Triptych: A Novel by Karin Slaughter | Atlanta’s Darkest Triptych

REVIEW

Karin Slaughter’s Triptych is the gritty, gripping firecracker that launched the Will Trent series, and you can feel her breaking thrilling new ground after Grant County. From Atlanta’s wealthiest suburbs to its stark inner-city housing projects, a killer has crossed the boundaries of wealth and race, and it falls to Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to pick up the trail of a serial rapist with a gruesome inclination.

The case pulls in Atlanta homicide detective Michael Ormewood, whose dark past involves Angie Polaski, a vice cop who is the only woman Will has ever loved. And then there’s John Shelley; at fifteen he was tried as an adult for the rape and murder of a neighbour girl, and he’s just gotten out of prison after twenty years. He’s trying to stay clean and keep his parole officer happy when he discovers by accident that he’s involved with the rapist, and if he doesn’t act fast, he’ll end up back inside. Will and Michael have to work the pimps and sex workers of Atlanta’s housing projects for clues while Will and Angie resume their strange relationship after a two-year hiatus.

What makes this first Atlanta novel so compelling is how damaged everyone is. Will is severely dyslexic and scarred by a tragic past; his job is the only thing that keeps the painful demons of his own past at bay, and he’ll do anything to keep anyone from finding out about his dyslexia, a definite career-ender. John’s possibly wrongful imprisonment is the most horrifying thread, rife with it-could-happen-to-you implications. Slaughter weaves together the threads of a complex, multilayered story with the skill of a master craftsman, packed with body-bending switchbacks and searing psychological suspense.

It ratchets up the tension one revelation at a time as it races to a shattering and unforgettable climax, though the middle does unfold slowly and the shock value of the twist isn’t quite matched by the denouement. Still, it’s Slaughter at her nerve-wracking best. As she writes, “In a rare moment of candour, he had once told her that being in a library was like sitting down at a table laid with all his favourite foods but not being able to eat any of them.” That line captures Will Trent perfectly, and why you’ll want to follow him to Fractured.

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Graphic rape/sexual assault
• murder
• mutilation
• sex work/pimping
• wrongful imprisonment
• prison/parole
• dyslexia-related trauma/childhood trauma in orphanage
• domestic violence references
• drug addiction mention

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