Karin Slaughter | THIS IS WHY WE LIED Spoilers

this is why we lied spoilers karin slaughter

The Book:

This Is Why We Lied by Karin Slaughter (Will Trent #12)
Published August 20, 2024 by William Morrow
Date read: June 22, 2024

Find more August 2024 new releases here.

This Is Why We Lied spoilers can be found below, but they’re hidden under a spoiler tag so you’re safe to keep scrolling if you’d just like to read my review.

The Characters:

Will and Sara
The McAlpine family: Cecil and Bitty, Christopher, Mercy, and Jon

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The Plot (from Goodreads):

Everyone here is a liar, but only one of us is a killer…

A secluded cabin retreat

For GBI investigator Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton, McAlpine Lodge seems like the ideal getaway to celebrate their honeymoon. Set on a gorgeous, off-the-grid mountaintop property, it’s the perfect place to unplug and reconnect. Until a bone-chilling scream cuts through the night.

A murderer in their midst

Mercy McAlpine, the manager of the Lodge, is dead. With a vicious storm raging and the one access road to the property washed out, the murderer must be someone on the mountain. But as Will and Sara investigate the McAlpine family and the other guests, they realize that everyone here is lying….Lying about their past. Lying to their family. Lying to themselves.

Who killed Mercy McAlpine?

It soon becomes clear that normal rules don’t apply at McAlpine Lodge, and Will and Sara are going to have to watch their step at every turn. Trapped on the resort, they must untangle a decades-old web of secrets to discover what happened to Mercy. And with the killer poised to strike again, the trip of a lifetime becomes a race against the clock…

This Is Why We Lied Spoilers

Click here for THIS IS WHY WE LIED spoilers

Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read This Is Why We Lied, I suggest you turn back now.

The Reveal:

Everyone automatically assumed that Doug killed Mercy, until Faith interviewed him and found out that Mercy was repeatedly calling Doug in the hour leading up to her murder. There was just enough of a voicemail to absolve him.

Will went off down a secluded trail following Chuck. He interviewed Chuck but didn’t get much out of him, other than that Chuck was a creepy incel (the reader found out from Mercy’s journal entries that Chuck had raped her. Christopher knew but allowed Chuck to keep coming around because Chuck was his only friend). As Will turned around to go back up the trail, though, Chuck collapsed into the water. He began floating towards the waterfall. Will got to him just in time to stop his body from going over the edge, but Chuck was already dead.

Sara determined that Chuck had been poisoned. There was a bottle of eye drops in his pocket, and she said that saline could have caused his symptoms, although he died from drowning.

Sara found the murder weapon in the toilet of the room Drew and Keisha were staying in.

When Will questioned Christopher, he realized that Christopher and Chuck were making their own moonshine and selling it at top dollar to the guests. This is why Monica got so much more drunk than Frank expected. Drew and Keisha knew but were trying to stop them before they hurt someone.

Christopher had poisoned Chuck. He had been systematically poisoning his friend since he found out that Chuck had raped Mercy. Every time Chuck did something gross towards Mercy, Christopher poisoned Chuck just a little. This time, Chuck was just unlucky that he passed out into water and drowned.

Somewhere along the way, Will and Faith learned that Paul was the brother of Gabby, the girl who died in Mercy’s car accident. We also find out that Mercy wasn’t driving that night. Christopher had been in love with Gabby. Cecil didn’t like how much everyone adored her, so he raped her and beat her and left her in Christopher’s bed to find. Cecil then drugged Mercy, put her behind the wheel at the top of a dangerous hill, and weighed down the accelerator hoping to kill them both. Gabby died; Mercy survived but was horribly disfigured. She thought she was responsible. Dave knew the truth because he had driven Cecil home from the scene of the crime.

The GBI team gathered the whole family together to put some pressure on them, Cecil in particular. They suspected that Cecil could actually walk and had killed Mercy. However, when Will told them Mercy’s last words (“forgive him”), Dave realized seconds before will did that Jon was the killer.

Honestly, I figured it was Jon from the moment Sara ran into him on the trail. What I didn’t guess was that he was being abused by Bitty. Bitty was a pedophile who groomed and abused first Dave and then Jon. The night she died, Mercy had caught Bitty in bed with Jon. She flew into a rage and packed, planning to hike down the mountain with Jon that night. Jon initially went with her, but then got angry and stabbed Mercy. He was mad that she never left Dave and got him away from there.

The Ending:

Jon had left the room moments before Will realized what happened, but Will tracked him back to Will and Sara’s cabin where Jon was trying to retrieve the vape Sara had taken from him (which had his DNA and would confirm him as the killer). Jon was arrested. Bitty killed herself. Christopher was arrested for the illegal moonshine, and I can’t recall what happened to Cecil but he was probably arrested as well. Mercy’s aunt still cared for Jon and was visiting him in prison, trying to give him a reason to turn things around.

I hope these This Is Why We Lied spoilers were helpful.

The Review:

First of all, this book works very well as a standalone if you’ve never read a Will Trent book before. It’ll make you want to go back and read all the others, but you’ll have no trouble understanding the plot if this is your first Karin Slaughter novel.

Second, I LOVE the map. I referenced it so many times. It really helped me put myself in the scene. Is it weird to say I would love to stay at this lodge? It seems right up my alley–a gorgeous hike in, but luxury of prepared meals and fun activities (and a real bed) when you arrive.

I very much enjoyed this installment of the Will Trent series. I love hiking, glamping, and the woods, so the setting couldn’t be beat. Will and Sara can’t go anywhere without crime following them, so it’s no surprise that they happen across a shocking case on their honeymoon. Despite the remote location, this book had every bit of gruesome horror that Karin is known for. Poor Mercy! I won’t say too much, but it’s another good one. Hats off to Karin again!

I’ve listened to audiobooks of every Karin Slaughter book (either my first read or a re-read), and Kathleen Early nails the narration every time. I think of Sara Linton every time I hear her voice! She always does such an amazing job with these performances and this time was no exception.

Will there be more Will Trent novels?

I heard Karin say on an Instagram live that her next book will be a standalone, but after that she’ll come back to Will Trent again.

Can This Is Why We Lied be read as a standalone?

The good news is that it can read very much like a standalone. I always recommend reading the whole series to get the backstory, but I think This Is Why We Lied can easily be enjoyed without reading the previous books. Slaughter provides enough context to keep you in the loop, but not much in this book depends on the history. There’s no reason to read spoilers for the previous books if you’re new to the series, but you might find yourself hooked!

If you want to go back and start from the beginning, this post tells you the order in which to read them.