Will Trent
Encyclopedia
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.
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 the proverbial happy ending of 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. However, they did not get married.
After leaving the home, Will began working for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). He worked major crimes
, 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.
. 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'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, suffered a stroke seven years ago and died in the hospital two days later with his family at his side. 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.
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.
, a definite career ender.
, Will waits nervously to see if anyone will notice his own, and he and Faith race frantically from the dormitories of Georgia Tech to the halls of one of Atlanta's exclusive private academies to keep another corpse from surfacing.
Undone
Released July 2009, Undone
brings together the Will Trent series and the Grant County
series.
Karin Slaughter
-Personal Life:Karin Slaughter is an American crime writer, whose first novel Blindsighted became an international success, was published in almost 30 languages, and made the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award shortlist for "Best Thriller Debut" of 2001.Fractured, the second novel in the...
's Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Georgia Bureau of Investigation
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation or GBI is an independent, U.S. state of Georgia agency that provides assistance to the state's criminal justice system in the areas of criminal investigations, forensic laboratory services and computerized criminal justice information.-Organization:The agency is...
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
Grant County, Georgia
Grant County, Georgia, is a fictional place used for the settings of Karin Slaughter's novels. The main characters in these novels are Sara Linton, Jeffrey Tolliver, and Lena Adams. The Grant County books are Blindsighted, Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless, and Beyond Reach....
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.
Will Trent Biography
Will was found in a trashcan when he was a baby, and taken to the Atlanta Children's HomeChildren's Home
Children's Home is a historic building at 427 Robeson Street in Fall River, Massachusetts.The Home was built in 1894 and added to the National Historic Register in 1983....
where he grew up. Despite the name, it was little more than a state orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
. 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 the proverbial happy ending of adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
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
Revolving door
A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors that hang on a center shaft and rotate around a vertical axis within a cylindrical enclosure. Revolving doors are energy efficient as they prevent drafts, thus preventing increases in the heating or cooling required for the building...
. 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. However, they did not get married.
After leaving the home, Will began working for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). He worked major crimes
Major Crimes
Major Crimes is an upcoming American drama television series starring Mary McDonnell, which will debut on TNT in the summer of 2012.-Cast:* Mary McDonnell as Captain Sharon Raydor-Development and production:...
, 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
Clearance rate
In criminal justice, clearance rate is calculated by dividing the number of crimes that are "cleared" by the total number of crimes recorded. Clearance rates are used by various groups as a measure of crimes solved by the police....
. 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
Dictation machine
A dictation machine is a sound recording device most commonly used to record speech for later playback or to be typed into print. It includes digital voice recorders and tape recorders....
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
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
. He hates changing technology—a new cell phone or stereo
STEREO
STEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...
or television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
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.
Angie Polaski
Angie Polaski was eleven when she joined the Atlanta Children's HomeChildren's Home
Children's Home is a historic building at 427 Robeson Street in Fall River, Massachusetts.The Home was built in 1894 and added to the National Historic Register in 1983....
. 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
Atlanta Police Department
The Atlanta Police Department is the law enforcement agency of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.The city shifted from its rural-based Marshal and Deputy Marshal model at the end of the 19th century. In 1873, the department was formed with 26 officers...
, 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
Vice
Vice is a practice or a behavior or habit considered immoral, depraved, or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a defect, an infirmity, or merely a bad habit. Synonyms for vice include fault, depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness, and corruption...
, 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
DRUGS
Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows are an American post-hardcore band formed in 2010. They released their debut self-titled album on February 22, 2011.- Formation :...
.
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 DepartmentAtlanta Police Department
The Atlanta Police Department is the law enforcement agency of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.The city shifted from its rural-based Marshal and Deputy Marshal model at the end of the 19th century. In 1873, the department was formed with 26 officers...
. 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
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
. 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
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
. 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
Air force
An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...
, serving overseas in Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Her father, Bill, suffered a stroke seven years ago and died in the hospital two days later with his family at his side. 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
Georgia Bureau of Investigation
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation or GBI is an independent, U.S. state of Georgia agency that provides assistance to the state's criminal justice system in the areas of criminal investigations, forensic laboratory services and computerized criminal justice information.-Organization:The agency is...
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
Hostage negotiator
Crisis negotiation is a technique for law enforcement to communicate with people who are threatening violence, including barricaded subjects, hostage takers, stalkers, threats, workplace violence, or persons threatening suicide....
for the GBI, trained by Amanda.
Ivan Sambor -- A Polish cop.
Triptych
Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is on the trail of a serial rapist with a gruesome inclination when he comes into contact with Michael Ormewood, an Atlanta homicide detective with a past, who caught the squeal on a case Will is interested in. Will and Michael work to solve the case, mingling with the pimps and hookers of Atlanta's housing projects in the search for clues. Will continues his struggle to keep anyone from finding out about his dyslexiaDyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, a definite career ender.
Fractured
Six months ago, Atlanta homicide detective Faith Mitchell's police captain mother was the focus of an investigation that resulted in her retirement and the firing of six narcotics officers. It was a righteous bust but the cops want to protect their own, and Faith, along with the entire Atlanta police force, simmers with rage at the man responsible, GBI agent Will Trent. Now Faith and Will are thrown together on a shocking murder/kidnapping case involving some of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the city, and neither one of them is happy about the pairing. But Faith gradually discovers that not only is Will not the verminous heel she expected him to be, he is a sleuth par excellence, and Will must deal with a bully from his past who is now a victim and whose irrational hostility threatens the investigation. As the case begins to center on dyslexiaDyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, Will waits nervously to see if anyone will notice his own, and he and Faith race frantically from the dormitories of Georgia Tech to the halls of one of Atlanta's exclusive private academies to keep another corpse from surfacing.
Undone
Undone (novel)
Undone is a novel by bestselling author Karin Slaughter which combines characters from her Will Trent series and her Grant County series. It is her 9th full-length novel. Other books by Karin Slaughter are Blindsighted, Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless, Beyond Reach/Skin Privilege ,...
Released July 2009, Undone
Undone (novel)
Undone is a novel by bestselling author Karin Slaughter which combines characters from her Will Trent series and her Grant County series. It is her 9th full-length novel. Other books by Karin Slaughter are Blindsighted, Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless, Beyond Reach/Skin Privilege ,...
brings together the Will Trent series and the Grant County
Grant County, Georgia
Grant County, Georgia, is a fictional place used for the settings of Karin Slaughter's novels. The main characters in these novels are Sara Linton, Jeffrey Tolliver, and Lena Adams. The Grant County books are Blindsighted, Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless, and Beyond Reach....
series.