Karin Slaughter Won’t Fade to Black

The crime writer Karin Slaughter has been plugging away at a new novel from her secluded cabin in Blue Ridge, Ga., and recently, the distant revving of a chain saw has disturbed her peace. "I have no idea where it's coming from," Slaughter says via Zoom from the cabin's book-filled den. "I hope it's a serial killer."

She looks over her shoulder toward the noise. When she turns back, white hair piled high, she looks completely unfazed.

Perhaps it's because Slaughter (yes, that's her real last name; yes, she's grown tired of jokes about it) has built a career imagining such worst-case scenarios. There are no chain saws in This Is Why We Lied (Morrow, Aug.), the 12th entry in her popular series featuring Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent, but the book's bloodshed takes place in a setting just as sequestered as Slaughter's cabin.