Title: Pieces of Her

Author: Karin Slaughter

Genre: Thriller/Crime/Suspense

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers

Cover:

Summary: from Amazon

You’ve known her your whole life…
Andrea Oliver knows everything about her mother Laura. She knows she’s always lived in the small town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life.

but she’s hiding something…
Then one day, a trip to the mall explodes into a shocking act of violence and Andy suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura.

and it could destroy you both…
Hours later, Laura is in hospital, her face splashed over the newspapers. But the danger has only just begun. Now, Andy must go on a desperate race to uncover the secrets of her mother’s past. Unless she can, there may be no future for either of them…

Review:

I read my first Karin Slaughter book, Pretty Girls, about a year and a half ago and I was immediately hooked. I have since read all but one of her stand-alones and have been working my way through her fantastic Grant County series. Her books are always brutal, electrifying and nail-bitingly tense. A word of warning – her books are all pretty violent and have very intense themes so if you can’t stand violence in books then I’d give them a miss! However if you can handle it then I honestly think you’d be hard pressed to find a better crime/thriller writer.

Pieces of Her is one of Slaughter’s stand alone novels and I was gripped the whole way through reading it. I had no idea where the story was going to go next most of the time and even when I did have an inkling, Slaughter still managed to shock and surprise me. The characters are all really interesting and the relationships between them were full of layers and intricacies. The central question in Pieces of Her is one that so many books have addressed – how well do we really know the people we love? This question is always fascinating to look into and see how different authors interpret it. The book also delves in the mother/daughter relationship and the inherent strength and power of that bond. These points are addressed in a realistic way even with all the twists and turns of the plot. Pieces of Her’s point of view is split between Andy in the present day and her mother, Laura, in the 1980s. The story works so well because as Andy finds out more about her mother’s complex past, the reader also gets to understand how Laura felt when the events that shape the story were taking place. This insight into both of them gives the book more impact than if everything was simply from Andy’s perspective.

Overall I think Pieces of Her is another fantastic read from a super talented author. The plot is gripping and consistently shocking but it also feels incredibly relevant to problems that are faced all over the world. As always Slaughter has managed to create characters that are multifaceted and neither heroes nor saints but also still easy to root for. If you enjoy fast paced and gritty thrillers then I think Pieces of Her would be an excellent choice.

Pieces of Her is out August 9th

I received this e-arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.