(58)Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Saturday, September 8, 2018


Andy Cooper and her mother, Laura, are having lunch at the food court in the mall when gunshots ring out.  Before the day is over three people are dead, including the gunman, and Laura is being questioned.  Her argument of self-defense is being questioned after cell-phone footage of the incident has gone viral. Andy is shell-shocked by the day's events, but even more, so that her mother has told her to move out - by the end of the day.   Before she leaves, Andy does something she never dreamed she would ever do. She kills the man who was hurting her mother.  Her mother pulls a bag of money out of the couch cushion and sends her on her way.  She is then on the road running for her life questioning everything she ever knew to be true about her mother. A woman that she apparently never really knew.   Andy sets out on a road trip across the country and starts to piece together the pieces of her mother's life.  Will Andy ever be able to return home and will she ever be able to come to terms with her mother's history?

Karin Slaughter has always been one of my favorites.  Life kept getting in the way and it took me nearly two weeks to finish Pieces of Her. Because of this, I struggled with following the storyline.  The jump in timeline didn't help.  The author goes back and forth between the present and the past.   The storyline from the past reveals a terroristic cult that was responsible for murdering at least two people.   From the very beginning in the mall food court, Andy seemed like a very timid character.  As the story continues on, she grows into a strong woman seeking the truth.  She does some stupid things trying to track down the truth, but she always finds her way out of her predicaments.  In her search, she starts to fill in some missing pieces from her childhood and realizes that her own past is just as muddy's as her mothers.  In the end, Andy gets to the truth of her mother's past and her own.  --CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS

Bottom Line -- Karin Slaughter is known for her ability to take her readers to the brink of sanity.  Pieces of Her is a story about two women, a mother and a daughter, willing to do whatever it takes. While Pieces of Her wasn't my favorite by Karin Slaughter, it is definitely worth the read.

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