Tag / Karin Slaughter

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Streaking Authors

Every other year or so, we take a fresh look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  I thought it would be interesting to mix it up a bit and, instead of looking at the overall total, to instead look at the authors I have read continuously for the longest period of time.  So, without further ado, it’s time to take a look at which authors have the longest streak of consecutive years read.

Ten

Jeffery Deaver – Thanks mostly to his Lincoln Rhyme series, Deaver put together a streak of ten years with at least one book read by me starting in 2015 with The Vanished Man and ending in 2024 with Fatal Intrusion, his first collaboration with Isabella Maldonado.  After a one-year absence, corresponding with my completing the Rhyme series, he returned in 2026 to hopefully start a new streak.

Nine

Riley Sager – Sager burst onto the scene in 2017 with his first novel, Final Girls.  Every year since, he has put out a new book and I have read it, continuing through last year’s With a Vengeance.  He can extend his streak and tie Deaver for the longest if the library can deliver his latest in the next two months or so.

Karin Slaughter – Another current streak, Slaughter first came across my notice in 2018 thanks to Pretty Girls.  Due in part to her Will Trent and Grant County series, she has showed up at least once every year since, including Girl, Forgotten, which I completed earlier this year.

Eight

Richard Castle – The ghost writer for Richard Castle, the character portrayed by Nathan Fillion in Castle, made appearances in eight straight years, thanks to the novels that were supposedly written in the show, starting in 2010 with Heat Wave and culminating in 2017 with A Bloody Storm.

Six

Sarah Pekkanen – Starting in 2020, with her writing partner Green Hendricks, Pekkanen started her streak with The Wife Between Us.  Her streak outlived the partnership, continuing through last year with The Locked Ward.

Five

Nancy Holder – Thanks to her television show tie-in work, Nancy Holder was able to string together a streak of five years, starting in 1998 with Halloween Rain, based on the adventures of Bully the Vampire Slayer, and finishing in 2002 with The Burning, a collaboration with Jeff Mariotte.

Stephen King – My history with King is long but contains many frequent breaks.  His longest streak, which is current through the end of the year, started in 2021 with Later and runs through last year, when I completed his latest, Never Flinch.

Mary Kubica – The local author first came to my attention in 2015 with The Good Girl.  She appeared at least once annually through 2019, when I completed When the Lights Go Out.

Rebecca Forster – Forster was a constant presence as I worked through her Witness series, beginning in 2021 with Silent Witness and completing last year with Lost Witness.

Alex Finlay – Finlay first landed on my Kindle in 2022, thanks to Every Last Fear.  His streak continues on, thank to this year’s The Anniversary.

Richard Osman – His Thursday Murder Club series has helped him put together a streak of five years, starting in 2022 with The Thursday Murder Club and continuing through 2026 with The Impossible Fortune.

Elin Hilderbrand – We wrap up with Hilderbrand, who also has a current five-year streak going into 2027.  She started in 2022 with The Hotel Nantucket and continued this year with Winter in Paradise.

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Book 29 (of 52) – Girl, Forgotten

Girl, Forgotten – Karin Slaughter

Andrea Oliver, fresh out of training to be a US Marshall, finds herself with an unusual assignment: protecting a federal judge while secretly investigating the 40-year-old death of the judge’s daughter, with her imprisoned father as the chief suspect.  With her new partner kept in the dark, Andrea tries to straddle the two tasks, but everyone and everything seems to conspire to bring the two together. Once she learns the truth about who is threatening the judge, the pieces of the other case fall into place.

In her follow-up to 2018’s Pieces of Her, Karin Slaughter picks back up the story of Andrea Oliver, now a newly minted US Marshall, in Girl, Forgotten.  It was interesting to revisit this character as she tries to find her place in the world following the events of the first book.  I’m not sure if there is more coming or if this was the end of the line, but Slaughter never disappoints and she’s sure to be back on my Kindle sooner rather than later.

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Midseason Review – Tuedays

Continuing our look back at my thoughts on the new fall season, with the offerings that I found myself interested in for Tuesdays.

7:00

Murder in a Small Town – A second season of the Canadian mystery-drama of the week featuring old favorites Kristin Kreuk.

At some point, you would think someone would notice that there are an awful lot of murders in this otherwise idyllic small town.

8:00

Doc – A surprise hit last spring, Molly Parker returns for a second go-around.

Still enjoyable but turning into more of a standard medical drama as the Doc gets her memories back.

9:00

High Potential – One of the only breakout hits of last season, Kaitlin Olson returns for a second season as an under-employed genius who consults with the police.

More of the same here.

Now, let’s see what interesting tidbits are coming this spring:

Will Trent – The series very loosely based on Karin Slaughter’s novels returns for its fourth season.

 

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2025: The Year In Books

As 2025 comes to a close, my fifth full year of remote working, I managed to once again surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 66 books, five books more than my previous high set last year and my fifth consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I completed the challenge in mid-October and surpassed last year’s total in early-December.  I read 25,279 pages, by far my highest total of all time and just the third time I’ve managed to surpass 20.000 pages.

Of those books, only two were non-fiction and, of the remaining 64 novels, only six were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with two hard covers, three paperbacks, 61 e-books and no audiobooks.  I was forced to switch my library card from the Chicago Public Library to my local library, which slowed me down a little but still led to 55 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

Over 71% of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 21 authors that I read for the first time this year were:

Coco Mellors Aisling Rawle Stephen Graham Jones
Liz Moore Natalie Sue Kaliane Bradley
Max Brooks Mary Shelley Paul Tremblay
Nathaniel Hawthorne Kelly Bishop Tanya Pearson
Liane Moriarty Benjamin Stevenson Ashley Winstead
Ashley Elston Alison Espach Alice Feeney
Ali Land Lindsay Jamieson Jeneva Rose

Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman, Kathy Reichs, Lee Goldberg, Stephen King, Emily Henry, Elin Hilderbrand, and Rebecca Forster were the authors that I read multiple titles from during 2025, accounting for nearly 35% of my total.

22 of the books I read were released this year, while none were released during the 20th century.  Two came from the 19th century, with the oldest first published in 1818.

Finally, the breakdown by month, which was fairly consistent across the entire year. Continue reading →

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Prolific Authors Wrap Up

Way back in December of 2011 (and again every other December since), we’ve taken a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school. This year, I’ve far surpassed my previous record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into all of those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 114 books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  Today, we wrap things up with a look back at the 109 authors I’ve read more than once.

Largest Increase (since 2023)

Pieces of Her – Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter – 7
Stephen King – 6
Laura Lippman – 6
Jeffery Deaver – 4
Lee Goldberg – 4
Elin Hilderbrand – 4
Kathy Reichs – 4

Largest Increase (since 2011)

Solitude Creek – Jefferu Deaver

Karin Slaughter – 19
Jeffery Deaver – 18
Erle Stanley Gardner – 14
Richard Castle – 13
Stephen King – 12

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Prolific Authors – 19 Books

It is time once again to take a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, I’m once again on pace to set a new record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 1xx books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  We continue today with the lone author I’ve read 19 times, starting in 2018.

Karin Slaughter

In March of 2018, I was flying to Las Vegas for the IBM Think conference and I clicked open Pretty Girls, a standalone work by Karin Slaughter, which had been on the Kindle for a while. Little did I know that I would average close to three books per year for the next seven years.

After That Night – Karin Slaughter

The following year, I jumped into her Will Trent series, accidentally starting with the eighth entry The Kept Woman.  I worked my way through that series, becoming current in 2023.  That summer, I went back to her older Grant County series, having some familiarity with characters who had crossed over.  Earlier this year, I knocked off Pieces of Her, which was adapted by Netflix for a show in 2022 and has a sequel waiting for me.  On top of all that, she has a new series which started in August.  I imagine she may take the top spot next time I run through this list.

 

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Book 54 (of 52) – We Are All Guilty Here

We Are All Guilty Here – Karin Slaughter

When two teenage girls go missing on the fourth of July, it becomes personal for Officer Emmy Clifton.  While she is able to arrest the man thought to be responsible and locate the bodies of the girls, she loses her best friend in the process.  Years later, after the assumed killer has been freed thanks to a scathing podcast, a similar crime takes place, robbing Clifton of even more.  This time, though, she is determined to cut through the secrets of the town, and her family, in order to save the kidnapped girl and find the true killers.

Karin Slaughter returns with We Are All Guilty Here, the first entry in what is meant to be a new series.  Taking place in rural, small-town Georgia, it shares some of the institutions, if not the characters, of her earlier series.  Emmy Clifton looks to be a strong lead character for the new series, so I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.

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Book 39 (of 52) – Beyond Reach

Beyond Reach – Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series comes to an explosive end!  Detective Lena Adams is arrested for murder in her hometown when she is found next to burning car with a corpse in the back seat in the middle of the local high school football field.  Jeffrey Tolliver and Sara Linton, married once again, rush to uncover the truth behind Lena’s involvement while getting their bearings in a town seemingly run by meth-dealing white supremacists.

Beyond Reach wraps up the Grant Country series by killing off the Jeffrey Tolliver character.  At the time, Slaughter intended to continue the series with an entry called Genesis, the beginning of Lena and Sara’s life without Jeffrey, but, instead, turned that into Undone, which introduced Sara and Grant County into the Will Trent series and used the Genesis title overseas.  I would love to go back and re-read that with the context I have now.  Between her new North Falls series, which began earlier this year, and her standalone novels, I still have plenty of Karin Slaughter in my future.

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Book 23 (of 52) – Faithless

Faithless – Karin Slaughter

While walking through the woods near their home, Jeffery Tolliver and Sara Linton find a dead girl buried in a hand-made coffin.  The investigation into her death leads to a church and a farm straddling the county line and has ties to Sara’s family’s secrets.  While they get closer to finding the culprit, Lena is forced to deal with the physical abuse that her so-called boyfriend has been doing to her.

After four and a half months, I return to Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series with the fifth and penultimate entry, Faithless.  Knowing what is coming, I both want to jump to the next entry and also put it off.  Either way, I should be finishing the series soon, leaving me with just a handful of one-offs.

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Book 13 (of 52) – Pieces Of Her

Pieces of Her – Karin Slaughter

When a video from a shooting at the local mall goes viral, Andy’s mom quickly kicks her out of the house and sends her away.  She starts to piece together that her mother may not be what she seems, finding clues that lead her from Georgia to Texas and, ultimately, to Illinois, where she learns the truth: her mother was part of a terrorist group and is now living under an assumed name.  When she is taken hostage by one of her mom’s old confederates, Andy learns that while her mother may not be who she thought she was, she is still her mother and will fight for her.

I first became acquainted with Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her in 2022, when I watched the adaptation on Netflix.  I remembered the main beats, but I think the ending was different.  There is another book in this series which I will get to one of these days, along with her other series that I am in the middle of.