Karin Slaughter Books In Order – Complete List

Karin Slaughter is a favorite author and New York Times bestselling author of several popular thriller series, including Will Trent and Grant County book series, Good Daughter series, and Andrea Oliver series. While the two main mystery series are distinct from each other, in 2009 the author linked them through the book Undone (Genesis in the UK).

Here are the Karin Slaughter books in order of publication date for her series and her standalone novels, novellas, short stories, and short story collections.

Latest Karin Slaughter Books

This is Why We Lied
This is Why We Lied (Will Trent #12, 2024

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Grant County Books in Publication Order

set in the fictional town of Heartsdale, Georgia, in the fictional Grant County

  1. Blindsighted (#1), 2001
  2. Kisscut (#2), 2002
  3. A Faint Cold Fear (#3), 2003
  4. Indelible (#4), 2004
  5. Faithless (#5),  2005
  6. Beyond Reach (also called Skin Privilege) (#6), 2007

Will Trent Books in Publication Order

featuring the special criminal apprehension team in the Georgia Bureau Atlanta

  1. Triptych, 2006
  2. Fractured, 2008
  3. Undone (aka Genesis), 2009
  4. Broken, 2010
  5. Fallen, 2011
  6. Criminal, 2012
  7. Unseen, 2013
  8. The Kept Woman, 2016
  9. The Last Widow, 2019
  10. The Silent Wife, 2020
  11. After That Night, 2023
  12. This is Why We Lied, 2024

Will Trent Short Stories in Publication Order

Georgia Books in Publication Order

  1. Undone(aka Genesis), 2009
  2. Broken, 2010
  3. Fallen, 2011

Charlie Quinn / Good Daughter Books in Publication Order

  1. Last Breath #0.5), 2017
  2. The Good Daughter (#1), 2017

Andrea Oliver Books in Publication Order

  1. Pieces of Her, 2018
  2. Girl, Forgotten, 2022

Other Karin Slaughter Books in Publication Order

Short Stories and Novellas in Order of Publication

  • Martin Misunderstood, 2008
  • The Unremarkable Heart, 2011
  • Thorn in My Side, 2011
  • The Blessing of Brokenness, 2012
  • Go Deep, 2015
  • Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes, 2015 (prequel to Pretty Girls)
  • Remmy Rothstein Toes the Line, 2015
  • Cold, Cold Heart, 2016

Short Story Collections and Anthologies in Publication Order

Karin Slaughter Biography – About the Author

Karin Slaughter was born in 1971 in Covington, Georgia.

Karin Slaughter

As a child, Karin Slaughter was always interested in dark things. In one interview she once mentioned that she got kicked out from a Christian primary school because she tore the Bible apart.

She was usually a loner, spending lots of her times reading and one of her dreams was to write books from a very young age.

After graduating from Morrow High School, she attended Georgia State University. Following her graduation, Karin worked several jobs, including being a designer and sales rep for a sign company. After leaving that company, she started her own sign business.

Before writing her first successful novel, she wrote several manuscripts which didn’t sell. Her debut novel, Blindsighted, which begins her first ever series, was nominated for the Dagger Award, Barry Award, and the Macavity Award.

The Karin Slaughter books have sold over 35 million copies worldwide and have been published in over 37 languages. In 2019 she was presented with the an Honorary Platinum Nielsen Bestseller Award at the London Book Fair in recognition of the author’s combined UK sales of over 5,000,000. Her stories are all gruesome and the crimes are not simply glossed over. Her thriller genre is one that cuts to the chase and shows every horrible detail in all its glory.

I’ve read her books in order right from the start. I’ve been introduced to Karin Slaughter through Blindsighted in 2001, her very first novel. It is also the first in the Karin Slaughter books in order for the fictional town Grant County novels, a forensic mystery series set in Georgia focusing on three main characters: Sara Linton who is the local pediatrician and also part-time coroner, her ex and current husband police chief Jeffrey Tolliver and another strange character named Lena Adams, who is working for Tolliver. The series has 6 books with the last one written in 2007 in the order of publication date.

The second series, Will Trent, takes place in Atlanta alternating with Georgia (some books in the series are also called the Georgia series) and has as main characters the GBI agent (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) Will, Faith Mitchell who is his partner, and Angie Polaski.

Later on, through the connecting novels, Sara Linton the main protagonist of the Grant County book series also joins forces with them in a few following books including Undone, Broken, Fallen, Snatched and Criminal.

The author’s third series is called Good Daughter and the first book titled The Good Daughter is published in 2017 along with a short prequel called Last Breath. All the Karin Slaughter books are based in Georgia.

In addition, Karin Slaughter has written several novels and short stories, all as standalone books. The list has been added above in publication date. Her latest short story is Last Breath, published in 2017, as part of the Good Daughter series.

When she began writing The Good Daughter, Karin Slaughter considered it to become a standalone novel. However, she also wrote a short story the same year, which hopefully means that the series will become fully fleshed out with additional books. The first main book is about two sister whose life gets shattered in the very first few pages of the book. It is more a psychological thriller with lots of twists and turns.

The author’s popular standalone novel, Pretty Girls, is a powerful psychological novel that touches on strong human emotions based on loss of one’s daughter and how the family is torn up after the crime.

Another one of her popular standalone novels, Pieces of Her, follows a young woman who learns about a hidden side of her mother Laura. The book reached number 2 on the New York Times Bestseller list in 2018 during the same week it was first released.

While most of the Karin Slaughter books in order of publication date deal with the detectives working on solving cases, this particular novel is shifting points of view, this time working through the family’s anguish and the whole community working through what happened around them.

In this book, the main protagonists are not police detectives and seasoned investigators on the police force. They are just regular, average people. This book is much more character-driven than the author’s previous works.

As usual, Pretty Girls is also infused with a bit of gore, bordering on horror, with graphic- and grizzly descriptions of the crime scenes and deeds.

The Kept Woman is a favorite in the Karin Slaughter Will Trent books, in which the Georgia investigator is brought in to check out a case where the victim is a dirty ex-policeman who was found at a construction site belonging to a basketball start whom Trent investigated for rape, and the guy walked.

What Medical Examiner Sara Linton discovers is that there supposedly was a second victim who fled the building. And based on the signs, the woman doesn’t have all that long to live.

The book is a worthy continuation to the Will Trent books in order, however, before you pick up The Kept Woman, make sure to read the series in order starting from Triptych, else many things might not make a whole lot of sense. The Karin Slaughter book list is there for a reason, especially for the author’s two main series.

Reading the Karin Slaughter books in order is a must both for the Will Trent novel series, the Grant County book series, as well as the shorter Good Daughter series. Her standalone novels can be read in any order you choose. In terms of her short story collection, they are easily comparable with the rest of Karin Slaughter’s books.

Currently, Karin Slaughter lives in rural northern Georgia where she is working on her next book, bringing her most beloved characters to life once again.

Karin Slaughter Book Adaptations

Currently, there are two adaptations of Karin Slaughter’s crime fiction books. One is based on her Will Trent book series, in the form of a TV series titled Will Trent premiered on January 3, 2023, on ABC. It is a crime procedural starring Ramón Rodrìguez as Will, a Special Agent at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The second, is an 8-episode Net flix television show adaptation of Pieces of Her, a book released in 2018 as the first in the Andrea Oliver series. It is centered around the character Andy Oliver (played by Bella Heathcote), a young woman who becomes suspicious of her mother, Laura Oliver (played by Toni Collette), after witnessing her display extraordinary skills in taking down a shooter at a diner.

After its release, Pieces of Her reached a place in the Netflix Top 10.

Karin Slaughter Awards and Nominations

Over the years, Karin Slaughter has received and been nominated for numerous awards.

  • 2001
    • Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Award Nomination, Best Thriller Debut, Blindsighted
  • 2002
    • Mystery Readers International Macavity Award Nomination, Best First Mystery, Blindsighted
    • International Thriller Writers Barry Award Nomination, Best First Novel, Blindsighted
  • 2003
    • Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Awards Winner, Best Contemporary Mystery, A Faint Cold
  • 2007
    • Crime Zone the Silver Fingerprint Winner, Best Foreign Thriller, Beyond Reach
    • Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger nomination, Best Thriller, Triptych
  • 2008
    • Georgia Author of the Year Nomination, Best Fiction, Beyond Reach
    • ITV Crime Thriller International Author of the Year Nomination, Best Fiction, Beyond Reach
  • 2009
    • Crime Zone the Silver Fingerprint Winner, Best Foreign Thriller, Fractured
    • Audio Publishers association Audie Nomination, Humor, Martin Misunderstood
    • Left Coast Crime Hawaii Five-0 Nomination, Best Law Enforcement/Police Procedural, Fractured
    • Le Livre de Poche Prix Lecteurs Winner, Faithless
  • 2010
    • Suspense Magazine Best of 2010 Winner, Thriller/Suspense, Broken
  • 2011
    • International Thriller Writers Silver Bullet Award Winner
    • Crime Zone, The Silver Fingerprint Winner, Best Foreign Thriller, Fallen
  • 2013
    • Mystery Readers International Macavity award nomination, Best Short Story, The Unremarkable Heart
  • 2014
    • Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award
    • AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award Winner, Cop Town, 2013
    • Crime Zone, The Silver Fingerprint Winner, Best Foreign Thriller, Unseen
    • Anthony Bouchercon Nomination, Best Short Story, The Unremarkable Heart
    • Edgar Award Winner, Best Short Story
  • 2015
    • American Association of People with Disabilities Image Award
    • Edgar Nomination, Best Novel, Cop Town
    • Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, Winner, Cop Town
  • 2016
    • International Thriller Writers Awards Finalist
    • People’s Choice Award Winner
  • 2017
    • Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award Longlist
    • AudioFile Best Book of the Year (AudioFile Earphones Award)
    • Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Suspense
    • The Skimm Book Club
  • 2019
    • Georgia Author of the Year
    • International Thriller Writers Awards Finalist
  • 2020
    • Ned Kelly Award

52 Comments

  1. This is my favourite author of all time. I love the building of characters and the flow of the books. Is there any authors super similar? I am struggling g to find anything as good as that’s books. What would you highly recommend?

  2. Hi everyone!! 🙂

    So, I just started reading FRACTURED but didn’t realize that it’s the SECOND book in a series, dang it!! Do I truly need to read Triptych, first, even though I would prob only end up reading the other ones in the series that TRULY sound interesting (& that first one doesn’t, unfortunately)? Or do I really need to read them in order unless I’ll be confused?

    Thank you!!!!

    I really like her writing, so far, this is my first Karin Slaughter Novel!! 🙂

  3. I’m in love with the books by Karin Slaughter. I love her writing style and she keeps me on the edge of my seat every time!! My favorite way of “reading” is through listening by way of audiobooks. Great author!!

  4. Was annoyed when I got to the end of “Beyond Reach” and started on “Skin Privilege” only to find they are one and the same! I paid good money for those two books

  5. I started with “Blindsighted”. And I tried to read the books in order, but the worst for me is when I catch up and have to wait for the next book.
    But with Karin Slaughter’s books, I need a while to recover.

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