evidence soon links Will’s troubled past to the case . . . and the consequences will tear through his life with the force of a tornado, wreaking havoc for Will and everyone around him, including his colleagues, family, friends—and even the suspects he pursues.

Relentlessly suspenseful and furiously paced, peopled with conflicted, fallible characters who leap from the page, The Kept Woman is a seamless blend of twisty police procedural and ingenious psychological thriller — a searing, unforgettable novel of love, loss, and redemption.

How did The Kept Woman end?

Click here for book spoilers for The Kept Woman

Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read The Kept Woman, I suggest you turn back now.

Will and Sara have been dating for 18 months, and Sara has just joined the GBI.

The Reveal:

Angie was not dead. After much investigating, Will gets a cryptic call from her saying she wanted him to know what it felt like to lose her. Then the POV switches to Angie the week before.

Dale had been Angie’s mom’s pimp. He was also Deirdre’s brother, so Angie’s uncle. His side hustle was tricking out little girls, even his own daughter.

Jo Figaroa was Angie’s daughter. She had given the baby up as a teen, but always kept tabs on her. Jo was married to Reuben, a pro basketball player who was abusing her. Angie was working on a plan to help her escape, especially after Jo tried to threaten Reuben and Marcus with a video of them raping the girl that Will was investigating them for.

Dale was a step ahead of Angie, though, and kidnapped both Jo and her son Anthony. Angie went to save Jo, but Jo was already badly injured.

When the POV switches back to Will, they go to the hospital to interview the junkie Will found in the adjacent abandoned building. She had seen a lot: Angie go into the nightclub, then drive off, then come back and kick the crap out of a nearly-dead girl. She also found Dale near death. As the team is contemplating this information, they realize that one of the other Jane Does was Delilah Palmer, Angie’s cousin and Dale’s daughter/wife.

Delilah was the one whose blood was all over the nightclub. Angie was using Delilah to fake Jo’s death so that Jo could escape her husband.

Virginia Souza had Anthony. She was Dale’s “momma in charge”, the leader of all his hookers. Reuben Figaroa arranged a handoff in which he paid her the ransom for his son, and the GBI decided to use it to catch Virginia. There was a shoot-out, and Reuben killed himself in front of Will. Will got Anthony, though, who was returned to Jo.