Karin Slaughter: my six best books
The bestselling author chooses her favourite books on plagues and lawyers (‘not the same thing’)

Karin Slaughter’s 2018 thriller, Pieces of Her, is being adapted by Netflix, and her latest novel, False Witness (HarperCollins £20), is out now.
1. Pale Horse, Pale Rider
Katherine Anne Porter (1939)
The title story in this collection was my introduction to the visceral horror of the 1918 flu pandemic. The memory lingered so much that I felt compelled to incorporate Covid into my current novel. Fiction captures history in a way that textbooks cannot.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Penguin £9.99; The Week Bookshop £7.99
2. Polio: An American Story
David M. Oshinsky (2006)
Until recently, the distribution of the polio vaccine was the largest public health project in American history. This book delves into the rush to create the vaccine, and the politics surrounding it, and calls out Isabel Morgan, considered the most skilled polio researcher, who had to retire to raise her family
OUP £19.99; The Week Bookshop £15.99
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
3. The Wife
Alafair Burke (2018)
This sly legal procedural is told from the point of view of the suspect’s wife. An excellent read in any setting, but particularly gripping with a margarita on the beach.
Faber £7.99; The Week Bookshop £5.99
4. Your House Will Pay
Steph Cha
Past is prologue in this riveting and at times shocking tale of racial unrest in LA. You wouldn’t think that the city that gave us Rodney King, O.J. Simpson and the Banditos would have any more stories to tell, but Cha manages to frame the narrative through the lens of two families grappling with the fallout fromahorrific decision that turns the city up to its boiling point.
Faber £8.99; The Week Bookshop £6.99
5. Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
Another flu pandemic, this one set in a dystopian future. While the author didn’t capture the rush on toilet paper, she certainly predicted our reliance on the arts to get us through these horrible times.
Picador £9.99; The Week Bookshop £7.99
6. Make Me
Lee Child (2015)
This young man studied law but went into television, then gave up TV to write novels. I really think he’s onto something with these Reacher books.
-
Citizenship: Trump order blocked again
Feature After the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions, a federal judge turned to a class action suit to block Trump's order to end birthright citizenship
-
Loyalty tests: The purge at the FBI
Feature Kash Patel is conducting polygraph tests on FBI agents to weed out anyone speaking badly about him
-
The all-seeing tech giant
Feature Palantir's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?
-
Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) recipe
The Week Recommends German dish is fresh, creamy and an ideal summer meal
-
6 peaceful homes near small towns
Feature Featuring doors with local topographical maps in Oregon and a 1850s homestead-turned-house in Vermont
-
Too Much: London-set romantic comedy from Lena Dunham
The Week Recommends Megan Stalter stars as a 'neurotic' New Yorker who falls in love with a Brit
-
Apocalypse in the Tropics: a 'troubling' portrait of modern Brazil
The Week Recommends Petra Costa's sobering documentary examines the rise of right-wing evangelical Christianity in Brazilian politics
-
Murderland: a 'hauntingly compulsive' book
The Week Recommends Caroline Fraser sets out a 'compelling theory' that toxins were to blame for the 1970s serial killer epidemic
-
The 2025 James Beard Award winners
Feature Featuring a casually elegant restaurant, recipes nearly lost to war, and more
-
Film reviews: Superman and Sorry, Baby
Feature A hero returns, in surprising earnest, and a woman navigates life after a tragedy
-
Music reviews: Lorde, Barbra Streisand, and Karol G
Feature "Virgin," "The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two," and "Tropicoqueta"