Breakaway Books

Authored by Karin Slaughter; Published August 2025; Thriller

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️

It has been such a long time since I read a thriller that I truly never wanted to put down. We Are All Guilty Here is that thriller.

In We Are All Guilty Here, Emmy Lou and her father Gerald are the backbone of the North Falls sheriff’s department. But when Emmy’s best friend’s stepdaughter is kidnapped and killed, Emmy’s world comes apart: She loses her best friend, divorces her husband, and struggles to regain the town’s respect. Twelve years later, another girl goes missing and Emmy has to figure out if she can fix the mistakes that she made the first time. Is it the same perpetrator, striking again? Or merely a copycat? 

The structure of this novel lends itself to twist after twist. The story starts with the kidnapping of two young girls, and I mentally settled in for a novel recounting in detail how the town fell apart because of their abduction. Instead, the girls are found dead after a short but intensive investigation, and the book leaps forward twelve years. The author then takes advantage of the gap in time to drop in new and sometimes astonishing information about what had happened in the decade between. It definitely kept me on my toes, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that I had no idea how the townspeople had changed or how the initial abduction had affected the town.

But I think that what the author really nails is the balance between Emmy’s family drama and her police work. Granted, this is partially because Emmy is a small town sheriff, and it is nearly impossible for her to fully separate her job from the rest of her life. But the fact that Emmy’s personal and professional lives are both depicted with nuance and complexity sets the novel apart and gives the book a broader appeal. Emmy has to suffer real personal consequences for the decisions she makes on the job, and that means that the stakes for solving this case are high. Add in the mysterious Jude, Emmy’s long-lost sister (turned FBI profiler), and the drama abounds.

We Are All Guilty Here is a real page turner, although the subject matter is anxiety-inducing, especially for parents. Nevertheless, I can’t help but recommend it!