We Are All Guilty Here

by Karin Slaughter ★★★★★

It's the 4th of July, and many of the residents of the small town of North Falls, GA have gathered to watch the local fireworks. It's also Madison Dalrymple's fifteenth birthday, but she'd rather be any place else. "There were at least two hundred people sprawled across the field and splashing in the lake as they waited for the fireworks to start, and Madison hated every single one of them." Her father sprung it on her the day before that they'd celebrate her birthday watching the fireworks, but her best —and only— friend in town, Cheyenne Baker, came to the rescue with an alternate plan: Cheyenne is going to meet her and whisk her away for some joyriding in Cheyenne's dad's Jetta. Except Cheyenne still hasn't shown up, and Madison is getting concerned.

Author Karin Slaughter takes advantage of having most of the town present to swiftly introduce the reader to many of the characters they will be living with for the ensuing novel. We come to learn that the town is dominated by one extended family tree, who have people in positions of authority throughout, starting with sheriff Gerald Clifton:

"Everybody was coming up to the sheriff like he was royalty, which was maybe true since the entire county had been named after his great-great—however many greats—grandfather. Emmy was one of his deputies. His wife taught at the middle school. His son taught at the high school. His brother ran the factory. His 200-year-old sister played the organ at the Second Baptist. There were tons of Cliftons all over the county, cousins and great-uncles and too many aunts. Madison’s dad joked that everybody who wasn’t a Clifton either worked for the Cliftons or had been arrested by the Cliftons."

Following the fireworks show, we are introduced to the central conflict of the novel. Both Madison and Cheyenne's bikes are found in the park, damaged, and there is no sign of the girls. There's also a significant amount of blood near one of the bikes. The small community, embroiled in its own insular politics, is suddenly facing a double child abduction, something that simply doesn't take place in their corner of the world. The town mobilizes to search for the girls, and its aging sheriff and his chief deputy daughter suddenly find themselves facing the most difficult case of their lives.

The story expands from that point. I went in expecting 400+ pages focused on solving that singular event, but there is significantly more at play here. Additional crimes are revealed, and additional family dynamics come into play across that many-branched Clifton family tree. The shifts in direction helped elevate the novel for me, from a standard whodunit to something more complex. Like with some of her previous novels, most notably Pretty Girls, Slaughter once again pulls no punches when describing some graphic and heinous crimes against minors; there is a dark and disturbing layer here beyond the abductions. There are also several well-executed and unexpected twists, both with the central mystery and the underlying family dynamics, which helped elevate it to an upper-tier thriller for me.

Overall, it's really good! As noted, We Are All Guilty Here is not for the faint of heart, but the combination of the plotting, character development, and misdirection made it a propelling read and the best thriller I've read so far this year. As a bonus, Slaughter planned this to be at least a three-book series from the beginning. While We Are All Guilty Here is self-contained and can be read as a stand-alone novel, the sequel, The Secrets We Hide, is scheduled for release August 11, 2026. I will certainly be picking that one up on the release date (unless I can snag an ARC first!).

---

Quick Facts

• Title: We Are All Guilty Here

• Author: Karin Slaughter

• Publisher: William Morrow

• Release Date: August 12, 2025

• Format: Ebook

• ISBN-13: 978-0063336803

• Pages: 448