“Powerful and complex . . .  [Karin] Slaughter gradually unspools her fascinating story, all the way up to its shocking conclusion.” —Chicago Sun-Times In a small Georgia town, Detective Lena Adams is accused of a vicious murder. A hundred miles away, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver learns that his young detective has been arrested. And Jeffrey’s wife, pediatrician and medical examiner Sara Linton, fighting a heartbreaking malpractice suit, is thrust into the center of a bizarre and murderous case.   For Lena has fled to the place where she grew up, careening back through the shadows of her past. Now only Jeffrey and Sara can free Lena from the web of lies that has trapped her—as this powerful novel races toward its shattering climax and a final, unforgettable twist.   Praise for Karin Slaughter and Beyond Reach   “Will leave you breathless.” — USA Today   “Slaughter writes with a razor.” — The Plain Dealer   “Slaughter will have you on the edge of your seat.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer   Praise for Karin Slaughter and Beyond Reach   “Will leave you breathless.” — USA Today   “Slaughter writes with a razor.” — The Plain Dealer   “Slaughter will have you on the edge of your seat.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer   “Powerful and complex . . . Slaughter gradually unspools her fascinating story, all the way up to its shocking conclusion.” —Chicago Sun-Times Karin Slaughter is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of numerous thrillers, including Cop Town, Unseen, Criminal, Fallen, Broken, Undone, Fractured, Beyond Reach, Triptych, Faithless, and the e-original short stories “Snatched” and “Busted.” She is a native of Georgia. Chapter One SARA LINTON LOOKED AT HER WATCH. The Seiko had been a gift from her grandmother on the day Sara graduated from high school. On Granny Em's own graduation day, she had been four months from marriage, a year and a half from bearing the first of her six children and thirty-eight years from losing her husband to cancer. Higher education was something Emma's father had seen as a waste of time and money, especially for a woman. Emma had not argued—she was raised during a time when children did not think to disagree with their parents—though she made sure that all four of her surviving children attended college. "Wear this and think of me," Granny Em had said that day on the school campus as she closed the watch's silver bracelet around Sara's wrist. "You're going to do everything you ever dreamed of, and I want you to know that I will always be right there beside you." As a student at Emory University, Sara had constantly looked at the watch, especially through advanced biochemistry, applied genetics, and human anatomy classes that seemed by law to be taught by the most boring, monosyllabic professors that could be found. In medical school, she had impatiently glanced at the watch on Saturday mornings as she stood outside the lab, waiting for the professor to come and unlock the door so she could finish her experiments. During her internship at Grady Hospital, she had stared blurry-eyed at its white face, trying to make out the hands, as she calculated how much longer she had left in thirty-six-hour shifts. At the Heartsdale Children's Clinic, she had closely followed the second hand as she pressed her fingers to a child's thin wrist, counting the beats of his heart as they ticked beneath his skin, seeking to discern if an "achy all-over" was a serious ailment or if it just meant the kid did not want to go to school that day. For almost twenty years, Sara had worn the watch. The crystal had been replaced twice, the battery numerous times, and the bracelet once because Sara could not stomach the thought of cleaning out the dried blood of a woman who had died in her arms. Even at Granny Em's funeral, Sara had found herself touching the smooth bezel around the face, tears streaming down her own face at the realization that she could never again see her grandmother's quick, open smile or the sparkle in her eyes as she learned of her oldest granddaughter's latest accomplishment. Now, looking at the watch, for the first time in her life Sara was glad her grandmother was not there with her, could not read the anger in Sara's eyes, know the humiliation that burned in her chest like an uncontrollable fire as she sat in a conference room being deposed in a malpractice suit filed by the parents of a dead patient. Everything Sara had ever worked for, every step she had taken that her grandmother could not, every accomplishment, every degree, was being rendered meaningless by a woman who was all but calling Sara a baby killer. The lawyer leaned over the table, eyebrow raised, lip curled, as Sara glanced at the watch. "Dr. Linton, do you have a more pressing appointment?" "No." Sara tried to keep her voice calm, to quell the fury that the lawyer had obviously been stoking for the last four hours. Sara knew that she was b