Karin Slaughter Books in Order

Karin Slaughter is an American crime thriller author best known for the Grant County and Will Trent series, two connected series set in Georgia. They begin in a small fictional county and later they move into Atlanta with GBI Special Agent Will Trent. She has published more than 25 novels since 2001, with over 40 million copies sold across 120 countries, and has won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Edgar Award for Best Short Story. Her books have also been adapted to TV through Netflix’s Pieces of Her and ABC’s Will Trent.

Her two main series, Grant County and Will Trent, share characters and overlap from book 3 of Will Trent onward. The Grant County books introduce Sara Linton, Jeffrey Tolliver, and Lena Adams, while the Will Trent series later brings Sara over to Will’s world, making the reading order more important than it is for many crime thriller authors. Karin Slaughter has also launched newer series including the Charlie Quinn / Good Daughter duology, the Andrea Oliver series, and the North Falls thrillers.

This page lists all Karin Slaughter books in order, including the Grant County, Will Trent, Charlie Quinn, Andrea Oliver, and North Falls series, standalone novels, short stories, and novellas, anthologies, adaptations, and awards.

Reading order last verified: July 2026

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Latest Karin Slaughter Books

**The Secrets We Hide** (North Falls #2), UK: June 2026, US: August 2026

Where to Start with Karin Slaughter

→ New to Karin Slaughter and want the full connected series timeline? Start with Blindsighted. It introduces Sara Linton, Jeffrey Tolliver, Lena Adams, and the Grant County backstory that later crosses over into Will Trent.
→ Have you watched the Will Trent TV series? Start with Triptych (first episode is based on it). To learn more about Sara Linton’s backstory, read Grant County before Undone / Genesis.
→ Prefer a standalone novel first? Try Pretty Girls, Cop Town, or False Witness.
→ Coming from Pieces of Her on Netflix? Read Pieces of Her first, then Girl, Forgotten if you want Andrea Oliver’s continuation.

How the Series Connect

Karin Slaughter’s two main series, Grant County and Will Trent, take place in the same universe. Grant County comes first and introduces Sara Linton, Jeffrey Tolliver, and Lena Adams in Heartsdale, Georgia. Will Trent begins separately in Atlanta with Triptych and Fractured, then the two worlds merge in Undone, also published as Genesis, where Sara Linton becomes part of the Will Trent series.

After that point, several Will Trent books carry forward Sara’s history and why she left Grant County. You can understand the individual Will Trent cases without reading Grant County first, but Sara’s role, Lena’s history, and the emotional side of the story make more sense if you read Grant County before continuing past Fractured.

The Andrea Oliver books connect to each other through Pieces of Her and Girl, Forgotten. The Charlie Quinn books and the North Falls series are separate from the Grant County / Will Trent universe.

Grant County Series (Books in Order)

The Grant County series follows pediatrician and part-time coroner Sara Linton, ex-husband and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, and detective Lena Adams in Heartsdale, a fictional small town in Georgia’s Grant County. The books are small-town crime novels, but they are not cozies. Karin Slaughter uses the hospital, police department, courthouse setting and past relationships to show how one violent crime can impact a whole community.

The six Grant County novels start from Blindsighted through Beyond Reach, also published as Skin Privilege. Sara Linton later moves into the Will Trent series starting with Undone, also published as Genesis, so Grant County is best read before Will Trent book 3 if you want to learn the more about Sara’s background story.

Blindsighted, 2001
Kisscut, 2002
A Faint Cold Fear, 2003
Indelible, 2004
Faithless, 2005
Beyond Reach, 2007 (also titled Skin Privilege)

Will Trent Series (Books in Order)

The Will Trent series follows Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Will Trent as he investigates major cases in Atlanta and across Georgia, often with his partner Faith Mitchell and other supporting law-enforcement characters. Will grew up in Atlanta’s foster care system, lives with severe dyslexia, and usually notices subtle details that are easy to miss.

The first two books, Triptych and Fractured, introduce the series before Sara Linton from Grant County joins in Undone, also published as Genesis. From that point onward, the two series are closely linked, and later books focus mostly on Will, Sara, Faith, Angie Polaski, Amanda Wagner, and Lena Adams in different ways. The series is best read in order, especially from Undone onward, as the character relationships and past trauma affect the whole series.

Reading notes: Snatched, Busted, and Cleaning the Gold are short stories within the Will Trent timeline. Cleaning the Gold is co-authored with Lee Child and features both Will Trent and Jack Reacher.

Triptych, 2006
Fractured, 2008
Undone (also titled Genesis), 2009
Broken, 2010
Fallen, 2011
Snatched, 2012
Criminal, 2012
Busted, 2013
Unseen, 2013
The Kept Woman, 2016
Cleaning the Gold, 2019 (with Lee Child)
The Last Widow, 2019
The Silent Wife, 2020
After That Night, 2023
This is Why We Lied, 2024

Charlie Quinn Series (Books in Order)

The Charlie Quinn series follows defense attorney Charlotte “Charlie” Quinn working in Pikeville, a small town in Georgia. The prequel novella Last Breath starts with the violent event from Charlie’s childhood and The Good Daughter picks up 28 years later and focuses on Charlie, her sister Samantha, and the long fallout from what happened to their family back then.

This series is much shorter than Grant County or Will Trent, but the two books are directly connected. Read Last Breath before The Good Daughter if you want the childhood backstory first, or start with The Good Daughter if you prefer the main novel and do not mind learning the past over time.

Last Breath, 2017
The Good Daughter, 2017

Andrea Oliver Series (Books in Order)

The Andrea Oliver series follows Andrea Oliver, first introduced in Pieces of Her as a young woman who starts to doubt everything she knows about her mother, Laura. In Girl, Forgotten, Andrea has become a newly appointed U.S. Marshal and takes on a case involving an older murder and a present-day protection assignment. The two books are connected through Andrea’s personal story.

Pieces of Her, 2018
Girl, Forgotten, 2022

North Falls Series (Books in Order)

The North Falls series follows Sheriff Emmy Clifton in the seemingly peaceful fictional rural Georgia community of North Falls. The series begins with We Are All Guilty Here, where the disappearance of two teenage girls exposes the secrets of the small town where everyone thinks they know each other quite well. The second book, The Secrets We Hide, brings Emmy back with her sister Jude Archer, an ex-federal agent, to investigate another violent case which opens up old family and town secrets once again.

We Are All Guilty Here, 2025
The Secrets We Hide, 2026

Standalone Novels

Short Stories and Novellas

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

Short Story Anthologies

Tart Noir, 2002
Like A Charm, 2004
The Penguin Book of Crime Stories, 2007 (edited by Peter Robinson)
First Thrills, 2010 (edited by Lee Child)
First Thrills: Volume 3, 2011 (edited by Lee Child)
Suspense Magazine August 2012, 2012
Vengeance, 2012 (edited by Lee Child)
The Mystery Box, 2013 (edited by Brad Meltzer)
Three Twisted Stories, 2015
MatchUp, 2017 (edited by Lee Child)

Karin Slaughter Biography

Karin Slaughter is an American crime thriller author who has written the Grant County, Will Trent, and North Falls series. She has published more than 25 novels since her debut in 2001, with over 40 million copies sold in 120 countries.
Official website: karinslaughter.com

Karin Slaughter was born on January 6, 1971, in Covington, Georgia, and grew up in Lake Spivey. She attended Morrow High School in Ellenwood, and then studied literature at Georgia State University. Next she began working in the sign industry, where she started her own sign business before turning to writing full time. She has said the years of failed early manuscripts were where she learned the craft.

Her debut novel, Blindsighted, published in 2001, introduced pediatrician and part-time coroner Sara Linton, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, and detective Lena Adams in the Grant County series, which became one of the author’s main work, and earned a CWA Dagger nomination for Best Thriller Debut. She launched the Will Trent series in 2006 with Triptych, moving the setting to Atlanta and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and merged the two series in Undone (also published as Genesis) in 2009. In that book, Sara Linton also becomes part of Will Trent’s world. Later standalone novels, Pretty Girls, Cop Town, and False Witness, brought Karin Slaughter to readers beyond her series fans. She has also written the Charlie Quinn, Andrea Oliver, and the North Falls series.

Her work has also been adapted for television. Pieces of Her became a Netflix series in 2022, and Will Trent premiered on ABC in 2023. Karin Slaughter also founded Save the Libraries, a nonprofit project supporting libraries and library programming which has contributed over $300,000 to the DeKalb County Public Library in Atlanta. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Karin Slaughter Book Adaptations

Pieces of Her – adapted into the Netflix original series Pieces of Her (2022)
Will Trent series – adapted into the ABC television series Will Trent (2023–present)
The Good Daughter – adapted into the Peacock limited series The Good Daughter (2026)

Karin Slaughter Awards and Honors

Major Awards and Honors

Blindsighted – CWA Dagger nomination, Best Thriller Debut (2001)
The Unremarkable Heart – Edgar Award, Best Short Story (2013)
International Thriller Writers Silver Bullet Award (2011)
Cop Town – CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (2015)
Pretty Girls – RUSA Adrenaline Award (2016)
We Are All Guilty Here – New York Times #1 Fiction Bestseller (2025)

Awards (Full List)

Show All Close

Faithless – Le Livre de Poche Prix Lecteurs, Best Foreign Thriller (2009)
Fractured – Crime Zone Silver Fingerprint, Best Foreign Thriller (2009)
Fallen – Crime Zone Silver Fingerprint, Best Foreign Thriller (2011)
International Thriller Writers Silver Bullet Award (2011)
The Unremarkable Heart – Edgar Award, Best Short Story (2013)
Cop Town – CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (2015)
Pretty Girls – RUSA Adrenaline Award (2016)
Nielsen Honorary Platinum Bestseller Award (2019)
We Are All Guilty Here – New York Times #1 Fiction Bestseller (2025)

Nominations and Shortlists