Fractured by Karin Slaughter

 

Will Trent is called to one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Atlanta.  Upstairs a teenage girl lies dead, the victim of a savage attack.  Downstairs a teenage boy's body is displayed, having been killed by the mother of the girl as he tried to flee.  The Atlanta police are there but make a critical mistake in the first hour.  The girl upstairs is not the daughter of the house but her best friend.  The daughter is missing, kidnapped by whoever broke in that day.

After that mistake and with the wealth of the parents, the case is transferred to the state investigators and assigned to Will.  He is given a female partner from the city police, Faith.  Faith and her family have issues with Will, who recently did an internal affairs investigation of the city police that resulted in jobs lost.  Will is a pariah to the city police.

Even worse, the father of the household is someone Will knew in the foster system they both grew up in.  The father was one of Will's chief tormentors and gave him the name Trashcan, since Will was found in a trashcan at five months old.  There is still animosity between the two that makes it even more difficult to concentrate on the crime.

As Will and Faith investigate, it turns out that many of the people surrounding the daughter of the house are not what they seem.  The clock ticks on, with each hour making it more unlikely that the girl can be rescued.  Will this case be a failure?

This is the second Will Trent series.  Readers get a bit more of his background and the dyslexia issues that he hides to save his job.  There are other characters discussed, Will's partner, Angie, who blatantly cheats on him, Will's boss Amanda who knows about his disability and uses it to control him and Faith who will be Will's partner going forward.  The crime is intricate and horrific and Will's special talents are needed to try to unwind the tangles.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.