Triptych by Karin Slaughter

 

When John Shelley was sixteen, all he could think about was getting his first kiss from his teenage crush.  He's thrilled when she agrees to come to his cousin's party and he can't believe his luck when he gets to take her home and they go to her bedroom.  But the thrill is gone when he wakes up.  All he remembers is passing out after doing some of the drugs his cousin gave him.  But he wakes up to the dead, mutilated body of the girl he was with.  John was arrested and due to the gruesome nature of the crime, he was tried as an adult and given a life sentence.

Now, twenty years later, John has been paroled.  He is doing the best he can to move on but it's not easy being a parole, especially one from a sex crime.  He works at a car wash at minimum wage and lives in a horrible rooming house for which he is overcharged.  His father wrote him off when he was arrested and his sister doesn't want to hear from him.  Even worse, someone has started killing women in the same way that the first murder occurred and John is pretty sure the police will be coming for him again.

The murders are the responsibility of the Atlanta Police Department.  The case is assigned to Michael but he is appalled when his boss calls in the state police for help.  They send an agent named Will Trent, a tall, gangly man who seems to know a lot but who doesn't follow the rules.  The two men also bring in Angie, a cop working Vice who knows the most recent victim.  She also has history with both men.  She worked with Michael in Vice but grew up as a friend of Will's.  Together the group tries to find the killer before he strikes again.  Will they be in time?

This is the first novel in the Will Trent series.  Will is a flawed character with significant learning disabilities that he has spent his life hiding and a background of horrific childhood abuse.  He and Angie can't live without each other or with each other; their relationship is a cauldron of churning emotions.  There are twists and turns, some expected and some coming out of nowhere to surprise the reader.  This book is recommended for readers of mystery novels.