The Book:
Unseen by Karin Slaughter
Published July 3, 2012 by Delacorte Press
Date re-read: April 23, 2023
The Characters:
Will Trent, GBI agent
Faith Mitchell, Atlanta PD detective
Evelyn Mitchell
Sara Linton
Amanda Wagner, Will’s boss
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
Will Trent is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent whose latest case has him posing as Bill Black, a scary ex-con who rides a motorcycle around Macon, Georgia, and trails an air of violence wherever he goes. The cover has worked and he has caught the eye of a wiry little drug dealer who thinks he might be a useful ally. But undercover and cut off from the support of the woman he loves, Sara Linton, Will finds his demons catching up with him.
Although she has no idea where Will has gone, or why, Sara herself has come to Macon because of a cop shooting: Her stepson, Jared, has been gunned down in his own home. Sara holds Lena, Jared’s wife, responsible: Lena, a detective, has been a magnet for trouble all her life, and Jared’s shooting is not the first time someone Sara loved got caught in the crossfire. Furious, Sara finds herself involved in the same case that Will is working without even knowing it, and soon danger is swirling around both of them.
In a novel of fierce intensity, shifting allegiances, and shocking twists, two investigations collide with a conspiracy straddling both sides of the law. Karin Slaughter’s latest is both an electrifying thriller and a piercing study of human nature: what happens when good people face the unseen evils in their lives.
How did Unseen end?
Jared and Lena have been together for 5.5 years. They got married, got pregnant, and lost the baby. Lena had just come home from a (failed) sting operation when their home was attacked and Jared was shot.
Lena had been working on a raid to capture Sid Waller, a rapist and drug trafficker. He was supposed to lead them to Big Whitey–the same person Will was undercover to find.
Erik Haag, one of Lena’s coworkers, had been kidnapped by the drug dealers. Will got brought to Big Whitey’s footmen to test him and watched one of them kill Erik.
Denise Branson, Lena’s boss, had lied about what happened at the raid Lena was in charge of. Branson had been especially obsessed with the case because there was a sex trafficking aspect as well. She hadn’t told the GBI. When Lena raided the shooting gallery, everyone was already dead except for Sid Waller, who killed himself in front of Lena (another one!). They found a kid alive in the wall. Branson was also the blocked call Jared had gotten the night he died, but she was just making sure Lena was okay.
Eventually the little boy told Will that his brother Benjamin had also been kidnapped, and will realized that the Benji he had met on his date with Cayla was the brother. He went to Cayla’s house, found Benji, and helped him hide before Lena’s partner Paul arrived on the scene. Will incapacitated Paul, but Paul had been trying to help him. Will got tased and woke up to Deshaun Franklin tying him up.
Franklin admitted that Chief Gray was Big Whitey. Tony the snitch showed up and killed him, after Cayla had shot Paul. Luckily Tony let Will go, and Paul had been wearing Kevlar so he survived. Benji was safe.
Ending: Sara forgave Will for lying to him about being involved. Chief Gray was arrested. Tony and Cayla were caught. Jared recovered.
Will explained to Lena that Cayla, a nurse who was at Lena’s prenatal appointment, had heard Jared joke to her that Gray was Big Whitey. She told him and he ordered the hit on their house.
The Ending:
The book ends with Lena mailing Sara a postcard that just said “you win”.
The Review:
I can never decide how I feel about Lena. This book makes me empathize with her, but I’ve hated her in previous books! I always love when the Grant County and Will Trent series collide, but there’s too little Sara in this book.
I’ve also posted spoilers for all of the Grant County books, so check this link or the search bar to find what you’re looking for.
If you’re looking for a matching set of the Will Trent books, most of them are included in this set, which I purchased recently and love!
Will Trent books in order
*Once again, I do recommend starting with the Grant County books. See this post.
Triptych
Fractured
Undone (also titled Genesis)
Broken
Fallen
Snatched (novella)
Criminal
Busted (novella)
Unseen
The Kept Woman
Cleaning the Gold (novella)
The Last Widow
The Silent Wife
After That Night
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