Fallen by Karin Slaughter

 

Will Trent and Faith Mitchell have been partners for a while now and they trust each other.  That may seem to be a given but Will was responsible for Faith's mother being forced into early retirement from the police force.  Evelyn headed up the drug squad and when it was found to be riddled with corruption, she had to go also.  These days Evelyn is babysitting Faith's newborn baby.

When Faith goes to pick up the baby this day, she notices something is wrong right away.  There is blood on the carport and the door handle going in and rock music is blaring.  Evelyn is missing and the baby is nowhere to be found.  Before Faith can call it in, she finds one man lying dead and shoots another who is about to kill a third.  Then she ends up killing the third man when he escapes and threatens the neighbors.  Once the police arrive, the baby is found but Evelyn is not.  There is, however, a fourth dead man stashed in Evelyn's car trunk.

What is going on?  Will and his boss Amanda are determined to find the truth and find Evelyn before whoever took her kills her.  Faith is put on the sidelines to hold her family together while the investigation progresses.  Amanda is Evelyn's oldest friend and will do anything to find the truth although that doesn't seem to include telling Will all their old secrets.  Will is also distracted by the growing attraction between him and Dr. Sarah Linton.  Can she love a man like Will?  Can he break free of the toxic marriage he is involved in?

This is the fifth Will Trent novel.  Readers will be glad that he is finally getting something good out of life with his new relationship with Sarah.  But the mystery he finds himself entangled in is twisty and secretive and tests his bonds with his partner and his boss, both of whom want the same outcome but still want to protect old secrets.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.