Will Trent

Will Trent is the fictional main protagonist in author Karin Slaughter's Georgia Bureau of Investigation Atlanta series. Other major characters are Angie Polaski and Faith Mitchell. Current books in the series have the US titles of Triptych, Fractured, and Undone. Slaughter also writes the Grant County series. She has over 17 million books in print and is published in 30 languages. Some of her book titles differ in the US and other countries.

Biography

Will was found in a trashcan when he was a baby, and taken to the Atlanta Children's Home where he grew up. Despite the name, it was little more than a state orphanage. The woman who ran it and her assistants did the best they could, though they were understaffed and underpaid. The children were fed and clothed, the place was kept clean, some stability was provided. The state tried to place the children with foster families, which sometimes led to adoption into a loving environment, but more often than not that wasn't the case. Will never gave up, carefully grooming himself every visiting day, so that someone would want to adopt him. Will became one of The Doors, the nickname given to the children who always came back, as if the system was just a big revolving door. When he reached the legal adult age of eighteen, he left the home.

When Will was eight he met eleven-year-old Angie Polaski, recently arrived at the home. First they became allies and friends, eventually sexual partners, then developed a relationship. Though they admit they love each other, they are not in love. Will is comfortable with the familiarity and not interested in other women; Angie isn't and is interested in other men. She's left Will over a dozen times, but always comes back. He finally gave her an ultimatum and she agreed to marry him.

After leaving the home, Will began working for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). He worked in the Major Case Squad, where he had a reputation for being a good agent who didn't get along well with others. He was drafted into the Special Criminal Apprehension Team, a new unit headed by Amanda Wagner.

Will has solved 89% of his cases, a phenomenal clearance rate. He is an excellent puzzle solver, one of the best agents in the bureau. However, he is dyslexic. Will looks at his dyslexia as a personal failure and has never sought help for it. He uses all kinds of tricks to hide it: wearing a wristwatch to tell his left from right, using color-coded folders to identify his cases, using a digital recorder and voice recognition software to generate his reports, pretending that he forgot his glasses when someone hands him something to read. He shops for groceries based on familiar-looking labels or pictures on the packaging, and avoids new restaurants because he doesn't have the menu memorized. He has trouble with the signs when driving in unfamiliar areas, and he can not read roadmaps. He hates changing technology—a new cell phone or stereo or television costs him hours laboriously reading the directions or programming the functions. Despite his problem, he can take apart, repair, and reassemble almost anything with moving parts. He restored two automobiles, he can fix a piano or a washing machine or a lawnmower.

Will Trent is 6'3" tall and broad-shouldered, lanky and strong, with short dirty-blonde hair. He has huge hands. He has a scar on his upper lip where it was split so badly it couldn't be sewn back together properly, another running from his ear down into his collar, and still another on the back of his head from a shovel attack. He has scars from a whip, electrical burns, cigarette burns, and an open fracture. He also has a self-inflicted scar on one forearm from a suicide attempt. In spite of all the scars, some women find him good-looking, but he only has eyes for Angie. And in spite of the dyslexia, Will finished high school and got a college degree. Though he worked ten times harder than the other students, he barely passed. He went further and obtained dubious upper-level degrees through correspondence schools. Will is controlled and not likely to be impulsive or spontaneous. Loud noises make him flinch. He's a snappy dresser with a penchant for three-piece suits. He is eminently fair and reasonable, has poor social skills, and is kind to animals.

Major characters

Angie Polaski

Angie Polaski was eleven when she joined the Atlanta Children's Home. Since by that time she'd been abused by an endless string of her drug addict mother's boyfriends and found her mother overdosed in the bathroom just prior to entering a vegetative coma. She suffered more still at the hands of various foster parents and always ended up back at the home. The home itself became the source of some of her happiest childhood memories due to the devotion of Ms. Flannery, who ran the place and, though not particularly nurturing, conscientiously cared for her charges as best she could with what she had. After leaving the home Angie joined the Atlanta Police Department, and her long, strange relationship with Will Trent continued. One time Angie tried to count the number of men she had left Will for and came up with eleven. All of a type, as Will was happy to point out, that were bad for her. And every time she ended up back on Will's doorstep, and he took her back.

When Angie was with the APD she worked vice, dressing as a prostitute to lure and arrest men. She developed a kinship with the working girls, as she shared a similar background of abuse with many of them. There but for the grace of God and all that. Angie never knew who her father was, and perhaps the most painful aspect of her childhood was the treachery of her mother, Deidre Polaski, tossing her maternal duties for drugs.

Angie left the police department due to medical disability brought on by an attack in the line of duty which would have restricted her to a desk job had she stayed. At the end of Fractured, she has moved in with Will and they are engaged.

Faith Mitchell

Faith Mitchell is named after her grandmother. She is tall and blonde and pretty. She is a homicide detective with the Atlanta Police Department. Faith's mother, Evelyn, was one of the city's highest-ranking police commanders when Faith got her gold shield five years ago at the ripe young age of twenty-eight, which brought on rumors of nepotism. But Faith's competency soon quelled them and she was accepted into the squad. However, Faith's mother is no longer a police captain; six of her detectives were caught skimming money off of narcotics busts and she refused to testify against them. They were fired and she was forced to retire. The man who led the investigation was Will Trent.

When Faith was fourteen, she met a boy, and became pregnant. Upon learning the news, he disappeared. She waited until she was in her third trimester to tell her parents, and they ultimately left the decision up to her. Her son Jeremy was born and she didn't give him up for adoption. She eventually got used to the stares and the comments, but it was many years later that she found out that her father, a very devout man, was forced to leave his church.

Though early, Faith's motherhood was relatively normal. She loved her son dearly, anxiously passing many hours worrying about where he was, about drinking and drugs and accidents, that he might repeat her own mistakes.

Faith has a brother Zeke who is a surgeon in the Air Force, serving overseas in Brandenburg, Germany. Her father, Bill, died of pancreatic cancer. His death left a huge hole in Faith's life. It was not long after his death that she was promoted to homicide, becoming one of only three women in the division.

After seeing the toll the internal investigation took on her mother, transforming her into an old woman before Faith's eyes, Faith came to hate Will Trent. In Fractured, she meets him, and ends up having to work with him. Over time, she grew to like Will, and at the end of Fractured, She accepted Amanda Wagner's offer to join the Georgia Bureau of Investigation as Will's partner.

Other characters

Amanda Wagner -- Amanda is Will Trent's tough as nails supervisor.

Caroline -- Caroline is Amanda's secretary.

Leo Donnelly -- Another homicide detective, Leo may or may not be the victim of a bad rap. Throughout Triptych he's castigated by the other cops for his bad manners, his bad breath, his bad hygiene, but he's the one with the contacts and he's the one with the instincts to first smell the hinky smell. In Fractured, as Faith's partner, he screws up and schedules emergency surgery so he can go on medical leave rather than face Amanda's wrath. Leo's been divorced four times.

Pete Hanson -- Pete is a verbose, eccentric and able coroner. He's been divorced three times. He likes to gamble and wears a big gold medallion and shorts or scruffy jeans under his starched white lab coat. He admires Will Trent's intellect and skill as an investigator.

Charlie Reed -- Charlie is a crime scene technician with the Criminal Apprehension Team, another of Amanda's recruits who's been around almost as long as Will. Charlie's meticulous and a good investigator who always goes the extra mile, and Will requests him on all his cases. Charlie is not above bending the rules if it will save lives.

Victor Martinez -- The Dean of Student Relations at Georgia Tech. He and Faith spark the second time they meet.

Hamish Patel -- Hamish is a hostage negotiator for the GBI, trained by Amanda.

Ivan Sambor -- A Polish cop.

Books in the series

Triptych

When Atlanta police detective Michael Ormewood is called out to a murder scene at the notorious Grady Homes, he finds himself faced with one of the most brutal killings of his career: Aleesha Monroe is found in the stairwell in a pool of her own blood, her body horribly mutilated. As a one-off killing it’s shocking, but when it becomes clear that it’s just the latest in a series of similar attacks, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are called in, and Ormewood is forced into working with Special Agent Will Trent of the Criminal Apprehension Team — a man he instinctively dislikes. But then, only 24 hours later, the violence Michael sees around him every day explodes in his own back yard. And, it seems the mystery behind Monroe’s death is inextricably entangled with a past that refuses to stay buried…[1]

Fractured

When Atlanta housewife Abigail Campano comes home unexpectedly one afternoon, she walks into a nightmare. A broken window, a bloody footprint on the stairs and, most devastating of all, the horrifying sight of her teenage daughter lying dead on the landing, a man standing over her with a bloody knife. The struggle which follows changes Abigail’s life forever.

When the local police make a misjudgement which not only threatens the investigation but places a young girl’s life in danger, the case is handed over to Special Agent Will Trent of the Criminal Apprehension Team –- teamed with detective Faith Mitchell, a woman who resents him from their first meeting.

But in the relentless heat of a Georgia summer, Will and Faith realize that they must work together to find the brutal killer who has targeted one of Atlanta’s wealthiest, most privileged communities -– before it’s too late…[2]

Undone

Released July 2009, Undone brings together the Will Trent series and the Grant County series. Someone had spent time with her — someone well-practiced in the art of pain… Three years ago former Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton moved to Atlanta hoping to leave her tragic past behind her. Now working as a doctor in Atlanta’s Grady Hospital she is starting to piece her life together. But when a severely wounded young woman is brought in to the emergency room, she finds herself drawn back into a world of violence and terror. The woman has been hit by a car but, naked and brutalized, it’s clear that she has been the prey of a twisted mind. When Special Agent Will Trent of the Criminal Investigation Team returns to the scene of the accident, he stumbles on a torture chamber buried deep beneath the earth. And this hidden house of horror reveals a ghastly truth – Sara’s patient is just the first victim of a sick, sadistic killer. Wrestling the case away from the local police chief, Will and his partner Faith Mitchell find themselves at the center of a grisly murder hunt. And Sara, Will and Faith – each with their own wounds and their own secrets – are the only thing that stands between a madman and his next crime…[1]

Broken

When the body of a young woman is discovered deep beneath the icy waters of Lake Grant, a note left under a rock by the shore points to suicide. But within minutes, it becomes clear that this is no suicide. It’s a brutal, cold-blooded murder. All too soon former Grant County medical examiner Sara Linton – home for Thanksgiving after a long absence — finds herself unwittingly drawn into the case. The chief suspect is desperate to see her but when she arrives at the local police station she is met with a horrifying sight — he lies dead in his cell, the words ‘Not me’ scrawled across the walls. Something about his confession doesn’t add up and deeply suspicious of the detective in charge, Lena Adams, Sara immediately calls the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Shortly afterwards, Special Agent Will Trent is brought in from his vacation to investigate. But he is immediately confronted with a wall of silence. Grant County is a close-knit community with loyalties and ties that run deep. And the only person who can tell the truth about what really happened is dead.[2]

Fallen

There’s no police training stronger than a cop’s instinct. Faith Mitchell’s mother isn’t answering her �phone. Her front door is open. There’s a bloodstain above the knob. Her infant daughter is hidden �in a shed behind the house. All that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations taught Faith Mitchell goes �out the window when she charges into her mother’s house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the �laundry room. She sees a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn’t see is her mother…

“You know what we’re here for. Hand it over, and we’ll let her go.”

When the hostage situation turns deadly, Faith is left with too many questions, not enough answers. To find her mother, she’ll need the help of her partner, Will Trent, and they’ll both need the help of trauma doctor Sara Linton. But Faith isn’t just a cop anymore — she’s a witness. She’s also a suspect.

The thin blue line hides police corruption, bribery, even murder. Faith will have to go up against the people she respects the most in order to find her mother and bring the truth to light — or bury it forever.

Karin Slaughter’s most exhilarating novel yet is a thrilling journey through the heart and soul, where the personal and the criminal collide, and conflicted loyalties threaten to destroy reputations and ruin lives.[3]

Snatched

Will Trent, a dedicated agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for fifteen years, knows that there’s definitely such a thing as a cop’s intuition. Which is why he should have listened to his own.

While in an airport restroom at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International, Will overhears a girl’s pleading, plaintive voice: “Please, I wanna go home.” Something isn’t right here, thinks Will. He feels it in his gut. But he waits too long to act, and now the girl and the anxious, angry man she’s with have disappeared into the crowds at the busiest passenger airport in the world.

After a desperate search and with time running out, Will makes a call to his supervisor, Amanda Wagner. Will’s partner, Faith Mitchell, immediately sends out an abducted child alert. The entire airport will soon be grinding to a halt: Eighty-nine million passengers a year. Five runways. Seven concourses. Six million square feet of space that sprawled across two counties, three cities, and five jurisdictions. All shut down on a dime because Will has a hunch that he is certain is true: a girl, maybe six or seven years old, has been snatched from God knows where. And he intends to bring her back—no matter what it takes.[4]

Criminal

Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda’s motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before, when his father was imprisoned for murder, this was Will’s home. It appears that the case that launched Amanda’s career forty years ago has suddenly come back to life—and it involves the long-held mystery of Will’s birth and parentage. Now these two dauntless investigators will each need to face down demons from the past if they are to prevent an even greater terror from being unleashed.[5]

Busted

Detective Will Trent is standing in a Georgia convenience store, waiting on an obstinate Icee frozen drink machine. To the surveillance cameras and bored staff of the Lil’ Dixie Gas-n-Go, however, Will appears to be someone very different—the menacing ex-con Bill Black. Going undercover as Bill, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent is about to infiltrate the most corrupt town in the most corrupt county in the new American South. But first: his Icee.

Everything changes in one horrific instant, as all hell breaks loose at the Lil’ Dixie. A cop is shot. A bag of cash goes flying across the floor. A young woman disappears while a killer takes off in a battered pick-up truck. Within seconds, Will is in pursuit.[6]

Unseen

Will Trent is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent whose latest case has him posing as Bill Black, a scary ex-con who rides a motorcycle around Macon, Georgia, and trails an air of violence wherever he goes. The cover has worked and he has caught the eye of a wiry little drug dealer who thinks he might be a useful ally. But undercover and cut off from the support of the woman he loves, Sara Linton, Will finds his demons catching up with him.

Although she has no idea where Will has gone, or why, Sara herself has come to Macon because of a cop shooting: Her stepson, Jared, has been gunned down in his own home. Sara holds Lena, Jared’s wife, responsible: Lena, a detective, has been a magnet for trouble all her life, and Jared’s shooting is not the first time someone Sara loved got caught in the crossfire. Furious, Sara finds herself involved in the same case that Will is working without even knowing it, and soon danger is swirling around both of them.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 Reference 1
  2. 1 2 Reference 2
  3. ↑ Reference 5
  4. ↑ Reference 6
  5. ↑ Reference 7
  6. ↑ Reference 8
  7. ↑ Reference 9

Triptych[1] Fractured[2] Undone[3] Broken[4] Fallen[5] Snatched[6] Criminal[7] Busted[8]

  1. ↑ "Triptych". http://www.karinslaughter.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  2. ↑ "Fractured". http://www.karinslaughter.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  3. ↑ "Undone". http://www.karinslaughter.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  4. ↑ "Broken". http://www.karinslaughter.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  5. ↑ "Fallen". http://www.karinslaughter.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  6. ↑ "Snatched". http://www.karinslaughter.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  7. ↑ "Criminal". http://www.karinslaughter.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  8. ↑ "Busted". http://www.karinslaughter.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015. External link in |website= (help)
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