Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
Internationally bestselling author Karin Slaughter’s latest novel, Pieces of Her, is even more electrifying, provocative, and suspenseful than anything she’s written before.
What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all…?
Andrea Cooper knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life. Because we all know our mothers, don’t we?
But all that changes when a trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly 30 years she’s been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one would ever find her. But now she’s been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.
The police want answers and Laura’s innocence is on the line, but she won’t speak to anyone, including her own daughter. Andrea is on a desperate journey following the breadcrumb trail of her mother’s past. And if she can’t uncover the secrets hidden there, there may be no future for either one of them.
Andrea Cooper put her life on hold – okay, it wasn’t much of a life, when she received a phone call from her mother stating she had breast cancer. She returned to Georgia and helped out because that’s what you do. Now she’s working at the 911 call center and living in the apartment above her mother’s garage. Not ideal, but Andrea’s making do.
All of that changes in the blink of an eye when a teenage boy enters a restaurant one day intent on seeking revenge against his former girlfriend and her mother along with anyone else who gets in his way. The person that stops him isn’t Andrea, but Andrea’s mother Laura, and she stops him by brutally murdering him in an effort to protect Andrea from being shot.
Now Laura wants Andrea to not only leave her apartment but to leave Georgia and run. Why? Andrea isn’t sure, but what she does know is that her mother is hiding something big and Andrea is determined to find out what it is before it’s too late for them both.
Pieces of Her is a taut suspense thriller that weaves Laura’s back story from 30 years ago with Laura and Andrea’s present story. The author provides just enough twists and turns that you’re not quite sure where the story is going, and when you get there you’re pleasantly surprised to see where you are.
Pieces of Her blends elements of domestic terrorism (no, I can’t tell you more…read the book), international intrigue, and suspense with family angst and drama. I thoroughly enjoyed the action, drama, characters, and settings. I found myself trying to figure out what would happen next as I was reading and, thankfully, I was wrong each time (I love when that happens).
This story is much more than Andrea’s quest to find out who her mother is; it is a quest for the truth and a search for identity. Andrea is searching for who she is as well as who her mother is and where she came from. For those of you who have read anything by Slaughter in the past (among her works are New York Times bestsellers Pretty Girls and The Good Daughter), I probably don’t need to tell you to grab a copy of Pieces of Her, but I will anyway. If you have never read anything by her, here’s your chance – go and get a copy!
Pieces of Her is now available to purchase.
