Karin Slaughter Will Trent and Grant County Series 12 Books Collection Set (Triptych, Cop Town, Fractured, Fallen, Indelible, Broken, Unseen, Kisscut, Faithless, Pretty Girls and More)

Why it's worth it

Twelve novels covering Slaughter's Grant County books, the Will Trent series and the standalone Pretty Girls, all arriving at once. It's the most emotionally punishing reading on this list, and the right buy only if you already know that's what you're after.

This is the deepest commitment here, and the biggest payoff if it lands. The collection pulls together Slaughter's Grant County novels, the Will Trent books and Pretty Girls. It's Southern Gothic crime — small-town Georgia, damaged investigators, cases that leave a mark. Almost nobody working in contemporary crime fiction sustains that atmosphere across this many books without it going stale.

Triptych is where most readers start, and it's one of the strongest openers in the genre. It also sets expectations honestly. If that first book is too much for you, the next eleven won't be gentler. That's genuinely useful — you'll know inside one novel whether buying the whole stack was right.

From our review of 10 thriller and mystery novels, by Genevieve Dubois, Home & Living Expert

What we like

• +This is the deepest commitment here, and the biggest payoff if it lands
• +Triptych is where most readers start, and it's one of the strongest openers in the genre
• +The television adaptation pulled a wave of new readers toward Will Trent, and the books hold their own against it
• +Twelve novels in one delivery also removes the friction that kills series reading

What to know

• –The violence is graphic, and it's aimed at women more often than not
• –Reading order is a mess in a collection this size